Arjun Designs

[jepjepjinerp-blog]

Post #10

One of the most irritating things with playing youtube videos on my phone is how one can not just ‘listen’ to it: the phone must be left on, and must not leave the youtube tab, forcing the user to suspend other phone activities besides youtube during it. Having an ‘audio only’ option on youtube that would allow users to minimize out of the youtube app or play playlists on youtube would be extremely helpful

[arjundesigns]

This is especially annoying because apple HAD A SOLUTION for this that they actually got rid of. It used to be that you could turn off your phone and the youtube video would stop but if you hit play from the lock screen it would play your youtube video’s audio. I think they took it away because they wanted the lock-screen play button to automatically play iTunes. Thanks, Obama.

[arjundesigns]

Post #10

This is the crappy $10 watch I use on a daily basis. For the most part, it gets the job done. It has a stopwatch, a light, an alarm, all the basics. The annoying thing about this watch, however, is that the buttons protrude the device so much that if you turn your wrist a lot, you end up hitting the buttons a good amount of the time. It’s very frustrating, especially if you’re in the middle of a timed event, and you don’t realize that you’ve stopped the timer.

[csci1300]

Post #9

A friend came to visit me this past weekend and unfortunately got very very sick. After spending the night taking care of her, I decided in the morning to take her to the emergency room at RI Hospital. However, actually *getting* to the ER was a challenge. I called an Uber and input the location for the ER, but when we got close, we realized the address was just for the main door of the hospital. I asked the driver to follow the signs for the ER, but he also got lost–so lost that he just dropped us off on the street for us to just walk there.

If there is any interface in the world that should be easy to understand, it’s getting to emergency services. That’s why 911 is such a short/memorable number, and why emergency signs tend to be bright red. However, the signs for this ER were normal looking with yellow arrows–i.e. straight up impossible for an distracted person to methodically find. I don’t understand how something so important was designed so horribly.

P.S. my friend is fine now! :)

[arjundesigns]

That’s really dumb. One cool thing I noticed the other day when I Ubered to South Station from Boston Logan airport is that for select locations like airports, it has specific locations within the airport that you can select such as “terminal A.” If Google maps did something like this with different areas of the hospital or airport it would surely help people who need to get somewhere really fast.

(glad your friend is better!)

[arjundesigns]

Post #9

This is what the average guitar “capo” (a tool to change the key of a guitar) looks like placed on a guitar. They are simple tools, a spring and a rubber edge so you don’t damage the strings or the neck of the guitar, that clamps onto the guitar at any fret you choose. The annoying part about this design, however, is that because the bulk of the capo is right around the side of the guitar, your thumb often runs into it when you’re playing. If they moved the clamping mechanism on the side of the neck where you’re not playing, this wouldn’t be an issue.

[csci1300]

Post #8

I’m a deep sleeper, so my roommate (s/o to @nervousballoontragedy​) often wakes up to my alarm while I don’t. She was frustrated and I felt bad about this, so I bought a vibrating alarm wristband off Amazon called the Shake N Wake. This device has several design problems:

You have no idea how to set it without reading the manual–for example, to set an alarm, you have to press MODE twice.

The battery holder is difficult to get back in. Do you slide? do you snap? Took me and my roommate ten minutes to figure out how to put in batteries.

It vibrates so loudly that my roommate wakes up to the sound before I wake up to the sensation.

Overall, I give it:

1/10 learnability

2/10 memorability

4/10 efficiency

[arjundesigns]

That’s annoying that the device didn’t work. I’ve heard there are now little pads you can put underneath your mattress that track your REM cycle and wake you up at the appropriate time with gentle vibrations. The cool thing about these ones is that it can sense you getting out of bed so there’s no way to “trick it” and just turn off the alarm—you have to actually get up.

[arjundesigns]

Post #8

I have this set of speakers by the brand Harman/Kardon (HK) that plays music beautifully. The really annoying thing about them, however, is that they allow syncing after they’ve been synced, without any sort of password. This means that when I’m playing music in my room, if my next-door neighbors wish, they can sync up their phones via bluetooth to my speakers and override my music with whatever they want. A simple password like most BT speakers would be great.

