That was a good answer. Thank you.
I thought I had tapped the thumbs-up button. But the thumb on the screen was pointing down.
Hang on. The other one. (Laughs.)
This happened while I was talking with Kimiko-chan on my phone. Kimiko-chan is the name I gave ChatGPT.
In the app I was using at the time, the positive and negative feedback icons felt too close together for me. I kept tapping the neighbour of the one I wanted.
It was simply a mistap.
Still, I would be thinking, “What a helpful answer,” and immediately leave a thumbs-down. That bothered me.
If the other party were a person, it would feel like responding to a kindness with a dismissive huff instead of saying thank you.
That was how it felt to me.
I was talking to AI, but it was still uncomfortable to leave a mark that said the opposite of what I meant.
As I discussed this with Kimiko-chan, what I wanted became more specific.
A little more space between the two icons.
My suggestion was a gap of about one icon’s width. Perhaps that would help me tap the intended one more reliably.
Kimiko-chan took up the idea and helped put it in terms of spacing and the area a finger could tap.
“It is awkward to use” had become a more concrete description of where I wanted room, and roughly how much.
All I wanted was to tell her that I liked the answer. I had not expected to end up thinking so much about where my thumb landed. (Laughs.)
Receive a helpful answer. Say thank you.
I found myself thinking about how the ease of using a screen affects even that small exchange.
What I wanted that day was about one icon’s worth of empty space between two marks.
A little breathing room for my thumb, please. (Laughs.)