Podcast Feature Idea - Bookmarks with Searchable Notes

It would be mildly useful to be able to add a bookmark to a podcast, and then enter a note. Of course notes need to be searchable.

Location Sharing Refinements

I have a couple of ideas for features that could make location-sharing more acceptable for widespread use. 

The simplest idea is for the person who has been granted location-sharing privileges to be presented with an advisory, when they seek to check a contact's location, that the contact will be notified, if they proceed. If the checker agrees, the location will be duly revealed, and the checkee will be notified (according to the checkee's preferences, which could include no active notification at all, just a log in the app).

A layer on top of this would be for the checkee to be asked to grant permission for location to be revealed. A further refinement to that would be an optional default time where, if the checkee does not respond to the request, permission is granted automatically.

Insert Hyperlink

CTRL-K seems to be pretty nearly universal shortcut functionality for editing a hyperlink. That's good, I use it a lot. The correct implementation (IMO) is for the modal dialog to place the focus into the link/address text input box. Most apps to that.

Webex Chat and Confluence are annoying outliers that place the focus on the text displayed. At least for the way I always, instinctually use CTRL-K, this is dumb and pointless. I have just typed a phrase I want to link, and have selected it before invoking CTRL-K (select-then-do UI metaphor). Or alternatively I am editing something I have written, and identify a phrase that needs a link. In either case, the display text is already written and selected--I effectively never expect to change that in the modal dialog.

Blogger lands in the middle--it doesn't default the focus anywhere. So I don't wind up typing in the wrong place without noticing, which is a small improvement.

Is this just a me thing? Are there other common use cases/workflows where the semi-standard default doesn't make sense?

Multi-Factor Console for Updating Critical Business Parameters Executed by Software

Major business policies, especially in financial services, are often driven by some simple parameters that are executed in software. E.g., for a lender, what interest rate is being charged.

There is typically a dashboard accessible to a small number of users with authorized elevations, to enter these values. In general, that works fine, but there may be concerns about data-entry mistakes or deliberate sabotage (less probable). I think a good solution involves:

• Purpose-built UI (console), limited of course to an appropriate, small user group.
• Require multi-factor -entry to implement a change: i.e., 2 or more members have to independently submit the update (exact number is configurable, depending on the sensitivity--but in general, I think 2 is the magic number).
• Add some UX niceties for workflow—e.g., showing pending updates where only 1 entry has been made, reminders if 2nd entry is overdue.
• Email the entire group whenever a change is initiated and completed.

Email Feature: Reply All "Discouraged"

In email,  I feel like we need a middle ground between:

1. The standard open distribution list, that tends to encourage the default behavior of Reply All;
2. The bcc technique that prevents this, but makes it impossible both to see who is copied, and to Reply All if it is indeed appropriate.

So the Reply-All-Discouraged feature I envision would operate as follows: 

1. Have to be consciously invoked. Perhaps even explicitly enabled in user settings.
2. Set explicitly on a per-email basis. Sender could optionally provide explanatory rationale for when Reply All might be appropriate.
3. When a recipient clicks Reply All, they would get a pop-up with a generic explanation of the feature, and any explanatory text from the Sender.

While making this work universally would require a formal or informal standards change, I think Gmail and Outlook have enough market share to implement independently, and get significant value out of it. For out-of-platform recipients, it would have to default to bcc. 

Optional Handling of Canceled Events

Online calendar software such as Outlook and Google Calendar always removes canceled events, once you accept the cancelation notification. That's often reasonable and fine. But sometimes, especially for recurring events, it is helpful to see an explicit notice of the cancellation. E.g., I don't have to get to work early next Thursday, because the weekly coffee club isn't meeting.

It is a somewhat esoteric feature, and probably tricky to design the UI for, but it really could be nice, for some of my use cases. One way I can think of to implement it is for the calendar to ask you, when you accept the cancellation, whether to hard-delete or logical delete. And then it could include an option for "don't ask me this in the future".

Podcast App Feature: Skip Intro/Outro

Some podcasts have annoyingly long intros, or ads at the beginning. Lots of podcasts are padded with ads at the end. Both are annoying. If you are in a position to fast-forward, they can easily be skipped, but if you tend to listen in "hands off" mode (driving, exercising, doing things that get your hands dirty like cooking), this isn't a good option. 

