Description

Please help me. I cannot do this on my own.

I invite Hackers and Makers to co-create the Simply Obvious User Interface SOUI (pronounced SoWe).

It is Open Source, easy to build into any OS, and enhances all Computers and Smartphones.

Our challenge is to raise the expectations, and demands, of users, and break through UI Anarchy and Stagnation.

Ease Of Use, Functionality, Ecological Considerations, and SOUI's reduction of the Total Cost of Smartphone Ownership, will put pressure on the GAME (Google Apple Microsoft Everybody) to improve their Smartphones, and cut down on the Booby Traps and Dirty Tricks they bundle with them.

SOUI Elements in the EZsmartphone:
+ Adds 3 Sliding Menu Virtual Screens - Quadrupling the smartphone screen size;
+ Unbrickable;
+ One Click Unlock;
+ Re-purposable by the end user.

SOUI Elements which also enhance Desktops:
++ MenuIndex with Limitations reduces time wasted by Users;
++ Eyesight protection.

Details

MY HOLY GRAIL

Is to develop a Universal Computer User Interface for Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones:

It must be FASTER TO LEARN, and EASIER TO USE, than ANY other UI;
It must empower Users, giving them more power, and better control, over their computers;
It must respect the User's valuable time, and enhance their dignity and well-being;
It must be Software Only, Cross Platform, Hardware Independent, and free of all Hardware Constraints;
It must be freely available to all developers and manufacturers, without any licensing restrictions;
It must transition from the single page 10% Discount Voucher into mass production on a zero budget.

I cannot achieve this on my own. If you are inspired by the quest for this Holy Grail, please help me!

Hello Fellow Hackers and Makers,

I would like to present my Simply Obvious User Interface, SOUI (pronounced SoWe) in the 12 pages of accompanying documentation.

SOUI is the fruits of 40 years of my Computer UI development, much of it spent at CERN.

SOUI consists of:

MenuIndex with Limitations for all Desktops and Smartphones;
Full Screen Progress Indicators for all Desktops and Smartphones;
EZsmartphone Spec;
EZsmartphone Sliding Menus;
EZsmartphone 10% Discount Voucher (pdf) or (png).

Pages (see Files)

An Overview of the 11 other pages.
The Mess created by Apple Programmers In 1981.
The Mess created by WordPerfect Programmers In 1990.
Screen Cancer Created by Pull-down Menus (Mice Mazes).
The Widget Cancer Ribbon. The bigger screen allows the Cancer to multiply!
How "MenuIndex with Limitations" enhances the User Experience and how User Productivity is Crippled by: Was this information helpful?
An Apple UI Intuition Test.
Now that Microsoft has chained you to their screen, what will you do?
Features of the EZsmartphone. The concept has spawned my Unbrickable Smartphone and Re-purposing Smartphones projects. VULNERABILITIES ARE CURRENTLY HUSHED UP AND BUILT INTO the Firmware of Android Smartphones!
The Future UI of Computers and Smartphones.
Sliding Menus quadruples the EZsmartphone screen size.
The EZsmartphone 10% Discount Voucher (pdf) or (png). If we can get this single page to go Viral, then we will have altered the future of Smartphone and Desktop User Interfaces for the better, for all Users.

Move over Google and Apple. Hello Huawei.

I am honoured, and priviliged, to present this initiative to such a prestigeous forum as Hackaday, oozing with so much talent, ingenuity, and creativity.

I hope my invitation to everyone in this forum, to co-create the EZsmartphone, the NextGen smartphone, will spark your approval, your support, and your very valuable and welcome contributions.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Let's get the EZsmartphone into mass production, by multiple vendors, by simply making a single sheet of paper, the EZsmartphone 10% Discount Voucher (pdf), or (png) go viral.

A shining example of "little" people saying to Giant Corporations:

Files

UI_12_Voucher.pdf

The EZsmartphone 10% discount voucher. PLEASE HELP THIS VOUCHER GO VIRAL.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 142.12 kB - 09/08/2018 at 15:38

Preview

UI__1_Overview.pdf

Overview of the Simply Obvious User Interface (SOUI). It makes ALL desktop computers, and smartphones, quicker to learn, AND easier to use.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 128.36 kB - 09/08/2018 at 15:39

Preview

UI__2_Apple.pdf

The Mess created by Apple Programmers In 1981.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 129.70 kB - 09/08/2018 at 15:41

Preview

UI__3_WordPerfect.pdf

The Mess created by WordPerfect Programmers In 1990.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 390.55 kB - 09/08/2018 at 15:41

Preview

UI__4_Pull-down.pdf

Screen Cancer Created by Pull-down Menus (Mice Mazes). We ARE the Mouse in our hand.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 99.26 kB - 09/08/2018 at 15:43

Preview

Components

1 × EZsmartphone 10% Discount Voucher, going Viral, is all that is needed! Let's make a single physical sheet of paper, or a link to it, go Viral!

