UI / UX
User interfaces and “user experience” ideas.
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Background: In many movies and books, a financial amount is discussed at some point. For example, a character may remark that a heist “could be worth 100,000 florins” or “the estate had fallen on hard times, and now generated only 576 denarii annually.” The issue: Is the amount discussed above a lot of money? Or…
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Make microwaving even easier with a synchronized-turntable solution that prevents you from ever having to reach all the way into the back of the microwave to get your reheated beverage! The true chef’s choice.
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Follow the cruel and unyielding demands of your phone in order to stay fit on a custom jogging route! Bonus feature: allows the user to participate in the “sharing economy.”
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The issue: Modern computers (and TVs) have large, high-resolution screens. But sometimes people have nostalgia for the past—perhaps yearning for Cold War-era computing, when the harsh glow of a 9-inch CRT monitor represented the pinnacle of technology (Figure 1). Proposal: Modern monitors should have an option to emulate the behavior of various old display types.…
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Background: Some smartwatches now have a sleep tracking feature (Fig 1): the watch is able to figure out when you fall asleep and record how long you’ve slept. The issue: It’s easy to fall asleep while watching streaming video or listening to a podcast. But sleeping while a podcast plays may result in your podcast…
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Background: It is often recommended that pet owners buy “challenging” toys to keep their pets mentally stimulated in a world where the owners take care of all the pet’s needs. Although an owner could simply put a dog biscuit in a bowl, it would be more exciting for the dog if the biscuit were inside…
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Background: Some widely-used computer programs are free, and are supported exclusively as hobby projects by unpaid developers. The issue: Unfortunately, there is no financial mechanism to encourage further development and enhancement of these programs. Even if a hundred million people depend on a program, there is no simple way for them to support the developer.…
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Background: The same amount of money can represent vastly different things to different people. For a minimum-wage earner (in 2019), $10,000 represents roughly 65% of a year’s total salary. But for the very top level of executives at one of the top 350 U.S. firms, that number represents less than a day’s salary. The issue:…
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The issue: Sometimes, a college lecture or work presentation goes far over the allotted time (Figure 1). Frequently, the presenter doesn’t even realize that they are over time. One simple way to prevent a presentation from going over time would be to just have the power outlets turn off at exactly the designated end-of-presentation…
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Background: In today’s highly computerized society, it’s easy to make an expensive purchase or a life-changing decision with minimal effort. The issue: Sometimes, the importance of a decision is out of sync with how much work is required to make that decision. For example, now that online purchases are extremely “low friction,” it is possible…
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