UI / UX
User interfaces and “user experience” ideas.
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Background: In some video games, there is a difficulty setting referred to as “ironman,” in which a player only has one life—if they die, they must replay the ENTIRE game over again. (This is also the default setting in the “roguelike” game genre.) Proposal: In books, unfortunately there is no equivalent to this “ironman” mode—until…
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Background: In many video games, the process of doling out upgrades to the player is represented in the form of a “skill tree,” where different branches indicate different fields of expertise (e.g. a branch for sword-fighting and a separate one for horseshoe-making). Proposal: Maybe this same idea can be applied to education! See Figure 1…
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Background: There is an idiomatic expression, “like a hot knife through butter,” indicating something that is extremely easy to do. The issue: Yet, somehow when people make toast, they frequently use a COLD knife (or at least, a room temperature one) to cut a piece of butter. This is particularly troublesome if butter is stored…
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Background: A substantial amount of food that is produced is wasted at the consumer (household) level. Additionally, if you’re reading this text in English in the middle of the 21st century, it’s statistically likely that you, the reader, are not highly concerned with famine as a day-to-day hazard. Proposal: Ideally, we would like to both…
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Background: Architects normally design homes and offices primarily to suit the needs of their occupants. The issue: Unfortunately, an easy-to-navigate floor plan is also easy for burglars to navigate! Proposal: Luckily, we don’t have to make any architectural changes to fix this problem—by adding a few strategic (and cheap!) furnishings, a house can become MUCH…
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Background: It is common for people to be glued to their cell phones for nearly 100% of their waking hours. This is especially true now that phone batteries last for hours even under heavy use and fast video-capable cellular data is available in most populated areas. The issue: It is commonly suggested that people should…
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The issue: Frequently, people lose track of time while giving a presentation or running a meeting, and it goes over (potentially WAY over). This situation can occur in both in-person meetings and in video chat meets. Proposal: In order to make it intuitively obvious to a presenter that they are going over time, we can…
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Background: In today’s decadent sedentary world, it’s easy to barely walk around at all. This puts humans in danger of having their legs become vestigial, atrophying and causing the species to evolve into a slug-like form. Proposal: In order to solve this, we need to get people walking again. And what better way than by…
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Background: Cell phone interfaces seem to inexorably become more complicated as time goes on. The issue: The 2010-era smartphone relied on a small number of obviously-interactable elements, but 2020’s smartphones are quite sophisticated (and complicated) from a UI standpoint, with finger-sliding gestures, multiple screens of icons, and even the possibility of splitting the screen to…
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Background: It is generally understood that a person who finishes the last amount of something (e.g. milk, soy sauce, driving a shared car until the tank is empty) is also responsible for refilling the substance. The issue: This system is frequently gamed by the lazy, who will leave a tiny amount remaining so as to…
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