The command line is the future of interaction

Yesterday I read this blog post from Lukas Mathis. It kept resonating with me as I recognised some of the scenarios and could even come up with some more. As an avid Apple user and forced to work on a Windows based platform I regularly need to google for instructions on how to perform certain tasks. I want to make a special mention to the Microsoft Office suite where the menu structure is unintuitive with an inconsistent toolbar where I also end up using the Help function a lot to find the right option.

This could mean a big change in UI design moving away from WIMP, touch interfacing and could be the precursor to voice interaction with the desktop. This is already possible especially on a Mac with Accessibility options enabled. But for that to happen in a common setting we first need to enable sub vocal interaction. It is socially awkward to talk to your mobile or computer in a public space and can you visualise an office space with everybody talking to their computer, very noisy. I recently saw this post which means that it won’t take long before we see a practical solution to this.

Looking forward to this…