15 karma · joined October 8, 2018
I was part of a group working on getting patents. That is right - we weren't necessarily trying to solve anything but literally just brainstorming possible things we could realistically patent. The rest of the process then devolved into, "how this will look and sound to the committee or the board" rather than being about the functionality. I couldn't stand it and politely excused myself from the group.
The whole experience left a very bad taste with me about the patent system in general.
I can't think of how the process should be improved because I can see how a stricter vetting can stifle _real_ creativity but the current process is not good.
1. Low-effort setup for something that will be sparingly used 2. One design for libraries (at least across United States, Canada) - build once, sell forever 3. Skip-the-line loans & nudges as examples of leveraging technology to vastly improve UX.
Someone pointed out the redesign and I think that actually has improved - you can also optionally turn on labels for those buttons on the bottom making it even less confusing. It admittedly was pretty confusing pre-redesign.
I definitely echo all the bad feedback about the website - it does not give a good impression at all and makes me re-think about all of your other claims as well.