Think Usable

FlashMob Dance with Kids on Christmas Day!

2011-12-26T03:05:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of children come out of their houses along with their parents to celebrate Christmas, tiny tots snuggled cozily in their parents arms. However, there is other side to this reality. Reality of hundreds of kids who are not so lucky, who do not have parents, kids who are orphans, kids who are homeless, kids who are disadvantaged. Yes - there are a few Samaritans, who make a point to visit them and distribute toffees and sweets on such occasions. But does that make them feel better ? We don't know. So, we thought of turning the story around ~ Instead of we visiting them, we thought why not get them out of their orphanage and allow them to celebrate with the world outside ... in their own style.

It was an amazing experience, the kids are so lovely.. We had great time...! And here is how we did it ..experience this..!

This is organized by Lectures For Good and People behind this project are Preeti Pooja, Tania Dey, Ravi Kumar, Chandra Sekhar Singh, Rama Viswanatha, Nivedita Narsapur, Paritosh Prahraj, Sultan, Ranjeet Kumar Tayi & others who supoorted this event.

Yeh Lal Rang!

2011-11-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

A hero is travelling from Karnataka in search of his heroine. In this journey, he travels to various places. The hero of this story is not revealed. There is also a villain who is trying to chase the heroine. What happens next?

This story is curated with more than seventy pictures of TEAM HWS Photographers (India's most active online photo walking community) and the unique part of this is that all the photographs are in red theme. This event is organized by me and my TEAM HWS and curated by Kaali Sudheer.

This unique photo exhibition `Yeh Lal Rang' is open to all from November 13 - 22nd at Muse Art Gallery, Hotel Marriott, Hyderabad. This is a charity event.

All my friends are invited for the photo exhibition "Yeh Lal Rang!"

Jobs - We Salute You...

2011-10-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Steve Job - you are real innovator, a great designer and creator, we feel connected to someone who is also a designer and visionary.You have given new path & many products which made revolution and made people life simpler. You are the one who made people aware of design & its importance how "smart" a product can be. I am avid MAC user and started my career on MAC for learning Photoshop in the year 1998. I have been toggling between Apple / Windows at work but i love MAC to work with. Apple is something close to my heart and love & feel proud to use all apple gadgets.

You have been struggling with virus called cancer and finally we lost you. You are our true inspiration and role model. Love to follow your path and keep you quotes in mind always. I love this quote "Stay Hungry... Stay Foolish" and this mean lot to us... You may be gone but you have left such a great legacy. You visualize mixture of art & science to make computing simpler and your design sense created a bond between the people.

Jobs- You are still in our memory and you are there in our inspiration always. Thanks for everything...You will be our inspiration & memories... WE SALUTE YOU

Making Winning Online Portfolios..my talk at "Freelance Fair Conference" 2011

2011-08-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

I was a speaker at "Freelance Fair Conference 2011". My topic of my talk was on "Building Winning Online Portfolios" for designers, writers, bloggers and other freelance professionals. This was held on 7th august 2011 @ Hyderabad.

Freelance fair Conference - 2011

There were many serious freelance professionals attended this event which was organized by "Lectures for Good" organization. My goal for this talk is to showcase the importance of portfolios and make sure every freelancer should have a striking online portfolios. Overall, it was good and happy to see people noting down the notes.

Many people requested my presentation deck and hence i am uploading here so that any one can see it.

Making Winning Online Portfolios

View more presentations from Ranjeet Kumar Tayi

Google's seamless advertising User Experience Strategy makes big bucks!

2011-07-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

In most cases advertising is a killer USER EXPERIENCE in the web context many time. It is very difficult to craft experiences between the context with revenue generating advertisements. In general, most users really hate advertisement as it deviates the context. Google is one example who has mapped seamless user experiences with context sensitive advertising strategy with tiny advertisements (PAY FOR CLICK MODEL). Do you know one thing, Google 97% revenue is from Advertising.

Google is now making $3 billion a month in advertising, the majority of which comes from little text ads next to search results. That's wonderful right? Guess who is spending this huge bucks?

The answer, according to Larry Kim — the founder of a company that sells software to analyze text ad campaigns — is in industries where a customer is worth a lot of money over the long-term.

Wordstream, kim's company analyzed search terms that advertisers pay and grouped 10,000 by industry, using its own software. They have multiplied Cost Per Click - what advertisers pay to Google for some one click on the Google Ads - Times the number of times people click on that word. Look at the beautiful info graphic of the top 20 industry which explains Google stats visually.
(Image - Workstream)

The Future of User Interface & Design Technologies

2011-05-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

The future if user interfaces - The way we interact with technologies have evolved a lot over the years. Right from the punch cards, typewriters, prints, to monitors, mouses, keyboard, buttons to all the way to the new track pads, voice recognition, multi touch, hand held, gestures and interfaces designed to make it more easier.

Lot of interaction patterns has been changed from "Smaller Vs Bigger"; "Cursor Vs Non Cursor" ; "Less Text Vs More Images"; "More Design Vs Less Design"; "Single Cursor Vs Multi Cursors"; "Vertical Scroll Vs Horizontal Scroll"; "Fixed Layout Vs Scalable Layout"; "Audio Vs Video"; "Remote Vs Gesture" & so on...

Future of user interface design

View more presentations from ranzeeth.

THE FUTURE OF INTERFACES still evolving & this gives more opportunity for us (UX'ers) to create great experiences.... I have created a presentation which has various types of user interfaces which gives you a flavor of future current / future trends of user interfaces.

I have uploaded this presentation in SlideShare and immediately got a email from SlideShare that this presentation "The future of Interface & Design Technologies" has showcased in SlideShare main Design section as a awesome master piece by SlideShare editorial team. Again after couple of hours got a email from Slide share that this presentation is hot in facebook and they have moved it to Slide Share Home page. This made me more happier, so called customer experience & satisfaction :)

Hurraiah! Ignite Hyderabad a great success!

2011-04-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

Successful organized & managed IGNITE HYDERABAD event Vol on 17th April 2011. What is IGNITE BTW?

