Design, Usability, UI, IA, UX, SEM

Not following conventions

2007-01-03T04:20:00.000-08:00

Here is an e-card from planet pulse that could easily tick off users. The flash new year greeting has a loading bar that looks like a conventional progress bar but only thing it goes right to the end and then jumps back to start all over again.

I shut down the browser thinking it was faulty scripting done in flash and I'm sure many users would do the same because it very much breaks the convention we are used to on the web. Think about all the hard work that would be such a waste, just because you chose the wrong load bar animation.

See the card here to see how intuitively it drives people away http://www.planet-pulse.com/php/flash/ecard.html

World Usability Day

2006-11-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Today is World Usability day. To check whats happening in your town, check the google maps mashup at http://worldusabilityday.org

HAPPY WORLD USABILITY DAY! :)

What people think Web 2.0 is all about

2006-11-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

This is an alarming insight on what people on the street actually think about a technology that would very much be a highlight of the web in the coming years.

"Web 2.0? Web 2.0? I have heard that before. I think I have heard that somewhere. I think it costs money. I am not interested if it costs." -Tracy Tame, a 59-year-old building inspector from Shoreline.
"As far as I understand, it is for hospitals and universities. It is not for the public use." -Chris Cox, a 35-year-old information technology consultant from Magnolia.

"An idealized version of the Web." -Nancy Morgan, a 56-year-old communications specialist from Vashon Island.

"I've heard the name kicked around, I just don't know what it means."-Steve Norman, a 35-year-old bike messenger from Queen Anne.

"The next generation of Web technologies, whatever that means. I think it is more interactive." -Steve Hitchcock, a 25-year-old business development manager from Queen Anne.

"I have no idea. A new generation of the Web?"-Diana Lynn, a 40-year-old public health researcher from Bothell.

Extracted from http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/108240.asp

Unique design idea

2006-11-09T04:01:00.000-08:00

I was recently at Mid-Valley to meet a client and came across an uniquely designed wash area. If you notice the picture there are no individual bowls under the taps. Water flows down onto a granite slab tilted at around 45 degrees downwards to stop it from flowing onto the unwanted side. How well does it work? Well, not that bad, but I did have a few specks of water on my light blue shirt after I washed up. Maybe not the best working model, but a great idea making use of good ol' gravity!

The Lerun Ultimax

2006-11-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

I bought myself a Lerun mountain-bike last week :) Just decided it's time to get my legs a lil exercise and my body could do with some sweating. It's got 18 speed Shimano gears with adjustable rear suspension. See the adjoining picture to ogle this beauty (mine is fire red and black though). Some bikes in the Lerun shop cost close to US$1300. This one came around US$120. Currently I am using this to take a quick spin around the neighborhood and also to run a quick errand for my wife :)

More details here http://www.lerun.com.my/product-mtb26a-6.html

Google Co-op

2006-11-01T04:54:00.001-08:00

Google Co-op lets you customize your own search engine which will crawl websites which are based on a single theme. If you are looking for information on eg. politics or astronomy or weather, you can build a search engine that crawls only relevant websites related to these topics. A great way to reduce clutter during searching and get more accurate results.

I experimented with a technology/internet/gadgets-gizmos/web 2.0 search engine called 'DotpiLe' ;), crawling 72 most relevant websites on these topics.

I have deliberately omitted del.icio.us because it lists a lot of bookmarks in the results, leading to duplication. It's an open end search engine though, and anybody can contribute.

You can try it out firsthand here http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=006978851294483185095%3Aphrttmmskjk

More on google co-op here http://www.google.com/coop

Neat Fonts - Neat Interface, free to download

2006-10-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is a really neat free font website.

http://neatfonts.com

What I really like about this website is the way its arranged, preventing page reloads. From first looks, it looks like a judicious mix of good old HTML(frames) and Ajax in action(note the browse categories option). The font face display using good ol' "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." is an added bonus to take a sneak preview before downloading your favorite font. What's so special about this sentence? It covers all the alphabets in the English language.

