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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

With a table model in place we can introduce direct manipulation interfaces to work with structured data. In the demo below, we create a new computed column and further aggregate it into a summary row below using just drag-and-drop. prabros.com/bean/design#...

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

We wanted the primitives we introduce to impose minimal constraints on users as they lay out their data in whatever spatial organization they see fit. The model captures a good chunk of the tables we analysed. Here is a sampling of the variety of structures we tackled:

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

To obtain the structured data, the user first needs to demarcate the table by marking the labels. Read more about the model here: prabros.com/bean/design#...

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The table model Bean uses enables representing complex tables easy and natural to work with. You can use a query language that can zero-in on any of the intersections of areas marked by the labels and run aggregates, filters and other functions over it.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Reminds me of the throw-away interaction from Inventing on Principle! Feels natural but might not be discoverable unless the trash is explicitly visualized like in yours? vimeo.com/906418692?fl...

vimeo.com

Inventing on Principle

Presented at the CUSEC conference on January 20, 2012. (https://2012.cusec.net) Bio: Bret Victor invents tools that enable people to understand and create. He has designed experimental Ul concepts at...

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Bringing tables in as primitives opens up relational operations to be part of spreadsheets. Here is an example of how joins could work. As the user hover over different join operations, the results are previewed live for immediate feedback. Read more: prabros.com/bean/design#...

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Built-in documentation is mostly in quasi-developer-speak and is tedious to parse. Also the popularity of function explanation videos online suggests it isn't serving its purpose well. Read more: prabros.com/bean/design#... Here is the equivalent documentation for comparison ↓

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

🪄 Spreadsheet functions can often times be hard for a user to figure out naturally. Here, we devised a friendlier, step-by-step guide right next to the cursor to ease the process. It nicely augments spreadsheets' direct manipulation interface with live context-sensitive feedback.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

The noun-verb construction in the first video naturally maps to how most users intuitively think about approaching this task and reduces the surface area for errors by eliminating the mode.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Again, in the verb-noun construction, the user has to shift the focus from the data to go into a 'formula mode', typing an '=', then type in the function to come back to select the cells that were in the locus of their attention before they did all these actions.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Extending the idea further, the same drag-and-drop interaction is used to reference multiple cells. Upon dropping the cells, the user is offered a list of commonly used functions based on the data types the cells hold. Read more here: prabros.com/bean/design#referencing-multiple-cells

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

The noun-verb construction gets rid of the 'reference mode' and there is no shifting attention from the data to the target cell and then returning to the data that needs to be linked. This makes the interaction intuitive for a user and reduce 'mode errors', as Raskin argues in The Humane Interface.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

In contrast, in a verb-noun construction, which is the default in spreadsheet apps today, the user chooses the action [verb] first, that is, referencing the cell by typing an '=' symbol which creates a 'reference mode' and then selects the cell [noun] that needs to be referenced.

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Starting off, we considered the interaction of referencing a cell. The user selects a cell [noun] and then drags it to the target cell to create a reference [verb]. To use Jef Raskin's terms, this is a noun-verb construction. Read more at: prabros.com/bean/design

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

🧵 Kicking off a thread documenting the design prototypes we conceptualized for Bean. You can read the whole thing in detail as we roll the work out here: prabros.com/bean/design It was fun exploring spreadsheet design with @prabhanshu.bsky.social and @neena.bsky.social for @nilenso.com

prabros.com

Bean

Bean - Prabros. x Nilenso

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Reposted by Pranav Pramod

spencer chang @spencer.place · 14/11/2025

the phone pillow is out! internetsculptures.com shop will be open for the next 10 days

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Pranav Pramod @pranavpramod.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

📌 Space Pins – Imagining interface elements as receptacles for user annotations and events. Users can attach reminders, notes, or third-party events to specific elements anywhere in the OS that are capable of accepting them. Read the full post over at: prabros.com/adjacent-pos...

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