Ignite is a global event spread across 100 cities worldwide, organized by volunteers, where participants are given five minutes to speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions, accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The presentations are meant to "ignite" the audience on a subject, i.e. to generate awareness and to stimulate thought and action on the subjects presented. The presentations are in the realm of being inspirational, creative, progressive, transformational, out of the box, etc.

Ignite is independently organized on the local level. Ignite is almost always free to attend, and is supported financially by sponsorship. Ignite is not elitist in nature and provides platform to anyone who is doing work out of the routine and has ideas to share. http://igniteshow.com. Ignite Hyderabad was held at Lamakaan (creative cultural space) on 17th April 2011. There were 10 amazing inspiring speakers who has ignited Hyderabad.

Speakers Profile

Each Ignite event has 10 speakers to speak for 5 minutes each. The speaker profile for the inaugural meeting are:

Sugandh Rakha, Tech Lead, Amazon, on the topic, “ I am a person with Stammering”
George S. Chandy, mathematician and logician and inventor of One Page Management System (OPMS)
Vivek Sign, IIM grad, Presentation Evangelist,on the topic, "Finding the mojo in your powerpoint"
AVS Prasad, a homeopathic doctor and a humorous public speaker on the topic, "Public Speaking for Fun"
Giridhar Rao, a linguist human rights activist on “Why the World Needs Esperanto?”
Jack Jigg ,India's #1 Rock DJ, on topic, “STEP INTO THE MIRROR”
Vinay Verma, theatre activist, who also worked with major movies and TV on topic, “ Stage is a World”
Ramakrishna Nagasamy, Product Manager, Sum Total System, a Pranik Healer on topic, “How can you heal the world?”.
Deepak Mittal, MD of La Belle and founder of youth party Jago party, champion of RTI Act, on the topic, "Politics will always be dirty!"
Vijay Ram Kumar, a sweet seller cum environmentalist on topic “Why I do what I do?”

It was a amazing event with live tweets project on the screen, amazing variety of presentations, interaction, networking and what not. We got great response and more than 300 people has joined for this event and will be continuing to organize more events in coming days. I am proud to associate with a great Ignite Hyderabad team and played a key role as a co-curator. It was really a great fun designing all the logos, posters, planning the event, branding, managing social media, inviting speakers, co-ordinating with other team members, brainstorming, etc,

For more details check face book: www.fb.com/ignitehyd.

Help Japan... Let us be more Human

2011-03-29T00:35:00.000-07:00

A massive magnitude earthquake hit Japan on March 11 causing havoc with blackouts, fire, tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown. Designed some posters to motivate people to donate, help, spread a word, and putting effort to raise funds / donate for Japan and giving moral support.

In times of difficulty, our humanity must compel us to help one another. The Japanese are our brothers and sisters and they need our help in whatever manner we can we must/should gather our resources and offer to them who are in dire need at this time. LET US BE MORE HUMAN... and feel this tragedy***SAVE JAPAN ***HELP JAPAN

To make donations, here are some links.
Japanese Red cross Society | Unicef | Save Children
American Red Cross | Doctors Without Boarders

Storytelling for User Experience...Crafting stories for better design

2011-03-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

We all tell stories. It's one of the most natural ways to share information, as old as the human race. Stories help us gather and communicate user research, put a human face on analytic data, communicate design ideas, encourage collaboration and innovation, and create a sense of shared history and purpose.

Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks have written a book on “Storytelling for User Experience … Crafting stories for better design” This book looks across the full spectrum of user experience design to discover when and how to use stories to improve our products. Whether you are a researcher, designer, analyst or manager, you will find ideas and techniques you can put to use in your practice.

I had personally met Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks at Germany and had a good discussion on this. They have give me a good perspective & how imporant creating peronsas with story telling. Unfortunately, I was staying in the same hotel where Whitney was staying and got some free time in the mornings to discuss & learn more on Story telling User Experience. I personally thank Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks for sharing knowledge and guiding me. I have taken some notes and made a graphic to share you folks!

Story telling help to share research and design insights in a compelling and effective way. Struggle to communicate the meaning of a large body of data in a way that everyone just "gets" and want to explore a new, innovative idea, and imagine its future. Storytelling starts with listening. In formal and informal user research, make time for people to tell you their story. You might be surprised at how many great stories (or story fragments) you'll collect if you let them. Just say "Tell me about that" when you hear the start of a juicy story.

Put some stories together and you might have the spark of a design idea. Maybe you call them user stories, or scenarios, but they are all ways of thinking through not just what will happen, but how the characters (users) will react to the experience. And finally, what's a usability test task, except a story for the participant to finish. Make it dramatic or matter-of-fact, but tell a story that launches them into a situation they want to solve or an experience they want to explore.

Get your own copy of Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks book on “Storytelling for User Experience … Crafting stories for better design” and know more insights, this book is worth investing.

Festival of Joy... HOLI

2011-03-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Holi is the festival which symbolises India to its core, Colourful, Young, Vibrant and diverse. This is one of my favorite festivals and it’s also called “Festival of Joy”.

Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun Purnima (or Pooranmashi, Full Moon) in the month of Phalgun according to the Hindu calendar. A peculiar coincidence this time, it’s the SUPER MOON. Moon at its closest wooing point with Ole Mother Earth! It was so beautiful….

I had a great time celebrating holi together with my wife and we sprinkled colors on my family members, friends & relatives including my doggy “Chocky”! Ooh it’s a great fun all together.

Experience laser show @ Hyderabad

2011-03-20T05:59:00.000-07:00

The lush green environs of Hyderabad Lumbini Park has first ever permanent laser show. This is one example, which i can say a creating "Great Tourist eXperience". Showcasing about Hyderabad history, culture, people, importance, places, etc with Laser lights animating on the water fountain is something to feel & experience live. I really liked the welcome note and the entire 30-40 min sequence of various laser animations, clippings, fountain equalizers, lighting effects. The best part is that a song made on Hyderabad, which welcomes everyone & gives overview about Hyderabad.

I have taken few pics and would like to share you folks! If you plan for Hyderabad, don't give a miss.

