No toolbars on the Mac
Using keyboard shortcuts is much quicker than pointing and clicking. Therefore I got rid of toolbars wherever possible.
I design my environment in a way that encourages healthy habits.
9 posts tagged
user interface
Morse code tapping to unlock
Today’s phones can be woken by tapping the screen. Future phones will be unlocked by tapping in a pattern similar to Morse code.
QR codes
It’s a bad scenario when QR codes are being scanned by a human. It’s a good one a human approaches a machine that scans his or her QR code.
But the latter is just a cheaper option instead of NFC.
Pigna Library website v1.1
The Pigna Library happens to host events. There is a dedicated events block to get the readers to know about them.
When it came time to expand the “add” page beyond books, Ilya and I decided to kill the interface altogether.
To add an event, the librarian just writes what the event is. As for the plus sign, it got a beautiful frame to be on par with its friends—books.
See also: The interface is evil
Train door buttons
Bad: levers
Bad: buttons that are located in a weird place
Bad: buttons that make fingers bleed
Good: those that aren’t any of the above
Excellent: those that remember that you pressed them
Obviously, all buttons should be responsive to touches in gloves. There should be no buttons on trains that only go through a closed space.
Added on May 29, 2020: Buttons should not be used during the coronavirus pandemic.
Auto-save while printing
I have a document open as I’m printing it. Then, I catch a typo. The part where it is hasn’t been printed yet. Why can’t I fix the typo and have the printer print out the correct version?
“Don’t wake” quasimode
How is a quasimode which lets me move my mouse without waking my computer up not a thing?
My wishes for iOS 13
With iOS 12 being a booming success, it is a small step away from being ideal. Here are my wishes for iOS 13.
A results oriented home screen. Make it so that the home screen (and the whole OS in general) helps the user get their task done, and not send you to an app where the task could be done. Yes, this means that apps will split into usage scenarios, and that’s fine. Combining the notification centre and the home screen may also be useful. “Shortcuts” is phase one—a shake-up of the home screen is what will make this vision mainstream.
Dark mode. I love macOS Mojave’s dark mode and I can’t wait for it to come to iOS. There’s no need in explaining why it is so awesome.
A thinner Safari scrolled by address bar. I’m pretty sure this is just a bug, so it should be easy to fix:
Volume controls that don’t intrude. Seriously, how isn’t this still a thing?
Adjustments to the control centre. Give me the option of getting rid of this indicator. I know that that’s where the control centre is! Remember Steve Jobs’s iPhone announcement? Buttons and controls can change on a touchscreen, so it is obvious to let me customise my device.
It would be useful if I could turn off lock screen data controls, so a potential thief wouldn’t be able to stop me from finding my device. Currently, the control centre is disabled on my lock screen because of this.
An elevator control panel for 30+ floor buildings
Continuing my fascination with elevator control panels, here is an example of should and shouldn’t be done when a building has a lot of floors.
Horrible:
Believe it or not, the panel may sometimes continue on the opposite side
Ingenious. A phone keypad for floors:
Notice that the rider can wave their hotel key card to go directly to the floor their room is located on