1
I just wanted to share this little unexpected design gem I discovered through a link over at Gizmodo. Go here http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/level-camera-cube/ and click 'add to cart'. Even the shopping cart turns its frown upside down.
It is smooth, well executed and adds to the user experience. I can also imagine this visual touch is a real boost in usability for less techy people.
Have you recently come across any other little unexpected innovative touches in a website which brought a smile to your face and improved usability?
I was wondering about karma on HN and other sites, like stackoverflow, which are community driven. The essence of karma is to be a self-controlling mechanism which empowers users based on their past contributions.
One aspect of this is to award 'power' to users (like moderating and downvoting) after certain karma point thresholds. My idea is to speed this process up by promoting 'powers' in a more flexible way.
How it would work - a 'predictive karma algorithm': Analyse usage patterns of members with higher 'ranks' (i.e. more 'power') and try to match those usage patterns to new members' behaviour to determine if they qualify for an early promotion in the 'ranks'.
This could entail giving dummy access to all functionality to new users, like downvoting and deletion. The dummy buttons would not actually do anything but the actions are stored in a DB to be used in the usage pattern comparison algorithm.
Some advantages: - Members can climb the 'ranks' faster which satisfies peoples' thirst for power (who doesn't like being promoted). - It would show full site functionality at an earlier stage so users can see the site's richness immediately. - Speeds up members' site loyalty.
Some disadvantages: - Could become complex to create a well balanced algorithm - Measuring any comparative advantage over using thresholds is difficult.
It is just a seed of an idea but I would think some kind of a 'predictive karma algorithm' could further improve the user experience.
Your thoughts?
I do not want to burst the Twitter love-fest bubble but am I the only one who feels Twitter is aimed at a pretty narrow demographic?
This demographic I would split into two: 1. People who have a lot of time on their hands to read tweets or add their own. For me this means mostly students and those between/without jobs.
2. Companies/Individuals trying to link themselves with this hot new trend for profit, monetary or otherwise. A win-win situation develops as Twitter's success can drive people to a company/individual and the company/individual will drive people to Twitter.
Why this post I hear you mumble?
For me personally, I do not fall into the above demographic. I have a full-time job which takes up all of my focus/attention during the day. I do not have time or feel compelled to check a website/twitter client constantly to read new tweets or post myself. And, to be honest, I already have plenty of things to read/do when my mind does need a wonder in the evening/weekend (Yes HN et al, I am looking at you).
Are there others out there like me?
I have an idea for a web app and am asking you, the knowledgeable HN reader, if it is possible to make it with existing tools. If yes, which ones.
Oh, and if you would like to point out this already exists - feel free to flame me and mock my ignorance.
Context: I was working in the garden with my girlfriend and we were discussing (putting it politely) planting a tree without blocking the morning sun. It was evening so we could not verify our claims. This issue remained unsolved until the next morning when we could verify the sun's position. (I won.)
Idea: Create a mashup of google maps and sun/moon position data.
Usage: When a user goes to street view (or similar) at any point (long/lat position) in google maps on earth and gives a date, they would be able to see the arc the sun/moon makes through the sky.
I have some development experience but do not have a broad knowledge of best-of-breed tools out there.
Thanks for any suggestions or refinement on the idea!
PS: Feel free to steal this idea and make it happen - I'd be happy to use your app.
I read the article "A Brief History of Google Killers" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=616482) and saw these numbers: "[...] show Live Search’s share as fluctuating over the past couple of years, but never exceeding 2.6 percent. Google’s share? Eighty-one percent, up from 75 percent two years ago. [...]"
These numbers are indicative of a monopoly situation where for-profit organisations could/(do) shaft the end user.
Microsoft is in the news every so often about antitrust cases against them. Why not Google?
However, I do not keep abreast of litigation stories and don't want to go through reams of information to get insight into the issue
So, I am asking HN: What do you think? Where is it going?
I had to post a snail-mail and had to write the address of the recipient on the back. I couldn't find it immediately and it was quite long to have to write - and write legibly.
I then had an insight: Seeing as domains have to be registered, how easy would it be to just write said domain name on the back of the envelope? (instead of the multiline real postal address)
The post office could then take care of the conversion from the domain name to the actual postal address by a whois.
For example, thedailywtf has a postal addres for its sticker campaign ( http://thedailywtf.com/Swag/WTF-Sticker.aspx ). The postal office then receives a mail with address 'thedailywtf.com', does a whois and thus gets the correct postal address!
What do you think?