apps · field notes

SCISSOR WORKS / 001

The measure of artificialintelligence is the person onthe other side of it.

From intention
to action.

why we make apps

A model can be right and still fail the person in front of it: too slow, too eager, or in the wrong place. No benchmark shows that. Only use does.

So we make our own apps. Each one puts intelligence in someone's hands and lets us watch what happens: what they reach for, what they ignore, what surprises them.

What we learn goes two ways. It shapes the models and tools we build next, and it is written down here, so that anyone putting intelligence into a product can start from where we got to.

what we hold to

1. 01

   Act, don't chat.

   Most intelligence does not need a chat box. It needs to do the thing.

2. 02

   Be ready before the ask.

   The best moment to help is just before someone goes looking for it.

3. 03

   Never make a person wait.

   On the device there is no round trip, so there is no spinner to design.

4. 04

   Say what you can't do.

   A small model has edges. The interface should show them, not hide them.

5. 05

   Keep what you see.

   What a person shows their device stays on it.

Built to do the thing.

Scissor Works