Why DELL is so American

2006-10-29T19:53:00.000-08:00

This is a screen shot I snapped of the Dell Malaysia website. Note the verbiage on top of the dropdown list for Desktops. I am sure they could have made that sound a lil better :)

FireFox 2 released

2006-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

After providing sneak previews in the form of builds RC2 and RC3, finally FireFox 2 is released. Some of the features I'm personally liking is the built in Spell Checker, Session Restore and Live Bookmarks. It's the right time for non-FireFox users to make the switch, for starts you will find it any day faster than IE7 ;)

Download FireFox here
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

More on FireFox features here
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features.html

Yahoo Time Capsule

2006-10-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

One of my photographs got included in the Yahoo Timecapsule :)

http://timecapsule.yahoo.com/capsule.php?i=25785&t=love&l=en

Yahoo Timecapsule is an online digital anthropology project running for 30 days. From October 10 until November 8, Yahoo! users worldwide can contribute photos, writings, videos, audio – even drawings – to this electronic anthropology project. You’ll have your handiwork presented to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, projected and freezed forever as a snapshot of how the web looked in 2006.

Don't miss your chance to be a part of Internet History. More on the Yahoo Timecapsule project here
http://timecapsule.yahoo.com/capsul...785&t=love&l=en

Artic Monkeys - A case study in Buzz Marketing

2006-10-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

A nice article on how a lil known band from Sheffield promoted their music and won themselves a record deal with London Indie label Domino Records. Artic Monkeys gained instant notoreity by placing 10-20 of their tracks for popularity on social networking website myspace.com. Powered by user generated hype copies of their music were downloaded frantically, so much so that when they realesed their single 'I bet you look good on the dance floor' it debuted #1 on the British charts.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/28/content_498444.htm

Google Logos

2006-09-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

If you ask me what's so special about the logo you see here? It's significant for me as I got married the day the 2006 football world cup started in Germany :)

Apart from that, its one of those nice lil things that you see on the google homepage from time to time, whenever something special comes up. It's amazing to see how much detail they can gather in such a small area.

More Google Holiday logos since 1999 here http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

Top 10 Web 2.0 Losers/ Winners

2006-09-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Paul Scrivens article is a must read if you want to know where the future of the web is headed for the next x years.

http://wisdump.com/web/top-10-web-20-losers
http://wisdump.com/web/top-10-web-20-winners

Best ever freeware utilities

2006-09-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

All that you would ever need in one lifetime!
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

Moo - Free 10 minicards for Flickr Pro users

2006-09-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard that right. Online printing service Moo is giving away 10 mini business cards adorned with your choicest photography absolutely free. These thick glossy cards are long and narrow, about half the size of regular cards. I just ordered mine sometime back.

It's up for grabs for the first 10,000 Flickr Pro users, so don't miss the boat.
http://www.moo.com

Notemesh - Collaborate to Graduate

2006-09-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

A wiki like effort to make students sample each others notes and collaborate to keep the knowledge assimilated within classrooms accessible to all students. There has to be a time when everything that's on the net will be Web 2.0. I only happen to see more and more of it everyday!

http://www.notemesh.com

Flickr Pro

2006-09-23T03:22:00.000-07:00

I just upgraded to a flickr Pro account as I've been uploading too many photos lately I guess. It costs a lil more than $2 a month. $24.95 a year. Not bad considering you have a central repository of all your photography online, just incase your hard drive crashes.

Best things, you finally get a flickr URL of your choice, instead of the system generated mixture of '@, digits and alphas'.

Do check out some of my recent photography. You should find a lot of green there, some edible ones too :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1pixelworth
http://www.flickr.com/people/1pixelworth

Shopper Psychology

2006-09-22T05:27:00.000-07:00

Look closely at the image. A single pack of a famous brand of milk retails at RM2.69. The 'Twin Pack Special' retails at RM5.89. Most shoppers would assume that the twin pack would cost less, considering the manufacturer is inducing the customer to buy more by offering a small rebate. Do your math and you will be surprised!

I took this shot during my last trip to the hypermarket. Another strategy adopted by one of the hypermarkets here is; all their product's are priced at a x.49 or x.99. The classic 'price illusion' trick. People still fall for it. It adds a good RM10-20 to your final total. Guess who is laughing all the way to the bank...

