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Startups Offer New Pregnancy Tests With Privacy and Calm in Mind; Pinterest Adds Influencer Guidelines
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Welcome back. Startups are trying to elbow into the market for home pregnancy tests with the promise of a better consumer experience. Pinterest is asking its influencers to help maintain its image as a safer space in social media. And remote proctoring companies are tweaking their software features, partly to reduce test-takers’ anxiety.
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Modernizing Pregnancy Tests
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Lia Diagnostics’ pregnancy test, center, is made of biodegradable material so it can be flushed down a toilet, the company said. PHOTO: LIA
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Pregnancy tests have evolved since they first hit aisles in the 1970s, but the anxieties around them—such as bumping into someone you know while buying one—have not. A new wave of female-founded companies are looking to improve the process of purchasing, taking and disposing of the kits that detect pregnancy hormones at home, Katie Deighton writes for the Experience Report.
Lia Diagnostics, which says its product is the first flushable pregnancy test, aims to give women checking for pregnancy more privacy. Lia’s test is made from biodegradable paper-based material that the company says can go in the toilet, and can be ordered to arrive in an “ultra-discreet” box that comes without text or pictures.
And Stix aims to better support women emotionally when they order and take one of the company’s pregnancy tests. Next month, Stix will introduce a digital guide including animated instructions as well as activities designed to soothe test-takers, such as a meditation exercise and a sudoku puzzle, said Cynthia Plotch, the company’s co-founder.
“There’s so many other experiences and feelings involved, other than the actual peeing on a stick,” she said.
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Pinterest Encourages Positivity
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Pinterest will start rolling out its Creator Code in the coming weeks. PHOTO: PINTEREST
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Pinterest plans to introduce a set of guidelines that influencers must adhere to when they post on the platform, as it attempts to preserve its reputation for a more positive user experience than much other social media, Ann-Marie Alcántara writes.
The so-called Creator Code will prompt anyone using Pinterest’s Story Pins, which let users share multiple video clips and images in a single post, to share content that is kind, sticks to factual information and practices inclusion, among other commitments.
Social-media companies have been investing in tools to encourage output from influencers, but they also have an interest in making sure their most prominent content creators don’t spread unwanted material.
Pinterest has attributed some of its growth in the past year to last summer’s advertiser boycott of Facebook over how it handles hate speech and other unwelcome content on its platforms.
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The UX Test for Online Exams
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Companies that offer software designed to fight cheating on remote tests have seen their business boom during the pandemic. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
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Last year’s unexpected shift towards remote learning was a windfall for companies that provide online proctoring software, which tries to fight cheating by getting a human or machine to remotely watch for suspicious behavior in test takers’ faces, rooms and audio levels.
But the boom also thrust the pitfalls of the practice into the spotlight. Providers are now updating their user experiences, partly to address some of the critiques around efficacy and invasiveness, Katie Deighton reports.
Changes run from investing in systems that can continue to work if a user’s internet connection falters, to hiring a consulting firm to help identify racial bias in the artificial intelligence that monitors test takers’ faces.
ProctorU, a company that virtually links test takers with human proctors, said it is making user interface adjustments to help calm test takers’ nerves. Harsh warning symbols and red lettering that it previously displayed when users’ connections wavered have been replaced by a more friendly, conversational tone.
But some critics are not mollified. For D’Arcy Norman, manager of learning technologies at the University of Calgary’s Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, the concept of remote proctoring automatically frames students as assumed cheaters—an issue that “can’t be resolved through interface tweaks or streamlined installation processes,” he said.
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“Tipping leaves you so incredibly vulnerable. And after this past year, how can we ask our employees to feel that vulnerable again?”
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— Amanda Cohen, who runs the New York restaurant Dirt Candy. While some restaurateurs have backtracked on efforts to eliminate tipping, Ms. Cohen said she is more committed to a no-tipping model of hospitality than before.
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Domino’s is testing delivery by autonomous vehicle in Houston. [CNBC]
But Chick-fil-A’s delivery robot that can also wink. [Restaurant Business]
A new design means drones could soon lose their annoying buzz. [NewScientist]
Impossible Foods named a former Apple creative executive to be its chief experience officer. [MarketWatch]
Spotify is distributing its experimental, dashboard-mounted, voice-controlled “Car Thing” in limited release. [The Verge]
Golf courses are pushing a shorter game to younger players… [WSJ]
… While cricket chiefs aim to overhaul the sport's terminology after research revealed its language was an impediment to new fans. [Telegraph]
The U.K.’s National Rail turned its website gray in tribute to Prince Philip—inadvertently making it harder for visually impaired people to buy tickets. [Evening Standard]
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