[csci1300]

Post #7

Check out this cool pencil I have:

I 90% super love it, but the eraser is just so weird and stupid. On the surface, it seems normal and makes sense:

But analyze this disassembly:

Wtf? Why is the stem of the eraser so long? It seems unnecessary. I thought that maybe it’s because you’re able to flip it over, but no:

Ugh. There has to be a reason for this that I just haven’t found yet, but considering I’ve used this kind of pencil for about three years now (super brand loyal, what can I say) and I still don’t know why, I’d say it ranks pretty low in terms of accessibility. It’s quite efficient, however–like, I guess I don’t see any problems with it other than wasting perfectly good eraser material. It is also memorable, since a power user myself can do really well with it.

[arjundesigns]

This is one of my bigger qualms with nicer mechanical pencils too. It seems like you can either get crappy american mechanical pencils or get nice Japanese ones that have no erasers. I think they expect you to have a real eraser with you and just use this in dire situations but still. Given that if you’re writing in pencil you’re going to have to erase at some point it seems silly.

[arjundesigns]

Post #7

One thing that has always frustrated me about mechanical pencils is the fact that there’s no easy way to eject the lead quickly. You have to click the back about a dozen times and then use a microscope and some tweezers to grab hold of the tiny bit of lead that sticks out of the end. I wish there were a button you could press, in conjunction with the lead dispenser button (which is used to open up the lead-grabber within the tip), which would push out the remainder of the led that’s left inside the pencil.

[csci1300]

Post #6

Caramel apples have the worst user interface. How are you even supposed to eat them, like really? If you try to bite, your teeth get caught in the soft caramel and slide against the edge of the hard apple, leaving you with a mouthful of caramel. The stick slides out when you try to pick it up or pull it out of whatever plastic/wax bag it came in, which is messy. And most environments where caramel apples are being served are not conducive to sitting down and slicing. The only thing saving them is the massive amounts of sugar.

[arjundesigns]

Definitely agree with you on this one. If there were a way to embed the caramel within the apple you would be able to have the juicy apple to get the caramel out of your teeth a little bit. There are, however alternative ways to eat the food. I know one of my friends in particular licks off the caramel from a part until he can bite through to the apple and then enjoys both without getting stuff in his teeth.

[arjundesigns]

Post #6

The other day I was working on my redesign homework, and came across a really annoying feature in Sketch. When you group two objects together, they still scale independently of one another. My specific example was that of making a spotlight icon (basically just a circle and a small line). I made it at a larger size so I could see it while building, but was disappointed to find that when I went to scale it the proportions of the two got really wonky and stopped working.

[csci1300]

Post #5

Chinese and Japanese websites are really confusing to figure out. Unless you can actually read the language, it’s difficult to figure out what you’re supposed to do–which means users will have to spend a lot of time scanning the page for what they want, even if they know the language.

Seriously, look at this:

Like, I speak Chinese and know enough Japanese to be dangerous, but I don’t even know where to start on these pages. There’s so many words!! Why are there so many words??? Like I guess if you already know how to use the site, it’s nice to be able to click to whatever esoteric function you need right from the main page, but otherwise, it’s just overwhelming and ugh no bueno.

Efficiency: 8/10 (like I said, good if you already know it)

Memorability: 4/10 (Where was that button again? What category should it be?)

Learnability: 1/10 (ugh just no ugh awful)

[arjundesigns]

That does seem kind of superfluous. I think Jeff actually mentioned this in one of his lectures—stylistically it seems strange to us, but in certain parts of the world they value different design decisions, and in China and Japan they prefer having more things on the page in a way that may seem “cluttered” to us.

[arjundesigns]

Post #5

I was in the VDub the other day trying to get some coffee to wake me up. I quickly found out, however, that it’s pretty hard to tell which coffee stand is which. Instead of labeling the coffee maker itself, or placing a label underneath the pot so everyone can see, they placed the labels above the pots, where basically nobody can see them. I’m 6’4” and I had trouble spotting them—how is someone short supposed to see them?

