Learning from Lexus

The evolution of UX is not limited to digital applications. When I was a kid my grandparents had to reach across the seat of that mammoth Chrysler station wagon to unlock the passenger doors. Years later pretty much every vehicle came with electric locks, a bit of automotive UI improvement that eliminated seat-reach once and for all. Fast-forward to now and your doors magically unlock as you approach the vehicle, and then lock again when you shift into gear (which is exactly when you need them to be locked.)

Examining that incremental transition over time is a great lesson in assistive technology: you can always interact the "old-fashioned" way manually, or you can choose to let the machine handle some of the tedious details for you.

Recently we put an analogous idea by lhaffinatu into practice by duplicating some gear- and mount-swapping controls onto the premium Tradeskills window, which is the primary place where gear and mount swapping is likely to be needed. If you've gone to the trouble of carefully building a tradeskill spec, you can slip in and out of it here conveniently.

And so like auto-locking car doors, the natural evolution of the feature has reached its logical apex. Check a new checkbox in settings, and you'll automatically swap to your Tradeskill spec by simply opening the Tradeskills window. When you're done crafting and are ready to go adventuring again, close the Tradeskills window and your adventuring set is re-equipped automatically (which is exactly when you want it to be re-equipped.) All hands-free. If you're a big tradeskiller, you'll wonder how you got along without it all this time.

I already know what you're going to ask, and the answer is yes: Automatic gear-swapping by brainwave induction is on the premium feature list for DarqUI v4.