Do you know about me?

2011-03-10T01:48:00.000-08:00

One of my friend rang me "tring tring" and invited me for a talk on New media design. He asked me for a short profile write up and i designed this smart simple design which speaks about my personalty & my passions to an extent. I tried something different with my caricature and few logos which i freak every day rather than tons of text profile propaganda :) Hope, you all like this..!

View this iamge on Flickr: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5256/5513957135_1804b696ca_b.jpg

A Larger Than Life Experience (Toyota Vision)

2011-03-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Toyota Vision Wall at 2011 Detroit Auto Show from PUSH Offices on Vimeo.

Detroit Autoshow 2011, Toyota wanted to tell the story of the all-new Toyota Prius in an engaging way that could extend beyond the show floor. In response, Project: WorldWide’s GPJ and Juxt Interactive developed “Toyota Vision” - a large-scale multi-touch screen installation with remarkable content.

The interactive experience consisted of three side-by-side, 82” multi-touch LCD screens, showing the life span of the product experience from the factory, to the showroom, to the street. When visitors touched the screen, a graphic hand interface appeared, indicating options of exploration - visitors could learn about the creation of Toyota products, read product details and hear from owners. Lovely idea and it created great customer experience...
More on Juxt Interactive website...

Attended "Advantage IT" Conference & Exhibition

2011-03-03T04:12:00.000-08:00

Attended "Advantage IT" Conference & Exhibition at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) on 1-2nd march 2011. The two-day summit is organized by Information Technology and Communications Department of the state government, the IT and ITES Industry Association of AndhraPradesh (ITsAP) and the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). Over 1,500 delegates has taken part in the event, with over 200 companies showcasing their innovative products and solutions designed / developed in Andhra Pradesh.

Our SumTotal has won a booth space and we had our presence in exhibition & conference. I was representing SumTotal at our booth along with our team at this event. There was a product Showcase and Awards track where many companies including us have showcased a host of products innovated and developed in AP. Attending this products award showcase gave me good idea & impression of how other company products in various domains are competing and focusing on their product user experiences.

In short, I had a wonderful time networking with new people & many of my friends . This has given me a great opportunity to learn new things by looking at different products of various companies / domains. One of my friends Mr.Naidu (CEO) – Mera Events was part of organizing committee and they have done a great job managing this event very effectively. I think this one of the best, biggest & most successful event held in Hyderabad in recent times.

My talk on "Facebook for OBAMA & Facebook for ME"

2011-02-21T02:56:00.000-08:00

Facebook for OBAMA & Face book for ME @ Facebook for your Business Seminar @ Hyderabad

News Article published @ Andhra Business
http://www.andhrabusiness.com/NewsDesc.aspx?newsID=Facebook-enthusiasts-exchange-knowledge.html

When i was invited as a speaker for this seminar to share my knowledge and my thoughts, thought that i should speak on something related to reality & people aware a bit. Finally choose a topic "Facebook for OBAMA & Facebook for ME" This seminar was held at Hotel Celebrations, Hyderabad on Sunday, Feb 2011 organized by Brio Factors group. There were 100 people out there including who have attended this event.

There were other 5-6 speakers including Raj Allipuram (MD& CEO - Brio Factors), Naidu Darapaneni, CEO of Versant Technologies and www.meraevents.com, Vamsi Vanteru, Managing Director of Fine Group of companies, P. Madhusudhan Rao, Praveen Kumara Machavaram of ContentMentor & me (Ranjeet Kumar Tayi - SumTotal) who have shared their experiences and it was really kool. Interesting wide range of topics include, The psychological impact Facebook , Personal branding, Social netwrorking, Using Facebook, Facebook for OBAMA & Me and many more.

This event was full day event and i have presented my talk for about 45 Min and there were good range of interaction with participants and happy to hear that they like my presentation. :) Finally there were lot of requests to do these sessions often. The organizing team resolved to continue such sessions within and outside Hyderabad based on public demand.

Nissan "Innovations"

2011-02-16T23:35:00.000-08:00

New commercial from Nissan has impressed me using the word "INNOVATION" The interesting part is that they balance ergonomics with environmentalism and with a vision for a green & better future.

My Last Hope..!

2011-01-18T04:24:00.000-08:00

This old man (Yallaiah, aged about 70+) bought a Cock last year with all his savings. His aim is to breed it and make it a fighter COCK by this Sankranthi. He spent all his time, energy, money and his savings on this cock to make it as a FIGHTER. Yellaiah maintain this cock with full diet and exercise schedule. Morning & Evening swimming, rich nuts every day, Non veg dry foods, regular doctor visit, Almond Oil Massages, etc.

When i spoke to him personally, he said this COCK is my LIFE and i am living just with this HOPE! I am sure this will WIN in todays Cock fighting Betting. All my efforts, money and lot of time taking all the care with a hope that you will participate in Sankranthi Cock Fight and my COCK will WIN my life. Today is the day my COCK need to FIGHT, This decides OUR FATE... IF we loose this COCK FIGHT, i will be loosing everything...everything..everything... including my COCK.. Taking rest in this shade, my heart!... Few hours remaining....!!! Just with my LAST HOPE... HOPE...!!!

I was totally soundless and could not know what to speak. Just told him that you will WIN and HOPE your HOPE will get TRUE. Hoping this cock will WIN and make this old man's HOPE TRUE!

My Photography gallery on Cooliris Wall

2010-12-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

My Photography Stream...Ranz love Clicking!!!
Posting a 3D wall on your site is as easy as 1-2-3.

Cooliris Express is a Flash®-based version of the Cooliris Wall you can embed into your site for all visitors to enjoy. Create your own Wall with our online builder in three simple steps:

Select content1
Choose from Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, or any Media RSS feed.

Customize2
Change the appearance, number of rows, title, and more.

Publish3
Post to Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, or your website.

That's simple... is it not? I have uploaded my photo stream.SMOOTH, CULTIVATED, AND FULLY INTEGRATED. Check this and enjoy!