A killer feature for a podcatcher would be to allow, on a per-podcast basis, a user-configurable setting for skipping intro and outro.

Bluetooth Needs a (Don't) Connect Automatically Option

It has to be a common family scenario (in the car-centric US, anyway) for a couple to have 2 cars, with each paired to both spouses' iPhones. That's definitely the case in my household. And you know what happens? When one of us starts the car, while the other is connected to Bluetooth (Airpods, etc), the car instantly steals the connection. Super-annoying.

The solution seems so simple and obvious...Bluetooth needs an option, like wifi, where you can set whether to Connect Automatically, or not. Another approach would be a delayed connection. 

Apple & Subscriptions

I hate the fact that Apple rakes in up to 30% of subscriptions through the app. BUT--they sure do make it easy to monitor and cancel. I routinely check my subscriptions (mostly for streaming services), and set calendar reminders for when I need to cancel. Or if you are pretty sure you just need the one month already subscribed, you can proactively cancel, and you get the service till the end of what you have paid for(!) Quite a breath of fresh air in that regard.

Here's a feature idea: save me the manual step of the calendar entry--let me set reminders tied to subscriptions, by clicking on the subscription. (For extra credit--this is asking a lot probably--create calendar entries as reminders.)

Email feature Flag R for reply expected

Sometimes when you send an email, you definitely expect a reply. But people's email habits being what they are, said reply does not always arrive. Google actually tries to use AI to remind you of emails that seem like they need a reply but haven't. That's nice, as far as it goes. I would like email to have a feature where you can set a "Reply Expected" flag.

Venmo Feature: Advanced Functionality for Splitting the Bill

Venmo has a split-the-bill feature, where the user can assign payment amounts. It's a good start. But a common use case is multiple people go to a restaurant, one person pays, and the payor doesn't know who ordered what. The basic functionality I would like to see:

• Attach a copy of the bill.
• Enter a total amount, invoke the split request.
• Each user examines the bill, calculates their share of the base bill. Venmo apportions tax & tip.
• Venmo keeps track of the total reimbursements received.
• Venmo provides reminders for parties who haven't responded.

Advanced functionality:

• If total is off by more than a set amount (e.g., 10%, above or below), Venmo notifies all users.
• Venmo scans receipt, and lets users click on their line-items.

Compromise for Blog-Length Tweets

Twitter is famously minimalist for tweet length. For over a decade, they rigidly stuck to 128 characters. I found that to be way too short, most tweets required severe editing to fit. Longer tweets used the ugly hack of screenshotting the text. Among the many drawbacks to this approach is that it is usually impossible to read on a phone. I almost never bother.

The expansion to 256 characters significantly eased the pain . But there are still a lot of screenshots out there. Also, I detest reading long tweet chains. I have an idea for a compromise:

• The Twitter client should allow you to create an arbitrarily long post (>>256 characters).
• The Tweet body should consist of the first 128-256 characters.
• The remainder of the tweet content will be automagically turned into a post (sort of like Tumblr).
• The tweet will end with a more link that provides the rest of the post.
• The author can either explicitly specify the break point, otherwise it will be algorithm-based (e.g., nearest complete sentence to 256 characters).

Technically it seems very reasonable. Not sure from a business model point of view. I don't see anything obviously bad about it. In pursuit of ad-based monetization, the Twitter client could do annoying things like throw an ad up when you click to more link. It might have a pretty good payoff--anyone clicking the more link is obviously a motivated reader.

24-Second-Rule-Like Feature for Words with Friends

The Scrabble-like games, when played by experienced, highly competitive players, often devolve into trench warfare at the end of the game. Neither player wants to play anything besides the most trivial 1-2 letter words, for fear of opening up the board to a lethal end-strike.

While that style of play has its charms, it can become a bit dull. I have an idea to fix it. If you play a word that is less than 50% of the maximum points you could earn, you pay a 1/3 penalty on the difference. So for instance, if you could play EXIST for 48 points, but you choose to play only EX for 18 points, then you get a 10-point penalty.

