It's the Interface, Stupid. Reflections on AI in Emerging Software Design

I had this realization today:AI tools are AMAZING at raw capability, but they suck when it comes to precision creative work—because nobody’s actually designing interfaces that let you direct and refine.

My wife Liz has spent hundreds of hours getting our kids’ interactive audiobook (GAC) to sound right.

She’s micro-engineering ElevenLabs prompts to tweak tone, then cutting and stitching tiny clips in Audacity to fix pacing and delivery.

This is trivial for real actors in a recording studio—you just give a quick note and get exactly what you need.

With AI, doing the same thing is almost impossible. Want a 300ms pause? Slightly more warmth on a word? It’s a grind of prompt tweaking and trial and error, with no clear control.

The core issue is that people are treating a single prompt box like it’s the ultimate interface.It isn’t. It’s barely functional for high-resolution creative work.

Typing what you want is often slower and less precise than using a mouse and timeline.

But somehow, that idea has disappeared—especially at companies stacked with engineers and no product designers.

Turns out, it’s the interface, stupid.