Usability = "User Ability" or "Ability to Use"

2010-12-07T01:16:00.000-08:00

Designed some posters & wallpapers to explain about USABILITY.

UPA 2010 - Munich, Germany & UX Camp 2010 - Berlin, Germany Overview

2010-12-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

UPA 2010 - Munich, Germany & UX Camp 2010 - Berlin, Germany Overview and my learnings!!!
As you all know i have attended UPA 2010 & UX Camp Conference at Germany in 2010. These both are my best UX conferences i have attended till date.I have taken some notes / captures and made a presentation out of it to get a glimpse of UPA2010.

To know more details about my UPA2010 in details you can check my earlier blog post. http://thinkusable.blogspot.com/2010/06/attended-upa-2010-munich-germany.html

The Colors of the WEB

2010-09-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

The Colors of the WEB - Top 100 Brand Colors Analysis

Colors are the most important plays a powerful role in creating the web brand identity. ColorLovers team did a small analysis on colors and created a info graphic which is worth having a look, so have a look :)

As it turns out, web brands love color. Only a few of them are predominantly grey or black and white. The most popular color is blue (nearly all big social networks use it), followed by a variety of reds and oranges. Also, many of the web’s top brands, such as Google and MSN, have a multicolored logo.

The data used to create this collected from Alexa, Compete and Nielsen to compile the list of the top 100 brands on the web, and while one can always question their methodology, the info graphic definitely paints an interesting picture concerning color usage by some of the most popular brands on the web.

Happy Friendship Day Folks!

2010-07-31T13:53:00.001-07:00

Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935 and spread across the globe. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them. Exchange of Friendship Day Gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion. So, what did we do this time?

This year again we made it very interesting. Designed a greeting and shared my wishes to all friends. Me and my photography friends gang planned up & gathered for a coffee meet @ Barista, Jubilee Hills at 4.00pm. There were 35+ friends turned up, we greeted each others, cracked jokes, made fun on others, met some old / new friends, clicking, planning for next projects, etc. BTW I had a Cold Coffee, with chocolate ice cream as topping..it's mouth watering & Yummmmmy!!!!

As usual, taken some candid pics and explored my friends new 5DMark2.. Its awesome!!! (Now added to my wish list :) How can a friendship day without a Friendship Band???? What is the difference if we wear a regular friendship band blowing OWN trumpets saying that we are creative??? Hahahhaaa!!! we did something creative....We had a Photo Negative as a Friendship Band,,,, It's our dynamic creative exponential brain (Sekhar's) Idea!!! I state again that our team is creative & amazing...!!! Look at our Photograph below..i'm sure you will fall in love with this Lovely Friendship band idea!!! :)

(Our Group bands)

(Me & Madhavi's friendship bands)

I should proudly say about my photography club (HWS) and mainly the people... who really make the difference and think different. We all love each other and like the association / collaboration. I personally feel, It's a god's gift to have many like minded friends. Taken some group pics and our core team (Me, Sekhar & Cishore) started explaining about our upcoming project "Save the lake" and asked everyone to take active lead for this social initiative. Spent almost 2-3 hours with these folks and headed back to home. This all made my day a memorable experience!!!

Ending up with my Favorite Friendship quote of Albet Cames.

"Don't walk Infront of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend"

Microsoft Surface FLIRTED ME!!! & My Facinations!!!

2010-07-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Microsoft dropped a bombshell with their new Microsoft Surface touchscreen computer that is a touchscreen coffee table.I have been very fascinated by the Microsoft Surface since the first time I tried & explored it in June 2008, at Microsoft Redmond. My manager was X-Microsoft UX'er and we both went there to play around with it and experience the touch.

We met some of UX folks and bit explored Microsoft Campus, Usability Labs, etc. and it was my first visit to US. You can imagine how exiting it would be!!!! Later we played for a while with surface table. It didn’t take time for me to fall in love with this Surface table... IT FLIRTED ME :) and felt WOW!!! We played and experiencing different applications. Amazed with photo gallery applications and very involved in exploration. The good part is that you can run several apps and multiple people can use at same time using multiple hands / figures.

Played some music, videos, maps, browsing, games... and what not dear!!! Just loved it. You know one thing... i read e-newspapers too! If you find an interesting article you want one of the others to read you can send it to him/her with just a wipe with your finger.

Tons of ideas and interaction imaginations bubbling on my head!!! and thought for a while... What am i doing, Where am I, Why am i still in a floppy disk era!!! Still old design school..Blah Blah Balh..! I was very curious to know how the surface table works and what kind of applications can be developed. Read many articles online, checked videos...done some exploration at that point of time. As usual left all these thoughts aside and back to my original work!!!

Again, never thought of Surface...Did not get an opportunity to design or think about multi touch. Recently (May 2010) again i got an opportunity to play with Surface in Europe. UID ( a leading UX design firm based out of Germany) has developed some kool apps for Microsoft Surface and they were gifted a Surface coffee table by Microsoft. Again looking at that UID - Surface Table... same fascination & same excitement....!!!

UID team showed me their demos, interactions and some cool apps which they have created for Surface and they are really cool. The new learning here was they had some RFID chips attached to some objects. Placing these objects on the surface will display the action / interaction accordingly and it was awesome! I asked many questions to get more clarity...& my brain started processing ideas...tic tic tic..!!! Again second time even after 2 years, my interaction with Microsoft Surface...it FLIRTED ME !!! Same old story.. all my ideas gone to trash & back to my original work.

Again surprisingly, very recently i came across a design firm in Hyderabad and they develop surface apps. I never though that surface apps are getting done currently in Hyderabad, as Surface is not officially launched in India. Their surface apps portfolio which they developed were bit impressive. They walked me through RFID object interaction apps like BMW car interiors apps, Credit card apps, TV news paper apps, Games, etc. Most of them are developed using WMF & Silver light. Experiencing Surface, I felt the multi touch is not much smooth as apple i pad or iphone. Sometimes it was hard to close or to interact with action buttons, navigations, etc.

