Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Writing blocks
The feature is called writing blocks. The letter or email sits in its own block that can be manipulated directly. You can type in it, brainstorm with it, edit small pieces, and copy just that piece. Image generation has a similar mode with its own special tools.
Two design goals
Two goals drive the design. One is helping people express intent without becoming perfect prompt engineers, which includes showing them that the model can help with a task at all. The other is understanding what they want. A recent change lets an open-ended question draw follow-up questions that can be answered with a tap instead of typing everything out.
Interfaces that adapt
The next stretch is an interface that adapts to context. A designer, a data scientist, and someone running their home might each get different controls. ChatGPT Work already offers suggestions based on a calendar or Slack.
Why do tap-through follow-up questions help?
Jakob Nielsen's usability heuristics, published in 1994, include recognition rather than recall: people find it easier to pick from visible options than to produce an answer from memory. Choosing a button asks for less effort than composing a sentence. The principle explains why multiple-choice forms are quicker to complete than essay boxes. It was among the original ten heuristics Nielsen listed.
How does direct manipulation differ from commands?
Ben Shneiderman coined the term direct manipulation in a 1983 paper in IEEE Computer. In a direct manipulation interface, the objects of interest are visible, actions are physical or immediate, and each action shows its result at once. Dragging a file to a folder is the classic case, set against typing a command to move it. Shneiderman contrasted this with command-line systems where results were not visible.
How did affordances become a design term?
Psychologist James Gibson coined the word affordance in the 1960s and 1970s to describe what an environment offers an animal. Don Norman brought it into design with his 1988 book The Design of Everyday Things. In design usage, an affordance is a cue that suggests how an object can be used, such as a handle on a door. Norman later refined the term to separate real possibilities from perceived ones.
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