Global Fire Power

2006-09-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

The who's who on the battleground.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/index.asp

You can also do a comparison here
http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries_comparison.asp

Blufr

2006-09-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

Nice interactive way to increase your trivia bank. The tag line of this website reads "Bruising your ego one bluff at a time."

Go ahead trivia freaks, indulge! http://www.blufr.com

66 Optical Illusions

2006-09-10T06:42:00.000-07:00

This should keep you occupied for the next hour or so...
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot

Using Gmail to have unlimited gmail ID's

2006-09-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

More here
http://21st.blogspot.com/2006/09/use-gmail-generate-unlimited-e-mail.html

Toshiba Satellite M100 with Intel Core Duo

2006-09-06T04:49:00.001-07:00

I am using this neat looking laptop right now, thanks to my employers. Earlier I was using my wife's Acer Aspire 3000. Things I like about this beauty; pretty sturdy for its size, doesn't heat up too much/too fast, long battery life - 2 and a half hrs+, fast loading time even though I have close to a dozen items on startup, the harmom-kardon surrond sound speakers, built in wireless lan capability, firewire port, bluetooth enabled, peacock blue top ;)

Things I dislike; the extra sensitive touchpad and the somewhat glossy screen! More reasons to love it; the extreme geek value that a TOSHIBA commands :)

More here
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,39098023p,00.htm

Google Image Labeler

2006-09-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Google's latest project to tag images interactively to fine tune search results for it's image search. Call this an experiment in distributed computing or folksonomy, it surely is very innovative and interesting. Click the link to know more about it.

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler

How comprehensive is google maps?

2006-09-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

I tried tracking a visitor on my blog from Spain and what I found was scary. See adjoining screeshots. The 1st screenshot is your unzoomed version, and the 2nd one is zoomed 15 times to your friendly neighborhood... block/street name/home?

2006-08-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

KLM - why they prefer calling it so.
What does KLM stand for? Look what I found at the bottom of an email I received.

"Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (also known as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines) is registered in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, with registered number 33014286 ".

Quintessentially Dutch I would say...

2006-08-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

Are you colorblind?
Take the Shinobu Ishihara test for color blindness.

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html

2006-08-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

A4 papercutter
Some phenomenol work with your regular size A4 paper by danish artist Peter Callesen. I personally like the framed A4 paper cuts. There is one which is titled 'Holding onto myself'

http://www.oncotton.co.uk/peter/index/index2.html

2006-08-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Essentials for any computer
With the escalating threat of viruses, adware, spyware, malware , trojans and other malicious code looming large, its always better to follow the old adage 'prevention is better than cure'. Here are a few free tools that you can download and install to secure your pc.

Spybot Search & Destroy
Weeds out spyware, malware, the works. The mother of all spyware busters.
http://www.spybot.com/

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal
Watches/Cleans registry, spyware and tracks/quarantines malicious code.
http://www.lavasoft.com/software/adaware/

Kaspersky/AVG Antivirus
Your regular antivirus gaurd. Better than McAffee or Nortons for a simple reason that virus writers test their virus on both these before they release it.
http://www.kaspersky.com/trials?chapter=186685140
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Zonealarm Free
Personal firewall your mom would recommend.
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 is free for a month after which you need to register/buy. AVG is free. Kaspersky labs also has a free antivirus program to protect your smart phones. You can download that at http://www.kaspersky.com/trials?chapter=171229147

All these tools properly configured and used should keep your pc healthy. More still, it doesnt cost you anything!

2006-07-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

Sayangi Kuala Lumpur
I just moved into KL with my wife on the 19th of July and we are still settling in. My company was kind enough to allow me a transfer, so I still continue working with pinstorm. The weather in KL has been overcast the last few days and it has rained quite a bit, except for today which saw a lil sun earlier during the day. Another significant change is I would be doing business development and moving out from a creative profile. Having hung up my creative boots would no way mean I would stop watching UI and Usability Design issues closely. One more reason not to rename this blog you might say!

Just settling in a bit, with lots of new things keeping me occupied. Should be more active on my blog a month from now...