Let me talk something about my iphone & ipad Multi touch Interactions. No doubt that Apple is Apple and they make sexy and sleek with great experiences. I did played & explored with iPhone & iPad too (Yes, i have taken a pic tooo) and it rocks! If Apple comes up with coffee table size iPad (they may call iTabel), We don't know what in Apple's mind :) but I will vote for Apple :)

From Microsoft point of view, we are hearing these multi touch technology from past 6-7 years. I don't know why Microsoft was unable to launch innovative solutions and introduce to market quickly and expand their business rapidly. I feel they always miss their market share in many consumer centric areas and small players will be crossing them. Any way they have launched surface first and hope tons of apps comes up and surface gets cheaper & available in coming days.

Coming back to Surface, I see there is lot of scope to create great user experiences with multi touch surface and the surrounding also adds more impact on the user experience. Physical interaction with bare hands and flipping items with your figures ... its awesome!!! How about thinking about designing some kool apps and FLIRT our own users???? I cannot express much and you should personally experience yourself...

More from the retail, hospitality, travel and banking sectors soon, there will be lots of very interesting consumer-facing stuff coming up in near future!!! Now its time to think... think... think...!!! How we can explore great user experiences with the multi touch technology!!! As a User Experience Designers, if we are not thinking... then we are definitely lagging behind competition & defining / crafting great eXperiences..!!!

Team Work Wins - Inspirational Video

2010-07-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

Really a heart touching video for inspiration how team work wins. Be a leader!!! Drive things!!! Dont just follow! and dont wait thinking that some will do.

Hungry for creative inspirations, design ideas and found ZOO....a right place!!!

2010-07-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

I had been thinking of visiting Hyderabad Zoo for a long time to see the new Giraffe. Wondering why? Yippee!!! Giraffe is the latest attraction at Hyderabad Zoo...nearly after 25 years. It was traded for 2 Marcus and 2 Asiatic Lions. I remember i have some photographs with old Giraffe taken in my childhood. Okz! let me reveal you one secret "Why Giraffe"???? Some kids in my family tease me as Giraffe, as you know i am just 6ft short guy!

My photography friends (Team HWS) planned up for a Zoo photo walk on 18th July (Sunday - weekend) and i not surprisingly I'm IN :) The weather was nice & sunny, When i arrived at the entrance of the Zoo, Amazed to see 50+ photography friends gathered for a group pic. Parked my car aside and just appeared jumped into the group pic capture!

Given a small intro session to new friends and moved ahead inside with all my gears. I'm exited to experiment with my new Canon 70-200 F2.8 L Series lens. Splitted into groups and slowly explored few areas which i find interesting in the reverse route. You have to see my happiness & excitement when i saw the new Giraffe. As usual clicking clicking clicking!!!! and enjoying the colors and the texture in the fresh air.

In fact, I am hungry for ideas and looking for design inspirations and found ZOO is a right place. The zoo is an artificial forest created by man. Though there are few trees compared with the natural forest, the animals, birds and other creatures found must always remind us of the forest. It is indeed an interesting place to visit for good creative ideas & inspirations from the animals. We can learn lot of things from animals, they too have affections, emotions, expressions, etc. just like us. Some of them are very cute & lovely where some wild makes us bit scary!!! :)

There are some small lotus ponds filled with beautiful lotus (white & pink). Spent some time capturing their beauty from different angles. I found many kinds of interesting animals and other creatures like Lions, tigers, reptiles, and other animals were moving about lazily in their cages. The monkeys!!! some from our gang too..., however, showed their natural agility.

The beauty of the birds and their color contrast & beautiful feathers fascinated me and mainly the peacocks. I really felt from my bottom of my heart that "THIS IS SOMETHING CALLED BEAUTIFUL" Birds are indeed one of the loveliest creations of god. I was completely thinking about the nature and god's creativity how nicely he have crafted and how artistic / creative he is.

As usual we have taken self portraits of each others in our gang, which was again Great Excitement again! Explored zoo till 11.45AM and headed back early to home as i had some personal appointments. Did not explored entire zoo this time. I am an animal lover and a frequent visitor of Hyderabad zoo (visit atleast once a year or so). I have also been to Nandankanan - Zoological Park of Orissa in my childhood which is called "Garden of God" and most recently Sea Loins caves @ Oregon -US in 2008 and Bangkok Safari World Zoo @ Bangkok- Thailand in 2009 which was huge.... & no more words, it was just AWESOME!!!! Thank you folks! who all joined with me for this photo walk!

The 25 Most Innovative Companies 2010

2010-07-13T23:53:00.001-07:00

Innovation Winners

Bloomberg BusinessWeek's Most Innovative Companies special report is based on data from longtime partner Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Last December the consultancy e-mailed a 21-question poll to senior executives around the globe. The 1,590 respondents, who answered anonymously, were asked to name the most innovative companies outside their own industry in 2009.

Met Seth Godin @ ISB - Hyderabad

2010-07-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

Met Seth @ISB on 7th June 2010

"Seth Godin"...is a famous American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Seth Godin has written twelve books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. American Way Magazine calls him, "America's Greatest Marketer," and his blog is perhaps the most popular in the world written by a single individual. Click here for Seth's full profile

I came to know by my colleagues that "Seth Godin" is coming to India and that toooo "Apna Hyderabad". Looking at his fan followers and his popularity, we thought we should have our presence and attend his talk @ISB. Me and my buddy colleagues Sampath, Manu, Kalyan, Sudhir attended Seth's talk as a special guests by paying a fee of $50 each. There were also some free seats but we did not pitch for them.

I just want to attend as i love to listen to the people who thinks different and motivates people in multi dimensionally. Before his talk, i met him personally, introduced myself and we discussed about the user experience profession in the software industry Vs Advertising.

After a while...the ISB auditorium got filled totally and he started his talk with a lovely presentation. His talk was more generic and not on any specific theme. He is a great passionate communicator and presenter. He used lot of contextual pictures & examples. I was expecting at least 3 hrs of his talk but surprisingly ended up not more than ~2 hour including some question & answers.

Some of the interesting snippets in his talk...!!!!

