Our task for our HCI course with Adam is to brainstorm two interfaces that are frustrating for the user. This took me some time to think of things because so many of the niche problems I thought of already have solutions to – like how they now make inserts that sit on top of car cup holders to hold water bottles that normally are too wide to fit, and they have wristlets that you can wear while you wash your face to avoid water from dripping down your arms and onto your sleeves. I was able to come up with a few though. 

My first idea is bathroom stalls…why is it so common for public bathrooms to have such big gaps between the door and the wall? One solution to this problem could be to make the doors flush to the wall. However, doors that are like this may be more susceptible to getting stuck closed if they are poorly constructed or made out of a cheap material. Another solution is that there could be a panel, or “flap” that sits along the door and gets pulled out to cover the gap when the user slides the latch. I do like the simplicity of just sliding a latch to shut the door that most stalls implement, so with my second solution, the way the user closes the bathroom stalls would not be any more complicated than it was. However, it would require more material, so this solution also has some cons to it. I drew a picture to explain my vision more clearly.

My second problematic interface is Lastpass, which is a password manager application that my family uses. In practice, having a secure system to store passwords and other private information is a great idea, but Lastpass in particular has its flaws. Every so often, when you open the app, you are prompted for your master password before you can see your passwords. So basically, you have to have this super important password memorized or in some other secure location in order to use this app. This almost seems counterintuitive to the goal of the app. In the past, this extra step to remember my master password and login has turned me away from putting my passwords in the app as opposed to apple passwords or in a locked note on my notes app (pretend you didn’t read that Dad). My solution is that, instead of being prompted for another password, there could be some other way to login securely. This could involve face ID recognition, being asked the answers to questions that you answered when you set up your account (i.e., “what is the name of your childhood pet”), a two-factor authentication app, etc. I’ve added a screen shot of the screen that frequently shows up when I try to use the app.