Requesting improvements in spacing and chat UI
in progress
Greg L
I really love the feature set and roadmap for this app. However, I'm really struggling with the UI and fluidity of the user experience. I'm primarily interested in the chat interface and working with files, and very interested in the developing 'projects' feature.
I have been using another excellent chat app 'Chatwise' and though it is quite feature-rich, it lacks a lot of the file-upload and project capabilities that BoltAI has.
However, Chatwise has the best chat-ui I've used. Clean, minimal and very fast. I know these things are subjective, but I wanted to include some screenshots to illustrate the display of information with both apps.
As you can see, there is usually more info viewable on the screen, and (at least to me) is cleaner and easier to focus on. The biggest difference is obviously the more subtle bubble around user questions, and no bubble for assistant responses. It seems the padding is also a little less, but still feels more spacious. For someone like me (with ADHD) I find I'm able to process information and focus so much more with this UI.
The base version of chatwise is free, so I recommend checking it out. I would love to move to Bolt, as it really feels like is has a great (and growing) feature-set, but I can't get past the state of the UI at this stage.
Thanks!
Greg.
Daniel Nguyen
I've improved the message rendering and the inspector pane. Can you download the latest version and LMK what you think. It looks something like this:
Daniel Nguyen
I've improved the message rendering and the inspector pane. Can you download the latest version and LMK what you think. It looks something like this:
Daniel Nguyen
cc Greg L
Greg L
Daniel Nguyen Hey Daniel, amazing work making this change, and thanks for considering it for this version.
I think it's a huge improvement.
I don't want to be too negative because you clearly are working hard to embrace and implement user feedback;
Here's are some further thoughts, if they're of any value to you
- More padding on left and right of chat window, so the text doesn't go all the way to the edges. This just helps the chat feel easier to read, either when full screen—or even in a smaller window, to avoid feeling cramped. I've attached a screenshot showing this (from top: Bolt, Warden, Chatwise, Chatgpt) -{i think chatwise is my favourite of these, but having an user-adjustable width would be even better]
- Related, I think the model icon could certainly be smaller, and more faded. It really draws the eye in Bolt, and makes things seem a little busier.
- The chat actions are also a little close to the text, and bright. I know it's subtle but in something like Chatwise or Warden (a new free app i just found today, the 'actions' have more padding and are faded rather than the same colour as text. Its a minor thing, but it makes it feel more premium, and doesn't distract as much from text.
These are obviously minor things; just to my eyes, these things give a more premium and calming feel to an app. I have ADHD, so maybe that's part of it!
There's also the laggy interface, moving between chats, which I know has been brought up before. I'm sure you're looking at ways to work on that. Check out this Warden app (https://karatsidhu.gumroad.com/l/warden); it's also Swiftui and seems to load chats quite quickly.
But anyway, amazing work! Great to see a developer so active on improving things
Daniel Nguyen
Greg L Thanks for the feedback. I'll continue to improve the app.
Re: the laggy interface. It's due to the markdown renderer. It's more complicated than it looks on the surface. I've been working on this long enough to understand all the tradeoffs. And while I'll try my best to improve the performance, there is no "100% better" solution yet. For example, the obvious tradeoff is between speed and features.
Take Warden for example, it doesn't seem to support markdown or latex rendering. This is a show stopper for many BoltAI customers.
With that said, I've been working on BoltAI v2 with a new renderer written from the groundup. It will take time, but I'm confident it will be the best AI client on the market.
Cheers
Daniel Nguyen
in progress
Daniel Nguyen
Hey thanks for the feedback. I've been prototyping a new design and it looks something like this. I take a lot of inspiration from ChatGPT.
Initially BoltAI was following iMessage design but I think you're right, the blue bubble might work with the non-frequently used messaging app like iMessage, but probably not a productivity tool like BoltAI.
With that said, there are certain design decisions in Chatwise that I don't agree with (the inspector pane for example, it doesn't follow Apple Human Interface Guidelines, understandably as it's a web-based UI)
In v2, I probably will support a "theming system", but it would take time. As my top priority right now for BoltAI is not to add more features, but to improve the current ones first.
If you want to give the new theme a try, join this https://testflight.apple.com/join/RJx6sP6t
It's a new app I've been building, and it will be the foundation for the new BoltAI.
Edit: tagging Greg L in case you don't see my comment
Greg L
Daniel Nguyen Thanks for the reply Daniel.
Definitely agree the bubbles for user and assistant often don't work as well. Perhaps it's also because in iMessage, the bubbles for each participant only reach around the mid-way point, rather than all the way to the other side; so it feels more separated (akin to speech bubbles from characters).
I didn't know chatwise was webui. It does feel very native, in the sense that it is extremely snappy! Scrolling through chats load instantly, and the inspector-pane doesn't reload completely when I move between chats (like it seems to in BoltAi)
Really looking forward to v2, and would be keen to testflight that when possible :)
Totally understand the need to focus on current features—'Cherry Studio' has an okay css styling system, though its a bit buggy.
Chat Vault seems great! Nice clean styling
I know it's a WIP, but would love it if the max width of AI reply was wider when the window is larger.
Thanks!
Daniel Nguyen
under review
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Tim Wilson
Have you tried enabling the developer viewer? I prefer that over the default chat UI in Bolt.
Greg L
Tim Wilson Yes, I agree, it's definitely a little better, but for some reason, the developer layout is more sluggish on my system (m1 16gb). It also feels just as cramped with cramped spacing and wide chat bubbles.
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Tim Wilson
Greg L sounds like Goldilocks feature request lol. Regular spacing to wide, developer spacing too narrow!
Guess what we need is a slider that controls a scaling factor for vertical (and maybe some horizontal?) spacing?
Greg L
Tim Wilson Definitely—for me, the Chatwise UI is perfect, but that's pretty much a copy of the chatgpt app, which i think is also pretty great.
I've noticed that the BoltAI iOS beta seems to use this approach too (cleaner and closer to chatgpt), so hopefully that's coming to the Mac version.
Another app 'Cherry Studio' actually has the option to use CSS styling to totally modify the chat interface to your liking which is also really cool.
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Tim Wilson
Greg L oh I love the idea of allowing CSS styling. Could feed the docs for it to LLM and have it make the adjustments for you.
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Smet Denis
120% Agree! :)