~ Think about "MORE" ...Make More, Sell More, Target More.....& on..!
~ Too many choices in this world! Media Every Where....
~ Branding... Every thing branded!
~ Ideas...! that spread "WIN"
~Make Connection (Advertisers connecting multiple customers) & (Marketer connecting customer and customer connects other customers")
~ Marketing management is "Now TRIBAL management"
~ ? GENIUS! - Care about something you do!!!!
~ ART - Art is act of HUMAN - Any can do make a painting but not an ART!
(Unless new art comes up, no one will be bothered!!!)
~ INTERNET - You are every where in this world and you own the means of PRODUCTION!
~ COMPETENCY is no longer a Scare COMMODITY... its not interchangeable.
~ VALUE - Create & Invest, Connect, Sell, Produce, Lifting Weights......& on!
~ I'm Good at SCHOOL.....but WHO CARES? and said with a husky smile ...we are not doing school ..:)
~ Measure by Hours of EFFORT Vs PAY - Following Instructions Vs Insights
~ Make Decessions!
~ GIFTS are Not FAVORS
~ $$$$ DAYS Work .....DONT PAY!!!!
~ Replace FEAR - with unknown CURIOSITY
~ LABOR means DIFFICULT!!!
~ Common things that Steve Jobs & Bill Gates does......"BOTH SHIPS"
~ The art is to figure out "Who do you want to FOLLOW"
~ Survival is "SUCCESS"

There were some Q&A sessions and some one asked about failures where Seth replied that he has more failures than success. Finally ended up with HIGH TEA @ the lobby. It was nice meeting couple of my SumTotal X-Colleagues "Harshika & Sameer Mehta" who are studying currently at ISB. I have captured some sketch notes of Seth's talk and drawn Seth's rough outline cartoon and had his Autograph below that. Do you know what did he write above his autograph..... "GO SHIP" :)

I felt spending 50$ each was not worth for me at-least for this talk. I see most of the content was recycled across in Seth's blog and other mediums. Finally ended up the day with some take aways from Seth's talk about Making a difference, Creating a Value Add and being Different...& Importantly CONNECTING!!!!! As-usual felt good to have my presence for a Great Talk of Seth @ ISB !!! :)

My experiences @ The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) - Hyderabad cup

2010-07-07T02:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday 2nd July, one of my close friend "Sekhar" calledup and invited for mountaineering cup held at Durgam Cheruv - Hyderabad and he want me to join with him for this unique event. I canceled my other photo walk at Tank Bund and joined this IMF Hyderabad Cup with my Gear.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) is an apex national body. It has the objective of organising, supporting and providing a base for expeditions for mountaineering, skiing, rock climbing and trekking at high altitudes. It promotes, encourages, supports and executes...

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation is introducing the IMF Cups, a series of climbing competitions spread over the country .This was held at Hyderabad on 3rd & 4th July, 2010 and more than 100 climbers from the various parts of India. The Competition is named as Hyderabad Cup and competition will be conducted in two categories Bouldering Championship (Seniors)-On Natural Boulders and Speed climbing Competition (Juniors).

Seeing the flat mountains initially, I thought, no one can make it. But surprised to see most of them were climbing very easily. Small kids including girls of different ages are also climbing on a fly & giving a try even they fail couple of times. There is lot of risk involved as they are not even wearing any helmets or safe jackets. Just want to appreciate their parents for the encouragement and support for this sport. Lot of take ways looking at this and literally impressed and enjoyed this unique event.

Attended UPA International Conference 2010 @ Munich, Germany.

2010-06-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

Embracing Cultural Diversity – User Experience Design for the World

RANZ @ Usability Professionals Conference 2010 - Munich, Germany

Attended UPA international conference at Munich, Germany. Last year I had plan to attend UPA conference at Portland but could not make it. This year, I am impressed with the theme of the conference “Embracing Cultural Diversity – User Experience Design for the World”. and decided to have my presence. While doing the registration, I was in a small confusion weather to attend UPA Conference (or) UX London Conference (stars bashing on my head!!!) . I spoke to my buddy UX pros and Finlay decided to attend this.

For the first time in its history, the Usability Professionals’ Association International Conference will travel to the heart of Europe. The key theme focused on how UX professionals can create great user experiences across different cultures, meeting the challenges of delivering to diverse audience.

The international UPA conference was hosted in Munich, Germany, and provided a great opportunity to meet and network and to share ideas, visions and innovation strategies across cultures and across countries. There were more than 800+UX professionals from more than 50 countries.

Tutorials and workshops on 24th Monday and 25th Tuesday, then two and a half days packed with presentations, Idea Markets, and opportunities to network with other user experience professionals. Workshops and Tutorials begin on Monday, May 24, and regular conference sessions begin on Wednesday, May 26 at Munich, Germany at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel.

I have reached to Munich via Frankfurt by Lufthansa airline on 25th June. I used to wonder is this city called "Munich" or "Munchan" but both are the same. Stayed at Intercity Hotel which is at located at central Munich. The hotel was cool and very accessible and BTW free WIFI. Without internet we will end up nothing in Europe :) Went to the conference hotel in the evening to just have a overview of the place, people, etc and done with the formal registration. After that i started exploring the Exhibition stalls in the conference.

The conference venue itself is very beautiful! It’s being held in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof and it’s one of the grandest and most expensive hotels in Munich. I did not stay in this hotel as this is very very expensive €250. The only WIFI available in the building costs €27 for 24 hours and could not afford to spend for Internet during conference breaks. You can make out lunch and dinner with that penny.

The lunch sessions were a great idea, rather than being a formal thing, you just head to a restaurant (which has a topic) and discuss. Unfortunately, we had about 50 people go to our restaurant, which resulted in bill chaos and a very slow lunch. There was also too many people so the leader couldn’t really lead the discussion (as he was on a different table) but I met some great people and I managed to get back to the conference in time. Sometimes, it’s just easier to let the venue sort out the catering, since they are equipped and used to dealing with big groups in a short time period. We had some great discussions on User experience and everyone sharing their practical experiences. One thing which i have realized that all the UX designers across the globe will have same set of problems. "Dev /QA Vs UX"

I really enjoyed the conference and made many international UX friends. Got an opportunity to meet more than 800+ UX professionals from 50 different countries. Happy to see some of my old friends from India and abroad. Jumki Iyyengar, Sameer Chabuskwar from India, Saud Sultan from Singapore, Daneil Suiz from Hongkong & on....!

