UI / UX
User interfaces and “user experience” ideas.
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Background: Sometimes, it seems like a file is taking forever to download (or copy). A speed of 160 kilobytes per second may seem excruciatingly slow, but that’s actually an entire late-1970s floppy disk (Figure 1) per second. Proposal: Instead of just showing a slowly filling up progress bar when downloading (or copying) a file, a…
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Background: Credit cards are a popular payment method, especially for business transactions. The issue: Sometimes, high-value business transactions require the approval of more than one person. Additionally, if a credit card is lost or stolen, someone will have to meticulously verify that no fraudulent transactions were made on it, which can be very time-consuming! Proposal:…
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Background: Since laptops are so convenient and portable, many people work in locations that are not set up for long-term ergonomic comfort (for example, dining room tables or coffeeshop counters, e.g. Figure 1). The issue: Since these locations were never designed for laptop use, they are typically set up in such a way that the…
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Background: Elementary school letter grades theoretically indicate the achievement of a certain degree of competency in a subject (e.g. a fourth-grader receiving an “A” in math would have learned all of the math that a fourth-grader is expected to know). The issue: There are a couple of immediate problems with the way report cards present…
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Background: Phone map apps often have a few optional settings for a route, such as: Avoid highways (for driving) Fewer bus transfers (for public transit) Avoid hills (for walking) The issue: Sometimes, you want drive on the most scenic route from point A to point B, without too much concern about efficiency. For example, you might…
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Background: It’s well-known that presentation affects the perceived taste of food (Figure 1). Can this be used by retailers to increase customer satisfaction? Proposal: In order to leverage the same instincts, we propose that all foods should be presented in grocery stores in a “natural” environment to satisfy human hunter-gatherer instincts. In Figure 2,…
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TITLE: Never be annoyed when emptying an over-full trash can again, with this new “screaming trash can” technology! The Issue: In shared-living or office situations, there is a strong incentive to wait for someone else to empty a full garbage can: the person who discards the last piece of trash has only contributed a tiny…
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Background: At many companies, employees take a laptop to/from work every day. In the past, laptops were heavy enough that it would be incredibly obvious whether a laptop was in a bag or not. The issue: Modern laptops are light enough that it is possible to take a laptop bag (Figure 1) to work without…
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Background: In most American cities, four-way intersections with stoplights are the most common form of traffic control. The issue: As a pedestrian, these intersections are frustrating: if the stoplights are not synchronized, you’ll randomly encounter red lights while walking from block to block. But even when lights are synchronized, they are synchronized for car driving…
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