Communication
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The issue: Sometimes, you’re looking for a co-worker, and you’d like to know if they’ve gone out to lunch, left for the day already, or haven’t arrived yet. Normally, you’d have to actually send a text message to that person to ask. But that can be overly intrusive. Fig. 1: Your coworker’s chair is empty.…
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Background: An emoji overview: Fig 1: Current Apple emoji skin tones. Available tones vary by emoji font designer (e.g., Google, Microsoft). Emoji people were originally only available with a light skin tone. Recently, more skin tone options have been added (Fig 1). However, they are just a recoloring of the original emoji, and thus may not have realistic…
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Background: Our current alphabet is derived from an ancient system of representational icons. These icons were once pictures of actual objects, but have been simplified to an easier-to-write form over the millennia. For example, according to the inerrant source of knowledge known as Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet): The letter “Q” used to be one of these: This…
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Background: Phone woes: when you use text or call someone, there’s no way to differentiate between the following scenarios: Low priority (not time-sensitive): “Let’s chat, if you have time.” Medium priority (time-sensitive): “I just showed up at the crowded convention center, but I can’t find you.” High priority (important and time-sensitive): “Your car is about to…
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