A while ago, I was travelling with a few friends and needed to measure something. I didn’t have a physical ruler with me, so I did what most of us would probably do I searched for an online ruler.
The first two websites I opened were… not great.
The tool itself worked, but the overall experience was frustrating. The interface felt outdated, the controls weren't very clear, and getting the measurement I wanted wasn't as simple as I expected.
I eventually found myself thinking:
Why is something this simple so difficult to use?
What made it even more interesting was what I discovered later.
One of those websites was reportedly getting more than 100,000 visitors every month.
That got me thinking.
If a website with an experience that I personally found frustrating can attract that many people, there must be a real demand for this kind of tool.
And if people are already looking for an online ruler, why not try to make one that is actually pleasant to use?
So I started building one.
That became OnScreenRuler.
The goal wasn't to create a complicated measuring application. I wanted to keep it simple: open the website, choose what you want to measure, calibrate when necessary, and start measuring.
I also wanted it to work across different devices and support the measurements people are likely to need - inches, centimeters, millimeters and pixels.
There were more UX decisions involved than I expected.
Things like where the ruler should sit on the screen, how calibration should work, how much information to show, and how to make the tool useful without making the interface feel overwhelming.
After spending so much time working on it, though, I know I've reached the point where I probably can't see everything that's wrong with it anymore.
So I'd like some fresh eyes.
I'd especially love feedback on the actual experience:
- Is it immediately clear what the tool does?
- Does anything feel confusing?
- Is there anything you'd remove?
- Is there something you expected to find but couldn't?
- Does the interface feel simple enough?
- If you were using this yourself, what would you change?
And don't feel the need to be polite. 😄
I'm much more interested in hearing what doesn't work than getting compliments.
This started because I needed a simple ruler while travelling.
Now I'm curious to see whether I managed to build a better experience than the ones I found that day.
What would you change?
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