Project Logs

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Video added

David N • 09/10/2018 at 08:57 • 0 comments

6 Images added

David N • 09/03/2018 at 19:28 • 0 comments

Six images added to the gallery of the Simply Obvious User Interface.

Build Instructions

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Together we can change the future of smartphones for the better, at zero cost, and with zero budget!

Circulate the EZsmartphone 10% Discount Voucher to your friends, and via social media, so that it goes Viral.

Then one, or more than one, smartphone manufacturer will pick it up and run with it.

Discussions

David N wrote 09/03/2018 at 21:06

@Gravis said:

"However, to really make this work you will also need to build a platform with a complete software ecosystem that enforces these rules because every company wants their application to be "special" (to get more attention) and therefore doesn't conform to any guidelines. If you don't do this then you are just yelling into they abyss."

1) Thank you for pointing out the fundamental obstacle inherent in your proposal, which I am hoping to avoid by my approach.

2) Every "yell into the abyss" brings some light into the abyss. Please don't give up so easily. You will become part of the Chorus, and Groundswell, that will change the world.

Are you sure? yes | no

Starhawk wrote 09/03/2018 at 20:49

Seems to me that the better way to solve this problem, rather than tailoring computer interfaces to the computer-undereducated, is to fix the educational systems of the world so that they're not shorting us on what is in fact our future incarnate...

Otherwise... well... watch the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "When the Bough Breaks"... ;) that's what you're basically engineering here, and on a societal level, at that.

Are you sure? yes | no

[deleted]

[this comment has been deleted]

Starhawk wrote 09/03/2018 at 21:37

I'm not a programmer. I just believe that a largely computer-illiterate mass of people... should probably not use computers. Seems 'common sense' material to me.

The ultimate issue here is that you're encouraging people /not/ to learn technology as they should. This is how tech support repeatedly gets calls from people pouring beer in their keyboards (or worse) and people using laptops directly on bed comforters and then wondering why the machine won't turn on one fine sunny morning.

This is also a nearly perfect recipe for the exact scenario outlined in that Star Trek episode - a society founded on technology that is no longer understood well enough to avoid significant problems.

Put bluntly: people who are prone to computer stupidity should be kept well away from computers, period, unless you want Extremely Bad Things to happen, potentially on a society-affecting level. The solution to computer-oriented laziness is not to code for the lazy. The solution is to teach those people not to be lazy, and then teach them proper computer usage - or find a way of separating them from direct access to computers entirely.

Also: I quadruple-dog-dare you to use a Commodore 64 setup as your primary computing platform for a full week. It might bring you some better perspectives on the subject of UI - if not computing in general - considering that it's the single best-selling computer make and model in human history...

Are you sure? yes | no

David N wrote 09/07/2018 at 18:41

@Starhawk Wrote "I just believe that a largely computer-illiterate mass of people... should probably not use computers. Seems 'common sense' material to me."

WOW! For me, this approach means "We must make the tail wag the dog"!

The greatest insight, and solace, I can offer "computer illiterates" is the reassurance that programmer-centric thinking / reality is, for all "normal" people, irrefutably psychotic. Please see my file UI__2_Apple.pdf.

Are you sure? yes | no

Gravis wrote 09/03/2018 at 19:09

"Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool" and "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a better idiot."

Are you sure? yes | no

David N wrote 09/03/2018 at 19:43

@Gravis I totally agree with you. The question I am asking is: Do we, coders and hackers, have the humanity, and generosity of spirit, to help intelligent, literate people, struggling to use computers and smartphones, feel less of a fool and an idiot?

Are you sure? yes | no

Gravis wrote 09/03/2018 at 20:33

What you need to do is make an interface specification that people can follow, like the GNOME project did: https://developer.gnome.org/hig/stable/

However, to really make this work you will also need to build a platform with a complete software ecosystem that enforces these rules because every company wants their application to be "special" (to get more attention) and therefore doesn't conform to any guidelines. If you don't do this then you are just yelling into they abyss.

Are you sure? yes | no

The Simply Obvious User Interface (SOUI)

Description

Details

MY HOLY GRAIL

Hello Fellow Hackers and Makers,

SOUI consists of:

Pages (see Files)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY