OpenTable is a dining reservation app that allows users to explore local restaurants and make reservations with ease and better communication. It provides both diners and restaurants with an open communication platform that replaces the traditional, messy reservation process with a streamlined, informative network. Signing-in: Onboarding The sign-in pages (figure 1-3) utilized the classic phone […]
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Pikmin Bloom is a free augmented reality (AR) mobile app developed by Niantic and Nintendo. By implementing gamification strategies, it encourages players to walk more, explore their surroundings, and foster healthy habits. Although Pikmin Bloom demonstrates the power of gamification, it still suffers from several usability friction points that disrupt the Seven Stages of Action.
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Preply is a language-learning platform that connects students with live tutors. This critique covers the typical student experience on iOS platforms, including onboarding, tutor discovery, booking, and language practice features.
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The Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses enable users to send messages, make calls, take pictures and videos, listen to music, and use voice commands to ask Meta AI questions and receive answers in real time (Meta, 2026). Although the glasses are marketed as a lifestyle device, they also function as assistive technology for people with visual
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IKOU is a portable chair designed for infants and toddlers who need postural support. Created by parent Yuri Matsumoto with IDEO Tokyo, it was designed to allow families to bring postural support with them outside the home. In Japan, government-subsidized supportive chairs work well at home but are too bulky and heavy to transport easily.
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Introduction Pokémon Shuffle is a mobile puzzle game where players line up Pokémon icons to battle opponents and progress through levels. It blends casual match-three gameplay with RPG elements like team optimization and collecting Pokémon. The game succeeds in keeping players engaged, but its registration, onboarding, and interface design also reveal notable usability challenges. Registration
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Introduction CapCut for Mac is a desktop video editor that aims to make video editing fast and approachable while offering a broad set of features. The experience is sleek and simple, but some design choices create friction around onboarding, visibility, sharing and error recovery especially for new users. Getting Started: Registration & Onboarding Right away,
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Hume AI is a text-to-speech (TTS) product whose primary selling point is its advanced emotional intelligence (EI). Emotion is, after all, the most powerful tool of voice—amplifying meaning, tone, and impact in text. Since achieving natural-sounding TTS has become largely a solved problem, the differences between products in basic voice quality are shrinking (or just
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Stellarium is a mobile planetarium app that allows users to explore the night sky in real time. By pointing their device upward, they can identify stars, planets, and constellations through a realistic visualization. The experience feels immersive and inspiring, but certain design choices introduce challenges around discoverability and ease of use, particularly for beginners. Onboarding
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Flo is a menstrual cycle–tracking app that helps users monitor periods, ovulation, or pregnancy. It also offers resources on menstruation, pregnancy, mental-health and sexual wellness, along with symptom logging. This critique reviews Flo through concepts from Design of Everyday Things and How Artifacts Afford, focusing on the experience of a user tracking their period. Onboarding
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