Using the dialog
command you can launch ASCII-art dialogs from your shell scripts.
Check out
man dialog
Show archive.org snapshot
for a list of supported dialog types. Aside from simple text boxes or choice dialogs, it supports more advanced interactions like file pickers or progress bars.
dialog --yesno "Erase the world?" 0 0
dialog --menu "What's your favorite color?" 0 0 0 R Red G Green Y Yellow B Blue
dialog --calendar "Select a date" 0 0