DUI · Dooey

The DUI — Directed User Interface. Finally, you’re driving.

A DUI (“Dooey,” like GUI is “Gooey”) is a simple, rules-based way to run an AI session where you are in charge — not along for the ride. No prompts to learn. No tricks. Just tell it who you are and what you want, and steer.

See how it works ↓
How it started

It started with a book.

For nearly forty years I worked to restore a lost American classic — a memoir locked away behind a dialect no modern reader could get through. When AI got good enough to help, I brought the project to it the way everyone does: I typed what I wanted and hoped.

Some sessions were remarkable. Others were two weeks of confident, wandering, half-right answers that ended with me ready to quit. The difference, I finally realized, was never the model and never the prompt. It was who was driving.

One night I stopped asking and started directing. In plain English I laid down the rules — who decides (me), what happens before anything proceeds (my approval), the standard for claims (show your sources or say you can’t), and what I wouldn’t tolerate (filler, flattery, guesswork dressed up as fact). Then I had it write those rules down so I’d never have to give the speech again. The next session did in twenty minutes what the previous two weeks hadn’t. That rules document is the DUI.

How it works

Discipline, not complexity.

A DUI doesn’t make the machine smarter. It makes the session disciplined. You load a small set of rules at the start; the AI acknowledges them; and from that point on it works for you — staged, gated, and accountable — under your authority. There’s nothing to memorize and nothing to code. You don’t have to learn how to talk to it. You just talk to it: tell it who you are, how you sound, and what you want. Give it as much real, guiding detail as you like — you can’t “overload” it, and no stray word is going to hijack the session, because the rules keep the wheel in your hands.

The flow

One session, five stages.

The driver’s seat

Same water. Same engine. Completely different ride.

For years, using AI felt like water-skiing behind a boat you didn’t control — hanging on, getting dragged wherever it went, hoping not to wipe out. The DUI puts you in the boat. You set the course, you decide the speed, you say when to turn. You’re driving now.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to learn prompt engineering?

No. That’s the point. A DUI replaces tricks with authority — you talk to the AI in plain language, tell it what you want, and it works under your rules. Your years of knowing how to run things matter more here than any clever phrase.

Will this work with the AI tool I already use?

The approach is portable. A DUI is a set of rules and a way of working, not software tied to one platform — the rules travel, and so does your control.

What happens when a session drifts or goes off track?

The rules make the AI keep the ledger. Open questions stay open until you actually decide them, and one word snaps the session back to where you are. You range freely; it handles the remembering.

Isn’t this just a fancy prompt?

A prompt is a request, and requests are forgotten the moment the conversation moves. A DUI is a standing set of rules that governs the whole session — closer to a constitution than a command.

Will the AI still just make things up?

The rules require it to show where claims come from and to say plainly when it can’t verify something, instead of bluffing. Honesty becomes a job requirement, not a hope.

Does it make the AI sound like a robot?

The opposite. The more you talk to it in your own voice, the more your voice becomes the session’s voice. No stiff, machine-sounding output to “humanize” afterward — because nothing robotic went in.

What do I actually get for $9.99?

The DUI rules pack — the working document you load at the start of a session — plus guidance on how to use it. The concept is published openly; the refined, ready-to-run implementation is what you’re buying.

What if I want to build my own instead?

Do it — genuinely. The ideas are published on purpose. Ten dollars just saves you the months of trial and error, and hands you a version already proven in real work.

The beta

Get the DUI rules pack

The DUI rules pack is $9.99 — a beta price, and an honest one. It’s a complete, refined, working document, developed and proven across hundreds of real sessions. What it doesn’t have yet is a crowd of strangers vouching for it — so it isn’t priced as if it did. If it works for you the way it works for me, it’s the bargain of the year. If it doesn’t, you’re out less than lunch. Either way, the concept is yours: take the ideas and build your own, or start with mine.

$9.99
Get the DUI rules pack — $9.99
Also available · beta

The Dooey Motion Kit

A deterministic renderer for short animated spots. You edit one marked block of copy in a template; a headless browser performs the scene and the encoder cuts a seamless loop. The method is documented in an open preprint (Zenodo, DOI and file hash on record).

Design notes: layout is assigned by role, not by number — long lines measure their own glyphs and scale to fit, so overflow can’t occur. Loops are cut on a forced dark beat, which makes coloured backgrounds loop cleanly. The computed path is a pure function of frame index: no browser clock, so frame rate is unbounded and render time is decoupled from playback time.

A spot produced by the kit, running live.

Requirements. Editing and preview need only a web browser. Rendering to MP4/GIF uses Python, ffmpeg, and a headless browser — all free and open source, set up once; an included doctor script checks the machine and installs what’s missing. Light spots render on everyday hardware; heavier computed work wants more.

$19.99
Get the Motion Kit + DUI bundle — $19.99

Light beta: the render core is solid; the point-and-click style picker and full manual are still ahead.