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What makes a good human interface? | thesephist.com

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When I discuss interfaces on this blog, I’m most often referring to software interfaces: intermediating mechanisms from our human intentions to computers and the knowledge within them. But the concept of a human interface extends far before it and beyond it. I’ve been trying to build myself a coherent mental framework for how to think about human interfaces to knowledge and tools in general, even beyond computers. This is the second of a pair of pieces on this topic. The other is Instrumental interfaces, engaged interfaces. What makes a user interface good? What are the qualities we want in something that mediates our relationship to our knowledge and tools? When I visited Berlin earlier this year for a small conference on AI and interfaces, I spent my last free night in the city wandering and pondering whether there could be a general answer to this expansive question. My focus — both then and now — is on engaged interfaces, interfaces people use to deeply understand or explore some c

When I discuss interfaces on this blog, I’m most often referring to software interfaces: intermediating mechanisms from our human intentions to computers and the knowledge within them. But the concept of a human interface extends far before it and beyond it. I've been trying to build myself a coherent mental framework for how to think about human interfaces to knowledge and tools in general, even beyond computers. This is the second of a pair of pieces on this topic. The other is Instrumental interfaces, engaged interfaces . What makes a user interface good? What are the qualities we want in s

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