Questions tagged [physical]
For questions involving physical interfaces and interactions with "real world" objects.
293
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Why is the accelerator pedal in cars are at the right side ?
The accelerator pedal is located on the right side.
Usually, this pedal in more elegant and softer as well. But this is not the question. The question is why it is located on the right side, not the ...
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1
answer
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Why do train departure boards use orange text on black background?
At train stations in the UK (and I also noticed in Italy) - the departure/arrival boards use orange text on a black background.
However, at airports there appear to be a much wider variety of colour ...
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1
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Why "heat & cool" buttons on air conditioner remote controls?
On most air conditioner remote controls, you can find buttons such as Heat / Cool. Users must switch to the cooling mode in summer, and to the heating mode in winter. Curiously, Heat 25°C(or 77°F) is ...
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What is the benefit of 2 drive thru lanes at a fast food restaurant?
The following photo shows the drive thru lane at a fast food restaurant. The lane splits in two to allow 2 drivers to place their order at the same time.
The following photo shows an overhead view ...
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1
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Numbering teams in a physical competition: is there a point? [closed]
Context
One of my "night jobs" is acting as an organizer of the Canadian Robotics Competition for high school students.
In short, students build a robot to play a game against other robots, as many ...
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I'm designing a no-data USB cable : How should the end be marked?
I'm specifying a dedicated USB cable for a product, but it won't be a full cable, it will be missing the center conductors. In other words, it is functionally equivalent to a "charge only" USB cable.
...
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3
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Why is the telescoping toilet paper roller preferred over a simpler solution?
I have almost always seen toilet paper rolls presented on a telescoping plastic piece when available for use. A few times I have seen them presented on a much simpler solution: a simple rod with an ...
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Car Park Ticket Machine Letter and Number Organisation
Some car parks in the UK have ticket machines which ask for the car's registration plate so that the ticket is bought for a specific vehicle (this stops people giving half used tickets to other ...
- 11.2k
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4
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Why don't elevators automatically go to the ground floor after being idle for some time?
I work in a regular 10-story office building with 4 elevators. Every morning I notice a situation where all 4 elevators happily sit on one of the topmost floors until someone pushes the button from ...
- 302
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On a warning sign, describe safe actions near pictured danger, or pictured safety?
This thread on Aviation.SE raises an interesting question: what is the advantage in putting the "DO" actions below the hazard zone on the diagram, rather than below the safe zone?
For context, this ...
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How can we be safe from hitting a glass wall that is hard to notice?
This picture was taken in a Korea airport. I found it very hard to notice many glass partitions, including this one. I almost hit once.
What will be the approach to get away from this kind of ...
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Why are monitors landscape and books portrait oriented?
Generally, with most books, they are in portrait form. I've seen reasons for this, like it is less work for our eyes. If this is the case, then why are computer monitors and TVs in landscape form? Why ...
- 192
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What is the purpose of zippers with double sliders in cases?
I noticed in most cases from medium to big size there are usually double zippers. These don't normally appear in small cases. What is the benefit of double zippers in contrast to single ones?
Only ...
- 16.8k
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Why do washing machines have so many modes of operation?
Every single modern washing machine has a significant number of functions, e.g. this machine from LG:
There are 13 modes, 5 spin settings, 5 temperature settings, 4 extra functions, a Start button, ...
- 302
36
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Why put a warning sticker over the warning on this product?
My curiosity got piqued by a can of deodorant with a sticker with a "flammable" warning placed where the text was evidently already flowed around it. Peeling off the sticker revealed another "...
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What research exists into the user experience of physical smartwatch designs?
Consumers now have a plethora of choices in the wearable smartwatch market and one of the most striking differences between the various products is in the design/shape of the actual physical hardware. ...
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Why in the UK are there pedestrian crossings with two sets of indication signals - one above the other?
This has baffled me for a long time: why pedestrian crossings are installed in the UK with two sets of cross / don't cross indicators - one above the other.
On this set I saw recently it's not even ...
- 11.2k
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1
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On-Screen or Physical Buttons On Smartphones
When I refer to buttons, I am referencing the three common buttons located on the button bezel of many Android smartphones (example below Samsung Galaxy S5):
Android smartphones have been making a ...
- 1,564
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2
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Appropriate use of and child-proof alternatives to screwed-down battery covers
On lots of electronic devices with replaceable batteries, the battery cover is secured by a screw.
I understand that it may be necessary to protect against child access to the battery bay, but using ...
- 517
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3
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Is there any point in "plastic cards" still having raised ("embossed") lettering on them?
I know in the days of paper credit card slips that the card details were raised so that the card could be used in an "embossing machine" to print the details using a carbon copy layer.
But does any ...
- 11.2k
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2
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Do users of Braille displays get sore fingers?
I have a very simple question concerning Braille displays. I have never used such a device, but am curious.
Do users of Braille displays get sore fingers as a result of repeated touching and stroking ...
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Why is the R in front of the D gear in cars (and vice versa)?
Most (or all) cars that have an automatic transmission have the reverse gear in front of the drive (forward) gear (and vice versa). What was the reasoning behind putting reverse (R) in the front and ...
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Why was the "Airport" icon chosen to mean: "radio emissions on your device are disabled"?
I am amused as I drive around nowadays and see "Airport" icons on blue informational signs and I have cause to think: "Well, no WiFi or Bluetooth there!" That is probably what children are thinking. ...
user67695
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Designing user experience for an actual, real-life environment (off-screen)?
What do you call it when you design the user experience of an actual, real-life environment, example, an office where services are offered so that the interaction between the customers and the ...