2006-06-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

Not a bachelor anymore!

I have been missin from these pages for a while now. Just had a few important formalities to finish in life. On 9th June 2006 I got married to my girlfriend for two years, Jas. The marraige was a registered one in Kuala Lumpur.

Well, married life has been good. It's nice to have your best friend double up as your wife. It's nice to have someone who is just like you in so many ways than one :)

2006-04-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Veni, Vidi, Vici
Two weeks back, our company threw up a one-day-challenge and there was an iPod Nano 2GB up for grabs. One of our most valued clients were being offered a better solution at a really attractive rate by our competition. The challenge that was thrown to all 7 delivery teams was to devise a strategy to win back the client.

As the sleek looking iPod in the picture suggests, my team won the challenge. The interesting part was that two of us from our team who were part of this exercise were from Creative and one from Brand Operations. There has always been this thing about Creative people not being great strategists. Well, I guess this must have stopped some tongues from wagging. Since then my team has become famous for churning out interprising and innovative ideas at the speed of light. Suddenly everyone is banking on our input and that killer strategy. Well, it sure does feel nice to know that your ideas are valued like that. When looking back, what makes this iPod very dear to me is that the client in question was 'Sharekhan' and the competition was from none other than Google...

2006-04-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

Zen and the art of form design
Just the other day I was working on a design for CNBC-TV18's Career page. The company was wishing to hire new recruits in their creative department, driving traffic through SEM. I kept the job application form very simple asking just: Name, Telephone, Email, Location and Upload Resume.

We later decided to use a viral element: 'refer a friend', and my copywriter was of the opinion to have the visitor enter a friend(s) email somewhere in the main form interface, so we can probably save a click-submit on the interface design, incase the candidate decides he wants his friends to apply for the same job opening too. I can understand where Mr.Copywriter comes from.

For me including a 'refer a friend' as an input element on the main form interface could effect conversion and also minimise the impact of a viral(getting leads without really incurring a cost,as in this case). Understanding that every human being is innately selfish by nature and at the same time possesses inborn organizational skills and is purely more or less task driven. There comes a point where you need to do a trade off between usability and user-experience. In this case, an extra click verus the joy and satisfaction of filling a small form just for yourself :)

If I had to get into the head of a visitor. This guy is quickly looking to punch in his details, upload his resume and submit. He wouldn't like his thought process to be disturbed and see the focus shift away from him. Including the 'refer a friend' in the main form interface would do exactly this and would depreive him of the 100% satisfaction of filling up the form. Even the most disorganized humans work in a very task oriented organized way, wanting to focus on a single task if given a choice. Needless to say, the 'refer a friend' viral element would give you better results on the subsequent thank you page after you finished submitting your resume. No prizes for guessing why.

2006-03-31T23:56:00.000-08:00

SPAM
I often keep an eye for offbeat spam headlines when getting rid of my junk mail folder in yahoo. Its interesting to see how SPAM is getting more and more intriguing to click on. A screenshot below of something that caught my eye and and got my click.

2006-03-25T23:14:00.000-08:00

Me
I have nothing to post today, except myself.

2006-03-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

globalTime App
Found a neat lil java application for smartphones which shows the time around the world. It's nice to have something as useful as this at your fingertips before you decide to sms/call someone half the way round the globle.

http://www.zedge.net/?side=java_applications&getlogo=2

The application has a small bug though. On initial load, it asks the user to choose the home city and time. Strangely, it offsets whatever time you enter to -5 hrs. Im sure you will find out a way to get over that. Also, you need to register at zedge.net to download the app. Some cool free themes are available too. I'm currently running this Windows XP theme on my Nokia 3230.

2006-03-17T02:06:00.000-08:00

Flickr
Today I spent almost the whole day sorting out pictures from my photo collection to finally filter it down to 128 pictures which I can now decide to call respectable photography :) I have been snapshot photographing on and off with my Canon A75 since November 2004, but never really got a chance to organize my collection. Today, had to be the day!