The experience in Munich was awesome. Munich is a very beautiful city. I am really impressed with the architecture, roads, food and mainly public transport. Even i had a free ticket for tram / bus / metro, i just preferred walking across streets. Did not get much time to explore the city but after the conference ~7.00PM walked around the city with my gears and clicking photographs. Good thing is that climate was good and it was long day. Me, Saud and Tania (Ukrine friend) generally used to go around the city in the evenings and take some photographs. I know you all have missed this but don't worry..!!! I will be sharing you some great photographs & my experiences.

Did not done any shopping except some magnet Souvenirs, Pens & Beer mugs. I have a habit of collecting some fridge magnets from each place i visit and stick to my fridge... (its my dashboard ...lol!). Water is expensive than Beer. German Beer is famous in the world and tried tasting different Beers, even i don't have much habit of drinking.... just followed the Funda...."Be a ROMAN in ROME"!!! Finally... realized we should experience everything... that ithis world offers!! lol!

Trust me…if you are planning for UX conference don't miss UPA next year at least. If you get a chance try planning a trip to Munich, Germany for a vacation…Its awesome.!!!! I have taken lots of photographs in the conference and also in the city... to share with you all...enjoy!!!
Stay tuned... will be posting more details shortly...

Interesting Capture...

2010-05-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

I always wonder how people think... Each person has a different personality & taste. Basically the captions...which i mostly looking from my college days.. on cars, bikes is "Mom's Gift, Dad's Gift, Sister's Gift, Grand Mothers Gift... Blaw Blaw Blaww...

Found something interesting and thought of sharing with you folks!
Down Payment by "Mom"
EMI by "Wife"
...& finally "Enjoyed by ME"
Look at the alignments...and his creative juice... Interesting...!!!

My Friend's Expressions Captured!!!!

2010-05-08T09:33:00.001-07:00

Last week end, i went to a photo walk at Charminar area with all my photography friends. One of my friend Pranitha has captured various expressions of our gang during the photo walk in the hot boiling breezing SUN :) I thought this picture has lot of different expressions and share you all these beautiful buddy smiles:)

Futuristic Google Device

2010-04-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

If you don’t know what Google could do in the future life, you should check out this concept design.

This design is shaped like a normal frame. However it is a portable Google device which could search information based on real objects. Just frame the aimed object, such as one strange building, in the device, it could get and display information on the transparent multi-touch screen. If you need any detailed data, just target the picture like iPhone. Moreover, it could also be used to search words while reading and provide the GPS information for traveling.

Wow, you’re surprised? I believe that all the description will come true IN THE FUTURE.

Now no more Boring Cryptic Error Messages..

2010-04-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Now error messages can be creative... and more interesting...in this web2.0 era. I have collected some samples which i came across. have fun!!

http://dl.dropbox.com

How do i get my self motivated & inspired to get fresh thoughts!!!

2010-04-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Motivation and inspiration are something which is very important to any designer. Designer should always have a fresh mind and should have good eye for observation and should able to think in multiple directions for designing a better design. For me design is "Every thing & anything in my life" and basically it’s my biggest passion. One good thing about me is that my career & my passions are almost aligned and they are same. So I enjoy my work and in free time I spend time on things which i love some of them are Creative direction, photography, arts, innovative thinking, experimentation, event management, travelling, attending conferences and meeting people who has similar thoughts. :)
Sometimes your corporate work may limit your thoughts or ideas or interests and may make you bounded inside the box. As a passionate designer some times gets a feeling like "What am I doing" and "My skill sets are not utilized" properly...etc, are some of the wiered feelings... To overcome all these stuff, i generally find something interesting in work and try to come up with some design concepts and always try to sell to the company, so that it will create a value proposition. I think this positive energy always make me hungry for ideas.
To get motivated and get recharged I generally go for art exhibitions, photography shoots with like minded people, trekking, and short adventure or exploration trips with friends, etc. But these are some regular stuff and this did not really made me feel anything much different. Then i realized to start thinking different and started some creative stuff in my free time, which will create a "VALUE" for me and also get self motivated. This made my life more interesting.... now

Some of the initiation projects which have self assigned and doing it.

PROJECT 365: Capturing one pic a day!!!
Project 365 is a creative concept which is related to the photography. I have taken initiative from 2010 basically taking a pic every day and by the end of the year I will have 365 intresting captures. This is just similar to visual diary and will try different experiments and take one unique picture every day. These are updated in my flickr pro account every day. Photography is something which really helps a designer to get more patience and good observation / framing skill sets. Capturing creative stuff is some thing which is a great fun.
IDEA's 365: Idea's unlimited...!!!
Idea's 365 is something which is also a innovative project. Basically I have started this project to make my self start thinking of many creative ideas and make a idea pool by the end of 365. This will help to think in different direction and generate ideas.

I did not restrict for any specific domain or something. Idea can be anything right from a small pin to an aero plane ...anything and every thing which is useful in our daily life. In this project, on an avarage I spend 2-10 min a day in thinking some concept which make people's life better and write down on piece of paper (colored sticky notes) and dump in my "IDEA's POT".

Event Organizing & Creative project initatives:
Basically this concept is for doing something "different" and which makes "Stand Out" Event organizing is also something which i like. I have organized 3-4different intresting projects and managed successful. Some of them are

- 1000 Portraits project - Hyderabad (1day 10 people capturing 1000 portraits and making Hyderabad smile) Done an very big exhibition at Prasadz IMAX.

- 1000 Smile project - Goa (1day 40 people 10 locations (entire Goa state) and capturing 1000 smiles) and making Goa smile.

