Show HN: Post-Interface Design – A manifesto on the abolition of UI | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Post-Interface Design – A manifesto on the abolition of UI

Hi HN,

I just published a manifesto arguing that Chatbots are a transitional phase and "Silence" is the future of interface.

It covers the "Synthetic Subconscious," the death of the App, and the ethics of the "Surveillance Bargain."

Read it here: https://postinterface.design (PDF available on site)

Would love your feedback on the "Serendipity Deficit" concept.

You want to have Proactive Computing https://cacm.acm.org/research/proactive-computing/ (David Tennenhouse, 2000), not to get rid of interfaces which is something that can't be done as you will always have an interface, even if it is only in the form of an API, not wrapped up for any specific use, that has representations and actions, that the agents will need be be able to do anything.

Thanks for the Tennenhouse link, definitely ahead of his time on Proactive Computing. You're right that 'Post-Interface' is a rhetorical hook. We can't eliminate the technical interface (APIs/protocols). My argument is about eliminating the cognitive interface for the end user. Right now, even our smartest agents are still reactive because they wait for a prompt. I see generative UI as the bridge to true proactivity: instead of a static dashboard waiting for input, the system constructs a temporary UI only when it senses intent via context/API. The goal isn't no interface, but zero friction interface where the UI is a generated byproduct of the agent's action, not a prerequisite for it.

It's a good argument. Canned UI and pre designed user interactions are already done for. We can't sit around and think of what a user might want to do or how to present that. Those concepts have to be fluid and chosen by the user.

While agents that can book a hair appointment are interesting, that's more of a workaround than the kind of UI I think we're going for. The visual appearance of the software itself must change dynamically according not only to the task but to the user's preferences. This is something we haven't seen demonstrated yet.

Glad it resonated. You hit the nail on the head regarding agents being a 'workaround', that's exactly why I categorize them as the 'Transitional phase' rather than the destination. They are essentially bots trying to navigate a web that wasn't built for them.

Your point about the visual appearance changing dynamically is the 'Holy Grail' I touch on in the 'Generative UI' section. We are currently stuck designing static screens for dynamic problems.

I agree we haven't seen a true demonstration yet. Do you think that shift happens at the App level first (e.g., a dynamic Spotify), or does it require a whole new OS paradigm (a 'Generative OS') to work?

Good question! I'd say it happens at the app level first because the context of the OS is too big a surface to start with. But a RAG app for a specific vertical could have enough context to dynamically draw a custom UI for every user, given the constraints on what the app is generally about.

That makes a lot of sense, it is definitely the safer place to start.

It implies that design systems are about to change fundamentally. Instead of shipping a library of static components, we'll need to ship a set of constraints and rules that tell the RAG model how it's allowed to construct the UI on the fly.

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