I have uploaded, tagged and captioned these pictures for public viewing. Wouldn't you want to be the first to see the work of the master photographer? Oh yes, please do feel free to leave behind a comment. Hoping you will survive my photoblog. Good luck!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71596713@N00

2006-03-04T03:20:00.000-08:00

Inukshuk Content
The term "inukshuk" describes content found on websites that describes actual user experiences with regards to a product/service/experience that has already been assimilated.

The term 'inukshuk' is derived from the name given to stone figures created by Inuit hunters as guide markers. The hunters arranged the piles of stones in the likeness of human beings, signifying to other hunters that someone already has passed through and experienced their same journey. An inukshuk provided reassurance and empathy to others and alleviated an Inuit's fear that they were off the track.

Interesting article on how inukshuk content is helping websites convert better.
http://www.uie.com/articles/inukshuk_content

2006-03-04T01:26:00.000-08:00

superBrowser
Someone installed the top 100 plugins available for Firefox and did some kinda stability/performance test. Keen to see how a fully loaded Firefox looks? Follow the link

http://splasho.com/blog/2006/02/26/the-superbrowser

2006-02-26T22:52:00.000-08:00

More on Steve Krug
The usability guy has a website of his own which obviously dispels more info about what he does best 'Usability Analysis'. Apart from samples chapters from his book and several audio and video interviews and talks, what you cannot miss is his seriously on the face sensa humor.

Just below the section which says 'This month's tip..' is a line in brackets which read (and Last Month's Tip, since June 1997)

More on his humor(ahem usability stuff) here
http://www.sensible.com

2006-02-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

Steve Krug
The guy who wrote 'Don't make me think'. Marketing Sherpa's Publisher Anne Holland and Internet Director Scott McDaniel grill him for an hour on what works (and what doesn't.) on design, UI and generally the web.

I just read chapter 2 of his book online on amazon and found it pretty compelling.

Here is the link to the Marketing Sherpa interview as .mp3
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/tele/SteveKrugInterview.mp3

2006-02-05T04:54:00.000-08:00

Kerala
It has been a while since I posted here. Had to make an urgent trip to Kerala due to a sudden death in my family. It just struck me why they call Kerala 'God's own country'. This land is really blessed. So soothing just to see all the greenery around and breating in all the fresh air. Finally some oxygen for your lungs. The more I think about it, the more I hate Mumbai.

I would love to settle down in kerala someday and build a nice bunglow and open a cafe or something. Everything about kerala is so good. The people, the places, the scenic beauty, the fresh air, the sunshine, the sunset, the beaches, the narrow roads, the houses with their neat looking courtyards... damn I'm gettin too melodramatic. Its just the kinda hangover you wish you never got over with.

2006-01-27T03:49:00.000-08:00

Mobile Blogging
Im posting this from my mobile device. What is left, is what is right.

2006-01-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

TagClouds
You may have come across a block of random text and phrases of varied sizes and colors at websites like Flickr, Del.icio.us and Technorati. Ever wondered what this unqiue experiment in chaos meant? It's called a tag cloud, a block of words and phrases. The popularity of a phrase is indicated by its size. The bigger the font, the more popular the word/ phrase.

Clicking on these words/ phrases usually throws up relevant tagged information depending on the site your are visiting.

2006-01-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

Beyond CAPTCHA
The citibank website provides a virtual keyboard that refreshes with a new layout with every pageload. This keeps malicious programmes from keystroking your sensitive credit card information.

A move, beyond CAPTCHA(completely automated public Turing test) where the user is required to type in distorted and/or obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on screen.
Click on the adjoining image for a better view.

2006-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Nokia Hotline
I just called up the nokia hotline today for help with some phone specific settings, which my mobile network service provider weren't able to help with. The helpline number is 30303838(not toll free).

The agent tried to talk in a really fake american accent and at the end of the call I couldn't stop myself from asking her questions like 'Which city are you from?' - Answer:Bangalore ; 'Which BPO?' - Answer: Mmm..we are NOKIA! :)

I retorted, 'It's understandable you wouldn't want to reveal those details.. I worked for a BPO myself, so I know...'

