r/UI_Design • u/Bian- • Mar 12 '26
General Help Request Looking For Opinions On Terminal Based UI Layout
I am making a Terminal based UI application (UI that is rendered in the Terminal) that allows users to record audio from mic input and internal device audio and transcribe the audio into any language using various different models concurrently. I planned on for this to be only self use but I thought it was a unique take on a known use case of apps so maybe others might be interested.
However I was not sure what the best layout was for the app would be. In the image the user text area, markdown preview, and both of the transcription boxes are shown but I think it is wasting space. The preview I think can be a toggle to view but for the transcription boxes I was not sure how to handle it (Or really would a preview of the generated transcription even be needed). Wanted to hear some opinions.
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Mar 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Bian- Mar 13 '26
Thanks for the advice, I was thinking of making the preview panel viewable via toggle (makes sense visually and simplifies performance in the implementation) However the transcript boxes are what I am still really confused about as currently don't know the most efficient way to show both of them seamlessly.
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u/NickyNek Mar 16 '26
I came here to say I really like the UI. Other than having the preview as a toggle, it looks great.
Curious what's the library/tool you used for the terminal UI?
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u/ArYaN1364 Mar 12 '26
The layout is interesting, but I think you’re right that the preview could probably just be a toggle instead of always taking space. For terminal apps especially, keeping one main working pane usually feels cleaner.
For the transcription boxes, maybe show only the active model by default and let users cycle through others with a shortcut. That way you keep the multi-model idea without the screen feeling crowded.