Camera Apps Should Distinguish the Chaff from the Wheat

I take a lot of “utility” photos on my phone. Screenshots, grocery lists, broken stuff I need to find a solution for at the hardware store, documents I might want to refer to the next day, pictures of serial numbers too small to read.

I don’t want these polluting my photo library. I want options to frictionlessly classify a photo as “junk” (disposable) at the time it is taken, and have it go directly to a special category within Google Photos (or, ideally, any other photo app supporting the standard tagging API for Android or iOS). Much like the way Social and Promotional categories work in Gmail.

I think there are a few, complementary ways this could be implemented:

1.      A different camera icon/widget on the home screen.

2.      2 different shutter buttons on the camera app itself.

3.      Classification buttons when viewing the image, via floating clickable labels.

All could be useful, to me, #2 seems by far the most valuable.

(Whether disposable photos are auto-deleted within a few days, or saved indefinitely, should be configurable. As, for that matter, should be whether it synchs to the cloud from the device’s camera roll.)

Feature Idea; QR to Capture Beloved TV Screensaver Photos

10 years ago, a smart photo frame, powered by an SD card, was considered cutting edge. Too much maintenance to become common, but the idea was right. At the time, I blogged about my ideas for turning a family room big-screen TV into a nice screensaver.

Fast-forward a decade, and that capability is in place. For some reason it is not as popular as I would have imagined, but let's set that aside.

I love having my large family room TV display both personal and other photos. There are a few features I wish it had. Tops on that list is the ability to share photos that viewers like.

So my feature idea is that every photo should have a QR code, and any person in the room admiring the photo currently being displayed could scan that QR, to get the photo on their own device/account. 

Visio 2010 Layers - Yech!

I have long known Visio has a Layers feature, but I have never used it, nor seen anyone else use it. I had a little time on my hands, and a use case that could benefit layers, so I decided to invest 40 minutes in trying to master it. Yech--very clunky. (Disclaimer--I'm a salaryman, so at the mercy of the corporate upgrade cycle. This is Visio 2010. For all I know, it is better in a later version.)

Without thinking too long and hard about how it should work, instead of burying the Layers commands in a modal dialog, it would be much better if each Layer were a horizontal tab on your drawing. Standard CTRL-click functionality to display multiple layers at once.

Texting App Feature

Bundle multiple texts, selected in chain, into an email.

Emal Client Feature Idea: Address Substitution

Since the advent of Gmail, email addresses have become much more stable. For most of us, gone are the days when we switch from cable to DSL, and in doing so, have to change our email address.

Still, from time to time, acquaintances to change their email address. This is where Gmail giveth, and taketh away. The auto-complete keeps remembering the old email address. Even if you personally fix this in your Contacts, other friends in your circle (assuming you have a circle of friends) will send emails with the old address in the distribution. So when you do a Reply All, the old address is propagated.

I envision an email client feature which would fix this. I would like to be able to specify address substitution. So when I do Reply All to Jane.Doe@oldaddress.com, my email client will replace with Jane.Doe@newaddress.com.

The minor details--confirmation dialog, for example--are left as an exercise for the reader. :)

Sharing photos by link

Sharing Photos by link, a la Google Photos, is so the way to go. Emailing is the worst. But having to create an album just to share a photo or two is way too cumbersome. Much better to be able to share an arbitrary selection of photos by link.

UI Paradigms: Basic/Advanced, Toggle Defaults/Retain Settings

Basic/Advanced

Advanced features create a User Interface challenge. Some great, feature-rich programs (looking at you, Sparx EA) are really hard to learn in part because the common UI commands are totally interspersed with advanced, obscure ones.

I like a UI approach that tries to work the 80/20 rule. The 20% main, common features are super-discoverable, front-and-center. The 80% complex, advanced, and obscure features are segregated in a pen labeled "Advanced". Of course this is an ideal, sometimes the problem is that while most users only require 20% of the feature set, everybody has a different 20%.

Toggle Defaults

Often in troubleshooting software, the surest, simplest thing is to return to a known state. Often, this means something along the lines of "reset to factory default". Much software, though far from all, incorporates this feature. The feature I would like to see coupled to factory reset is "store all current settings". Effectively, allow the user to toggle between factory-fresh, and their current, sometimes painstakingly configured state.