There was a nice 1 minute automated survey at the end of the call which I pretty much liked. A neatly designed rating system where you graded the information provided and agent responsiveness and soft skills on a scale of 1-5. This is so much better and faster than the big online questionnaire we used to inundate our customers with at DellTech, WSM. I should say, surely a move towards a positive user experience.

2006-01-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

Automatic Redial on Nokia
Just tried calling my mobile network supportline at '800' and noticed something interesting. The automatic redial option on my phone is enabled, so it keeps trying the number again. The redial option is programmed to dial in an incremental fashion. What I mean is, the first redial is immediate, the subsequent redials are spaced out, timed to accomodate the fact that a line would be busy for a certain duration. Small little things that seem very thoughtful.

I wonder how many of us who have had older Nokia phones, seen the unlock keyguard graphic splash accross your nokia screen, when your phone remained untouched for a while and then suddenly you touched/ moved it. I also hear that Nokia R & D is working on a technology that would automatically adjust typing speeds according to individual users. What this technology does is to identify typing patterns and subsequently adjust the cursor displace rate, so its ready to accept the next character input, thus eliminating cursor lag time.

Way to go NOKIA...

2006-01-18T01:23:00.000-08:00

Interaction Design
How navigation can be user friendly and intuitive and still remain simple.Just the very basics, yet compelling.

http://www.relevare.com/site

Notice how information is kept to one screen, minimal shift of focus for the eye. This is also the core principle on which most RIA's are built on, multiple screens of data pushed onto a single focal window, wherein how you build your navigation system remains the key.

2006-01-17T03:55:00.000-08:00

Breach of Copyright
What are the chances of you finding a graphic you made adorning someone else's webpage/blog. I just found one which I had made on someone else's blog today.

Here is the link
http://semtimes.blogspot.com/2005/11/sem-times-issue-1-what-is-online.html

The same graphic appears on pinstorm.com, my company website, in the What we do > Brief section.

2006-01-16T01:51:00.000-08:00

Plate Palate
A neat looking plate and cutlery I captured from a restaurant called 'Snack Shack' in Bandra, Mumbai. One of the first few snapshot photography images from my Nokia 3230.

2006-01-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Nokia 3230
My new nokia series 60 smartphone :) Salient features include the 1.3 megapixel camera (1280 x 960 image resolution), XHTML browser, 5,536-color screen, Push-to-talk, Bluetooth and runs on Symbian OS.

I saw this phone with my friend Anand and was smitten immeadiately. Especially the large screen display and the really sharp graphics. And yes, its got FM Radio. But what I'm enjoyin most is the joystick navigation ;-)

http://europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,65364,00.html

2006-01-09T19:20:00.001-08:00

Designing towards section 508 compliance
Guidelines to design for people with disabilities from the Macromedia Accessibility Resource Center.

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/gettingstarted/create.html

2006-01-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

IPod
An interesting analysis of the IPod user interface and design. Worth reading. I am expecting some comments on this from the apple fanatics ;)

http://www.mobilecommunitydesign.com/archives/000152.php

2006-01-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Don't make me think
Many a times you may have come across websites mentioning International timezones for various purposes. Usually timings, showing when a particular service/personnel will be available. Often, it is left to the website visitor to calculate and figure out time zone variations and make some productive inference from the data provided.

I recently came across something at ikobo.com which was a welcome change. See adjoining graphic for the same. Unfortunately, this was the only good experience I had with ikobo. I have already filed a complaint to BBBOnline against them. Never use ikobo for International Money Transfer. They are a disaster. For more details contact me in person...

2006-01-01T00:50:00.000-08:00

Flock : Social Browser
Just happened to come across Flock and I have been totally (ab)using it for the last 2 days. For starts, Flock is open-source (read developers can d/l the source code and make value additions); Flock is based on Firefox code.

A phenom dubbed as a social browser. Flock integrates with weblogs, photo and bookmark sharing, and other services on the web (read flickr, del.icio.us, WordPress, Movable Type, Typepad, and Blogger)

Flock may appeal to (photo)bloggers. For the normal user and people with thin bandwidth, flock tends to load images swiftly. Except for the occasional instance when this browser looks like it's in 'Wait.. I'm thinking' mode, its relatively fast considering this is still developer preview release.