[csci1300]

Post #4

As I took a Megabus today, I noticed a lot people around me having trouble with the light switch. When they tried to find it, they would reach above themselves and grope for it in the dark, but because it didn’t stick out at all, they couldn’t find it and would give up. Very low learnability and efficiency, so bad that people weren’t even able to use the device. Memorable once your realized what the trick was.

[arjundesigns]

Apparently this used to be a much bigger issue until they figured out how to have mini-lights inside of the switch itself that glow and tell you that that is the light button. It seems obvious in hindsight, but without the technology to put those tiny lights in, it’s much harder than it seems. The fact that this is still an issue is pretty dumb, though.

[arjundesigns]

Post #4

The other day I was tearing pages out of my sketchbook to turn in for a class I was taking when I realized that the strength of the holes holding the paper to the spiral was less than the strength of the perforation. This means that unless you’re really being extremely careful, simply pulling on the paper will result in taking the paper out of the sketchbook entirely instead of just tearing it off of the edges. If they changed the strength of the perforations such that pulling on the paper would take it off of the edge instead of out of the book entirely, the perforations would actually perform a purpose. Bad design.

[csci1300]

Post #3

I have a large (very large–I forgot my sleeping bag when going away this weekend and just slept in this instead) red infinity scarf. I like this because it keeps me warm and insulated, and the oversize scarf look is in (so many compliments!), but I have no idea how to actually shape it so it looks nice.

It has unhemmed edges, so you have to fold the ends inward such that they aren’t exposed, but due to the donut shape of the fabric cut, your hands get lost inside and the fabric gets tangled in itself. I end up approaching this in the same way boys at my high school approached neckties–by getting my mom to do it properly for me once, then just loosening and tightening as needed.

Efficacy: 9/10 (kinda chokes a lil’ bit :/)

Memorability: 8?/10 (what would memorability be for this object?)

Learnability 2/10 (I’ve had it for two years and still can’t figure it out lol)

[arjundesigns]

First of all, putting on neckties take care and precision to master and I beseech you to try to put one on some time.

Those infinity scarves look tough, though. I imagine the trouble with trying to hide anything (in this case, the ends of the scarves) sometimes takes more care than just letting them be visible in the first place. That being said, if the goal is function over fashion, I’m sure the extra fabric keeps you snug and warm in these cool winter months.

[arjundesigns]

Post #3

The other day when I was buying some art supplies I was annoyed by the checkout card swiper. It allowed me to swipe, and subsequently charged me, but then asked me to click okay again to show that I had been charged the correct amount, and then again after the “have a nice day” sign came up (I was asked to click it by the cashier this time). After I swipe my card I should be able to say yes/no to my receipt and walk away. 

That’s why I love Square.

[jepjepjinerp-blog]

Post #2

I work at BuDs, where I encountered the hardest task at Brown so far: opening a brand-new black trashbag. My first barrier was rolling it out too far; the seam was too faint to notice. After backtracking and ripping the bag off, I was again stumped - both sides were identical. At this point a coworker called over to see if I needed help. I replied back with a nervous laugh and shake of the head as sweat trickled down my neck. After fumbling with one side of the bag for an eternity, I decided that the opening was on the other side. My fumbling, difficult due to the gloves I wore, grew increasingly desperate.  Sweat mixed with tears as jeers were shouted.  Ripe tomatoes and stale bagels were thrown. My manager finally strutted by and, with two fingers, pinched and twisted the bag to create an opening. I tossed myself into the trashbin, seeking solitude from the cruel world of unforgiving trash bags.

[arjundesigns]

Hope you’re doing better.

I’ve also found trouble with this and constantly wonder why there aren’t arrows printed on the outside that point to the opening. I hardly think there would ever be a person who wouldn’t buy trash bags because of an aesthetic choice. They’re incredibly useful tools but are never really that beautiful.