I went looking for a combination lock at the local grocery store, like the ones we all had to buy in middle school for our lockers. I found this lock sitting right by the typical three-number combination lock.

Here's how it works: you put your thumb on the round lump in the center, and you can slide it one of four directions: up, down, left, and right. (Easy.) In order to open it, you slide it in four directions and then pull. If you get the right combination of directions, it opens.

This is one of the greatest soft innovations I've seen in a long time. It's a new solution for old technology. And it's great for three reasons:

1. You don't have to remember a bunch of numbers. I don't know about you, but I've got enough numbers I have to juggle in my brain. I don't need any more for anything as insignificant as some combination lock.

2. You can be imprecise. Typical number-wheel combination locks are very unforgiving. If you go past the third number as you're spinning the wheel, you have to start all over again.

3. You can do it with one hand. As far as accessibility goes, I haven't tested it with a group of people with arthritis, but my guess is that this lock, with it's huge button on the front, is easier on the hand than having to grab that little wheel and spin it.

It cost about twice as much as a regular combination lock, but I think ease of use is well worth it. If you need a lock, buy this one...we need to incentivize companies to engineer things that are usable by non-engineers.