To Download Flock
Things you can do with Flock

2005-12-29T03:46:00.000-08:00

The ShutterFly Experience
How shutterfly made a turnaround from an ordinary photo-sharing website to one that is today referred to as case study on 'User Centered Design'. Shutterfly's UI was created by multiple rounds of prototyping and usability testing. From paper sketches to wireframes to the final design...

More on that story here

2005-12-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

LG Design Flaw

I have been using a LG phone for sometime now. Switching over from Nokia to LG has not been a very memorable user experience at all.

Its appalling to note how some fundamentals of navigation, usability and product design have been ignored. The keypad layout for the LG phone, has the 'space' button on the bottom right. Now, considering most people would be right handed and would usually do one hand typing, and would hit the space button more often than others, its painful to see the space button where it is now.

Its physically strenuous to reach the space button especially if your phone is very small in size and the lower right portion of the phone would usually rest somewhere in the middle of your palm when using the keypad. Ideally it should have been placed along with the 'zero' button.

The problem can be aggravated when you are typing a text message/ SMS. The product design engineers at LG surely didn't do some basic homework. Or maybe the keypad was prototyped when text messaging was not as contagious as it is now...

2005-12-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

Nokia Presence
This new technology is trying to incorporate the 'Away Messages' you find on most IM's, onto cellphones. Going a step further, it allows you to configure different status messages for different people. Much like the stealth feature you find on the latest version of Yahoo Messenger, which allows you to be visible only to a few contacts.

More on this technology here

2005-12-27T07:09:00.000-08:00

Yahoo!
What does Yahoo stand for? Apparently, Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.
More on the yahoo story here

2005-12-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania (TTM) is an impulse control disorder characterised by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, nose hair, ear hair, eyebrows or other body hair. It is believed to be related to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

More on TTM

2005-12-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

PreviewSeek
A new search engine that is claiming to be more powerful than Google. Still in beta, supposedly uses Artificial Intelligence and Adaptive Behavioral Technologies to make your search as precise as possible.

This UK based enterprise claims it has 35 proprietary patents to its name.
http://beta.previewseek.com

2005-12-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

Auto Art
Some really interesting autorickshaw signage captured during everyday travel in Mumbai. I also spotted an autorickshaw that had a floor gear once, unfortunately didn't have my camera to capture it.

2005-12-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

theYearThatWas()
It’s been a year that I have been at Pinstorm today. With 1250 company shares in my pocket, title of 'functional head - Creative' and an impending interest in tarot reading I couldn't be a less happier man. What baffles me, and many is the rate at which the company has grown. To give you some idea, I’m employee code: 3 and today we are close to 50 strong.

Over the last 1 year its interesting to see how we have moved from a very de-structured garage startup-ish outfit, to one which was vertically split into departments not so very long back, before again reverting back to a horizontal structure that gave more autonomy to individuals and teams. Well, its beyond the scope of this post to get into details and I’ve heard of late that overzealous employees have been in a soup for revealing too much company grapevine in their personal blogs ;-)

Looking back, we got voted 100 hottest companies in Asia by Red Herring Magazine, 10 coolest companies to work for by Business Today, got a page for ourselves on CNET of late. Apparently we are among the top 5 SEM companies in the world now and one of the biggest in Asia. The interesting part is the tools the technology guys built, so much so that I have a strong feeling that ‘Google Analytics’ is what we have been doing inhouse for a long time now.

2005-12-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Blogtrails
Finally, I have a home at blogger.com, the Internet's most hounded blogging community. Well, it took me a while to get here, after dabbling with Movabletype, Wordpress and a few others blogging apps. From owning my own domain and running a blog there, to finally losing it because I was just too busy to check the renewal notice. To losing my valuable posts, to having lost some nice images and pretty files and some invaluable comments too.

I have finally realised blogger.com is safe, as long as google don’t die that soon! I’m just too pissed with my hosting company right now for refusing to allow me temporary access, to FTP and download my stuff.

Hopefully now, this should be my home for random thoughts on Usability Design, User Interface, User Experience and other things that give me the kicks...