My first computer had GUI. The computer that I have today has GUI.

For the past 4 years I have been actively thinking about what makes some GUI software better than other GUI software. But I have never thought about whether GUI is the best way to communicate with the user.

In this age of AI, it seems like some of the big tech companies bet on AI-driven communication with the user.

You don’t need a screen. Just speak to our AI and it will be done. Not having a screen will make you less addicted to your devices. And things like that.

Yesterday I watched Joanna Stern’s Interview with Zuckerberg. He said that glasses will separate you from your phone and you can focus on what’s important. It is funny to me. The reason why people are addicted to phones is, in a big part, the fault of Meta.

Next I want to look at some points I want to say, about why I love GUI.

Visual

People are visual creatures. Think about a music album. You might not remember the name of the album, but in your head there will be some vague image of the album. Of course, every human is different. For some people it will be easier to remember text instead of an image.

On Instagram a few days ago I saw a Post from a shopping centre near me. It is in Czech, so you probably don’t understand it; sorry. It is about new AI Assistant that is now in the mall. The person asks the AI assistant “where is IKEA?” The AI says “near Nike shop and Gant shop”. This is, in my opinion, a badly said direction that does not help the user. Ikea is its own shop with an entry from outside. It is connected with the shopping centre but not with doors. So the person asks where Gant is and the AI says “it is in front of you”. Great work. If only there were a thing for this. A map, maybe? And if you are fancy, what about an interactive map? It is one of the most, if not the most, used direction-giving interfaces.

Predictability

Recently, near bus stops, a newly installed display with information about upcoming buses has appeared. And I love it. Before, I had to open an app on my phone and look. Now I just look at the display. But at some bus stops it is missing. That is not cool. I expect it to be there or behave in some way. And it does not.

Say there’s an AI assistant you can ask when your bus is coming, or how to get somewhere. Good luck hearing the AI next to a busy road, and only one person at a time.

With your eyes you can read, and reading is faster than listening, especially a long list of information. We have solved this a long time ago with just static information on a wall. Yes, now it is not static. It can change to be up to date. But still it is on one spot and information hierarchy is the same.

GUI is not what I used to make this post

I did not use GUI to add links to words. This webpage is hosted on GitHub. And I make this entry by making a file and adding text formatted in Markdown. So if I want to show a photo here, it is not just dragging a photo to empty space like in any other GUI note app (that supports this behaviour). If I want to hide a link inside a word, I use[**Website**](http://RubiconRevisited.com). That is not very user-friendly; that is not something I remember how to type.

End

Zuckerberg and his company have a lot of data about its users but no hardware.

OpenAI, Anthropic have no hardware and have only just started collecting data.

Apple, Google have software, services, Application Store, hardware.

So obviously Zuckerberg will not say that phones are the future. John Ternus, Apple’s new CEO, will and did.

Spatial computing is the next exciting thing for me.

I cannot see a future where we don’t have screens; we need screens. I think that what we have today is good enough. We have brains, so let’s use that.

This is the first long post I have ever made. I’m not a native English speaker, so if something is badly said, sorry for that.