- 4,238
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Why do most car radios have 6 preset buttons?
When looking at modern car radios, it's obvious that the vast majority of these has 6 buttons for pre-set radio stations.
Why?
Why not less, why not more?
It was very tempting to add the tag radio-...
- 1,295
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What is the rationale behind the way modern elevator dispatch systems are implemented?
There have been many elevator upgrade projects with the aim of saving energy and time for the managers and occupants of buildings. I suspect this has to do with the increase in height and volume of ...
- 26.7k
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2
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Why do manufacturers allow Android's 'takeover'?
This is a question that I was wondering for quite some time. To provide some background, I bought a few physical devices with different screens and operative systems so we could test apps at the ...
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How to encourage people to move to the back of the bus?
The diagram below shows the layout of the public transportation buses in my city:
What this 2-dimensional diagram cannot show properly is that the rear area of the bus is raised about 2 feet above ...
- 361
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Why do car doors have an almost-closed state?
In every car I've ever seen, if you don't close the door with sufficient force, the door gets into a weird semi-closed state. This state is invisible, which is why cars have various indicators and ...
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Why do trunks for cars typically open upwards?
The other day I saw a car where the trunk's door opened sideways like the other car doors, instead of upwards like they usually do. That got me thinking; why does the door for a car's trunk usually ...
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Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
The vast majority of smartphones sold today use a 'bar' or 'slate' form-factor, with a large screen which uses an on-screen keyboard.
Blackberry are the one obvious manufacturer who still produce ...
- 6,547
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4
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Why do we prefer shiny finish on cars and dull finish on devices?
Across the board, cars have shiny paint (which looks great), while computers, laptops and phones etc. tend to have a dull finish to them.
What’s the logic/psychology behind this?
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Should sugar cereal waste any time defending themselves? [closed]
Defending themselves: When the back cover of the cereal has the main purpose of convincing people their cereal is full of nutrition, but still tasty.
Honey Nut Cheerios
They are trying to convince ...
- 1,203
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People using wrong door to building
Our office building has 2 entrances, but you can only access our office from the secondary entrance. I would like to direct them to walk to the the secondary entrance (30 yds to left) and buzz in ...
- 133
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Hot & Cold Touch-Free Sink
I am currently trying to come up with an intuitive design for a touch free sink faucet that allows for both hot and cold temperature settings. Most touch free sinks involve one sensor to start the ...
- 15.3k
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How to build UI/UX for aircraft? [closed]
Currently, I am the student of CS in aviation.
My project is about research in UI for board system (Boeing).
Now I have the necessary technical documentation and examples of current interfaces (to ...
user80595
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3
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Why are aluminium soda cans typically round instead of square?
Why are beverage cans usually round? Considering the amount that are made, and the need to be transported - isn't a round design inefficient? (ie the lost space from not tightly fitting together).
...
- 6,547
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Putting names on international business cards in a helpful way
With electronic transmission of contact infos (h/x/j/vCard, CardDAV, EAS etc.) it should be possible to store unambiguously the various parts of a person’s name and title as well as their gender and ...
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The Right way to Write
A slightly belated festive question!
Why do we write on the right hand side of cards (and books)?
In English and many other languages, we typically begin writing in the top left and move rightwards ...
- 193
3
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1
answer
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Braille standards for shops
Are there any braille standards for shops?
For instance, if a blind person enters a supermarket, how do they find a guide that walks them to where the gloves are, how must the gloves be positioned ...
- 328
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1
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How do blind people cook?
How can, could, and how do currently blind people cook without burning themselves? I mean, what kind of user interface is good for them?
One thing I can think of, is they should have a table that ...
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Color choice for maximum legibility of text on glass
In our office we have transparent glass doors and we want to put text stickers on them. For example, name of the person or room function.
The question is what color should be stickers to provide ...
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Why do folding stepladders have "not-a-step" steps?
Stepladders are typically labelled with a warning sticker that says:
⚠️ Danger: Do not stand on top step
or, sometimes on the second-from-the-top step:
⚠️ Do not stand on or above this rung or ...
- 2,301
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4
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Why don't ATMs give you cash and card together
This is a follow-up of Why don't ATMs give you cash before your card?
As shown in the linked question, whether an ATM give you cash first or card first will make users tend to forget the other. ...
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Why don't toilet doors also latch and change their status when closed? [closed]
On aeroplanes when the passenger closes the toilet door it keeps the door closed and changes the status to occupied in a separate (or sometimes the same) action as closing the door. I am wondering if ...
- 26.7k
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Justification of petrol station design [closed]
Would appreciate help on this issue. We plan to reconstruct our old petrol station. At present, it has one single row of pumps, so all cars have to move in queue or bypass each other.
New design will ...
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Include UI Play/Pause buttons even though remote contains same functionality?
I'm working on a tvOS application that plays videos. On the bottom of the screen are a set of buttons I've created; Previous, Next, Pause, Play. Coming from an iOS background I'm so used to creating ...
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Steering Wheel: A Better Alternative? [closed]
In my opinion steering wheels for automobiles are a bad UX. They seem to be a control that are here for legacy reasons only and were not thought out in the context of new age technology. What would be ...
- 15.3k
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What color smartphone provides the best viewing experience?
This question is not as subjective as it sounds.
Some background...
Smartphones are commonly sold in black, white, silver, gold, and occasionally other colors. This is slightely dated (2013), but I'...
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Why do some elevators have a single call button and others two?
It seems like it would be optimal to have two call buttons (up/down) on an elevator instead of one because I could hop on an elevator headed in the same direction that I want to go versus having to ...
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