

Solve 50 problems in 50 days - bhaveshdhupar
http://50problems50days.com/

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Petersmart
My name is Peter Smart. I am the creator of this project.

Thanks for all your constructive thoughts and comments so far. I am 23 and
this was a university project that has generated a lot of interest. Apologies
it's so slow right now - apparently that the HN effect.

Thanks for your thoughts on the site design. The site has won Site of the Day
at Design Taxi and Awwwards. This was really unexpected as I agree there is
still more to be done in terms of making the site as intuitive as possible.

However, the most important thing isn't the site design. It's the premise.
What can design do - if anything?

I took a risk and set out into the unknown to answer that question. Some days
I failed, some days I succeeded. The most important thing is that I dared to
try (and when I failed - got up and tried again). It was an incredible
experience so I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Pete

~~~
raheemm
Consider adding some of what you just said to your site's 'about' page? It
provides really good context. It also will make the audience more forgiving :)

The basic premise of your site - 50 problems in 50 days, is interesting. But
the navigation is not suitable. When I first load the site on my screen (1366
x 768) it shows the map with problems 29 and 30 centered. The first 20 or so
problems are completely cut off. So it starts off confusing.

Make the grid view the default instead of the map view. Its more user-
friendly.

The Narrative button is mislabeled. Call it quotes?

Your site's heading is "Solve 50 problems in 50 days". Reading that I expected
to find 50 problems and 50 solutions. As I explored, it became clear that you
offer some solutions, but in other cases you share insights about problems
(using sweater to hold hot bowls). Which is fine. Its valid to examine the way
we look at problems and solutions. But its not the same as you designing a
bowl that can be held with bare hands when hot. So maybe get rid of the
"solve" part?

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raheemm
From his site: _Design is at it's best when its simple - when people
understand it intuitively. Design that tells great stories cuts through the
clutter and finds a special place in the hearts and minds of those who
listen._

I found the site to be unintuitive, cluttered and lacked the full narrative.
He should redesign because he seems talented and I'm still curious about the
50 problems.

~~~
zainny
It's also completely unusable on mobile. I tried to visit it from my Android
ICS device while having the morning coffee and gave up _very_ quickly.

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agentultra
Is this a joke or something?

Day 20: _This padlock was too small for my locker. I'll wrap a metal cable
around it and lock the cable._

Day 24: _Wet socks. I stuck a towel under the door. It failed._

Is this really representative of what "designers" do? Just looks like jury-
rigging to me. Slap some duct-tape on it and get on with your life.

~~~
jamessb
Some of the problems that aren't completely trivial are very hard. These
aren't "solved" - instead, there are just very preliminary sketches of
potential solutions, which other people have already progressed far further
with. For example:

\- Day 1: Communicating with someone by voice is hard if you lack a shared
languages. The proposed solution is "Integrating voice translation into
Skype". This isn't a solution so much as it is a problem, with Voice
Recognition and Machine Translation as sub-problems. But it is already done
reasonably well by the Google Translate iOS app.

\- Day 45: People forget PINs. There's been a lot of work on
graphical/gestural passwords (see <http://www.acsac.org/2005/papers/89.pdf>),
on the memorability and security of passwords in general
(<https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-500.pdf>) and customer
chosen PINs in particular ([https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jcb82/doc/BPA12-FC-
banking_pin_sec...](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jcb82/doc/BPA12-FC-
banking_pin_security.pdf)), and on a physical device to replace all
passwords/PINs (<https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fms27/papers/2011-Stajano-
pico.pdf>).

Others seem slightly odd:

\- Day 39: Personalize post-card by covering up a large portion of the image
with a scratch off map. Since the front of a post-card is exposed in transit,
wouldn't more be scratched off? And is the recipient is expected to be able to
interpret a small section of map for an area they may have never visited
themselves? An alternative solution is to mount an integrated camera and
printer at a scenic location, so users can easily print a postcard that
includes them (Post-Me:
<http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2010/design_show/>)

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robfitz
Folks are apparently down on this. Why in the world? It's awesome!

How cool to spend 50 days digging into people's problems, travelling, and
putting it all out there. I'd bet anything that his 50 days of travel have led
to more advancement, opportunity and insight than almost any other use of 50
days.

Be happy and supportive for someone who is breaking convention and being
prolific!

~~~
cheatercheater
A puppet account on HN? Can't be, can it?

~~~
masterzora
Not everybody with whom you disagree is a puppet.

~~~
cheatercheater
You don't have to be a separate person to be someone's puppet.

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nadam
"I'm on an adventure - to explore the limits of design's ability to solve
social problems, big and small."

Cool. On the other hand I am on an adventure to explore the limits of my
brain's ability to solve problems, mostly small. Even solving _one_ medium-
sized problem very well would set me financially for my whole life. I am
working on this not for 50 days but my whole life... :)

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dansingerman
I know that this is a bit snarky, but I can't help feeling, "Solve 50 problems
in 50 days with design" is not a million miles away from "Solve 50 problems in
50 days with great hair"

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yitchelle
This is an interesting take. Applying the simple ideals of Kaizen[1] to our
daily lives.

[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen>

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akg
Problem and Solution number 42 is a genius way to help the less fortunate. I
do hope that the more metropolitan cities adopt that in their transit systems.

~~~
darkmethod
I was blown away at the simplicity and effectiveness of that solution in
particular. It needs to be made known and implemented on a larger scale.

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Tarks
This is awesome, sure most of the solutions have extra hurdles to overcome but
that's not the point, it reminds me to keep my eyes open and remember things
that I accept as unchanging might not be as rigid as I assume.

Very inspiring.

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room271
Wow - people on HN are unforgiving. The site design is great. Yes, it is dog
slow at the moment, but otherwise it is fun and beautifully made with some
nice mapping etc.

People seem to be criticising it on UI terms (it's confusing/hard to use) but
I think it works because the site isn't trying to market a product (like most
HN sites) but tell a story, so it is not unreasonable to expect/encourage the
user to explore.

Basically, I think it is more interesting even if it is harder to use.

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moconnor
I liked some of the problems, but really I'm much more interested in the guy's
experience. There doesn't seem to be a story, a real narrative I can follow
here :-(

~~~
Petersmart
If you ever want to find out more (and some of the crazy things that
happened), just drop me a line. Always happy to chat

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welcomebrand
I love this site, it's pretty slow under load but some of the solutions are
great in their simplicity.

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millerfung
I am sure with some configuration the site will look gorgeous! Looks good on
my iPad currently.

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mhewett
Have a couple of kids and you can learn to solve 150 problems in 50 days.

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arvindsinghy
The design looks beautiful, but it is really difficult to navigate.

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blyuher
Solution for the problem #47 perfectly suits Google glasses.

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xlance
Overengineering 50 solutions in 50 days.

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NanoWar
Wow, that looks gorgeous!

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alx
interesting map dataviz

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earwolf
crashes chrome

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sparknlaunch
Don't totally get it but good luck. Site looks good.

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dsolomon
Problem # 51: His site design

