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From Like Buttons to Message Bubbles: The UX Designs You Can’t Use
Designing a new user interface in 2019 is harder than you think
You’re in the business of selling pizza. Everyone loves pizza. It’s fast and easy. The demand is high. It’s the classic American staple. But you’ve got a ton of competitors, marketing is tougher than you thought, rent is getting higher, the app designs are stale, every week is a 52-week low, and it’s getting harder to differentiate—you know, the typical stuff. So, you think to yourself, “I need to do something nobody has ever done before. Something new, something progressive.” You start brainstorming ideas and come up with a brilliant one that sounds something like, “So then you could view the pizza details and swipe right if you like it and swipe left if you don’t. Kind of like Tinder, but for pizza!”
Yeah, no. You cannot design something like that, because Tinder has a patent on the interaction of swiping right to like and left to dislike. “Okay, okay, fine,” you say to yourself. “That is the hallmark of its entire app, so then just get rid of the swipe feature, and we’ll make a minimum viable product (MVP) solution of just having a ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ button at the bottom.” Tough luck, kid. Tinder has a patent on that, too.
