UI / UX
User interfaces and “user experience” ideas.
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Background: Modern video games are, with a few notable exceptions, generally designed to minimize the amount of irritation and aggravation that the player experiences. The issue: However, one flip side to the general “smooth sailing” experience of gameplay is the lack of any “stake” of the user in the gameworld, which reduces the tension and…
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Background: There are two common orientations for toilet paper; “over” (sheet falls forward, away from the wall) and “under” (sheet falls backward, next to the wall). Fig 1: Two toilet paper roll orientations. Left: the proper “over” orientation, for civilized individuals. Right: the incorrect “under” orientation, favored by subhuman beasts who can barely be considered human,…
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Background: Over time, old files tend accumulate on one’s computer. However, cleaning out a computer is an annoying and time-consuming task. In the past, storage increased at a rate such that old files could be safely ignored forever. But modern laptops may actually have less (although faster) storage than ones from five years ago.…
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Background: You’ve probably encountered the situation where you can hear your phone’s alarm going off, but are in a situation where it isn’t easy to actually pick up the phone to tell it to turn the alarm off. For example, if you’re in the shower, tending to a boiling cauldron, or driving a…
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Background: When packing for a trip, it’s easy to forget something. One way to solve this problem is to make a list, but even that requires planning ahead of time and is prone to error. Proposal: To solve this problem, we will adopt a technique that is seen in prison kitchens (at least, the one…
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Background: Nearly all modern cell phones have the same touch-screen form factor. Except for a few buttons of low importance (e.g. volume adjustment, power, camera shutter), all interaction is done through the screen itself. The issue: This style of interaction makes use of only one finger, and leaves the remaining four fingers with nothing to…
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Background: “Warning” stickers / “caution” tape are occasionally placed on or around objects to indicate that they are dangerous. The issue: However: what if the tape itself is the source of danger? For example, if a roll of “BIOHAZARD” tape was accidentally dipped in a vat of bubonic plague, there would be no way to…
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Background: Back in the ancient days before iPhones, people would store files in a hierarchical fashion in “folders” or “directories” on their computers. The issue: Sometimes, despite relatively descriptive folder names, it is not clear what a folder / directory actually is. For example, on Mac OS X, a casual user may be flummoxed by…
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Background: If you stay in one apartment or house for a long time, you tend to accumulate a large number of superfluous possessions. But it’s hard to get an idea of exactly how much stuff you have. Proposal: Moving trucks should have a weight sensor on them to tell you how many pounds of stuff…
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