Career Guidance & Knowledge sharing:
When ever I get time, I do some career guidance sessions and also some knowledge sessions to the new upcoming designers. I feel most of freshers will fail due to lack of proper guidance or mentor who can help him in career planning. This is one interesting thing, where I can learn & share my experiences and this makes me mentally very happy.

There are lots of stuff still to mention but i think the list grows...!!!! I am just sharing this in my blog as I feel some of my ideas may give some inspirations to others and helpful to align their career and personal goals. As designers I feel we are very "Valuable" and very responsible and we must create a "VALUE" to every one (company / users / government / society /environment / etc.

There are just my thoughts which my mind is currently moving around. If anyone needs a help / suggestion or want to know more about some of my personal MIT's please feel free to reach me - ranzeeth (at) gmail (dot) com. Thank you very much for reading :)

iPad User Experience Guidelines

2010-03-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPad outline how to create user interfaces optimized for the iPad device. According toApple, the best iPad applications: downplay application UI so that the focus is on content; present content in beautiful, often realistic ways; and take full advantage of device capabilities to

enable enhanced interaction.
The overview of iPad user experience guidelines listed below is © 2010 Apple Inc. More details on these guidelines and further information on developing for the iPad can be found in Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPad.
Support All Orientations
Your application should encourage people to interact with iPad from any side by providing a great experience in all orientations. The reason is that people don’t view the device as having a default orientation, because they don’t pay much attention to the minimal device frame and they’re unconcerned with the location of the Home button.
Enhance Interactivity (Don’t Just Add Features)
The best iPad applications give people innovative ways to interact with content while they perform a clearly defined, finite task. Resist the temptation to fill the large screen with features that are not directly related to the main task. In particular, you should not view the large iPad screen as an invitation to bring back all the functionality you pruned from your iPhone application.
Flatten Your Information Hierarchy
Although you don’t want to pack too much information into one screen, you also want to prevent people from feeling that they must visit many different screens to find what they want. In general, focus the main screen on the primary content and provide additional information or tools in an auxiliary view, such as a popover.
Reduce Full-Screen Transitions
Instead of swapping in a whole new screen when some embedded information changes, update only the areas of the user interface that need it. When you perform fewer full-screen transitions, your application has greater visual stability, which helps people keep track of where they are in their task.
Enable Collaboration and Connectedness
Think of ways people might want to use your application with others. Expand your thinking to include both the physical sharing of a single device and the virtual sharing of data.
Add Physicality and Heightened Realism
Whenever possible, add a realistic, physical dimension to your application. The more true to life your application looks and behaves, the easier it is for people to understand how it works and the more they enjoy using it.
Delight People with Stunning Graphics
The high-resolution iPad screen supports rich, beautiful, engaging graphics that draw people into an application and make the simplest task rewarding.
De-emphasize User Interface Controls
Help people focus on the content by designing your application UI as a subtle frame for the information they’re interested in. Downplay application controls by minimizing their number and prominence. Consider creating custom controls that subtly integrate with your application’s graphical style. In this way, controls are discoverable, but not too conspicuous.
Minimize Modality
iPad applications should allow people to interact with them in nonlinear ways. Modality prevents this freedom by interrupting people’s workflow and forcing them to choose a particular path.
Rethink Your Lists
Consider a more real-world vision of your application. For example, on iPhone, Contacts is a streamlined list, but on iPad, Contacts is an address book with a beautifully tangible look and feel.
Consider Multifinger Gestures
The large iPad screen provides great scope for multifinger gestures, including gestures made by more than one person.
Consider Popovers for Some Modal Tasks
If you use modal views to enable self-contained tasks in your iPhone application, you might be able to use popovers instead.
Restrict Complexity in Modal Tasks
People appreciate being able to accomplish a self-contained subtask in a modal view, because the context shift is clear and temporary. But if the subtask is too complex, people can lose sight of the main task they suspended when they entered the modal view.
Downplay File-Handling Operations
Although iPad applications can allow people to create and manipulate files and share them with a computer (when the device is docked), this does not mean that people should have a sense of the file system on iPad.
Ask People to Save Only When Necessary
People should have confidence that their work is always preserved unless they explicitly cancel or delete it. If your application helps people create and edit documents, make sure they do not have to take an explicit save action.
Start Instantly
iPad applications should start as quickly as possible so that people can begin using them without delay.
Always Be Prepared to Stop
Like iPhone applications, iPad applications stop when people press the Home button to open another application.

More details on these guidelines and further information on developing for the iPad can be found in Apple's Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPad.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

2010-02-14T07:05:00.000-08:00

All my dearest friends..! who are
....COMMITTED - "Happy Valentines Day"
....SINGLE - treat this as "Happy Independence Day"
...haha! Copied this text from my friends SMS! ;) Any ways...adding my own string..!
....Multiple- "Happy Valentines Day" X "Number of persons" / "Number of months in relationship" (my wild guess.. lol!)

Valentine Day is a day of the year when you can express your love to the people you appreciate. Do we need a special day for this? Every day can be a Valentines day ...Right! Some how i feel that these days are just made for commercializing and make money out of it..! There is nothing wrong but now days people are going more ext-reams which is a bad part but other side... a day to celebrate and a reason to get together... No offence... this is just my view..!

Advertisements kills the credibility & main functionality

2010-02-04T06:09:00.000-08:00

"Advertisements kills the credibility & main functionality"
I was just searching for a new car deals. Just logged into Carwale.com. I saw a new XYLO flash advertisement on the interface and tried to close it. Unfortunately the close button is not working and could not able to close it. The main functionality & heart of this portal is in the search functionality but this is hidden under this advertisement. Tried several ways to do my task but literally failed and got frustrated. Is this a bug created by the advertiser? QA of CarWale did not fix this? Who will provide these advertisements? In most cases advertisements kills and diverts the user from the main content / task.

We know that advertisements are the most revenue generating sources, but it is very much important that there should be a good balance between the usability / content and the sites actual purpose. let me share you the funniest thing. When i was struggling with this and called up my friend "Rajendra" who is basically a QA professional. He just played with this interaction for couple of minutes and told me that this is a bug and more over gave me a workaround that click on the home page tab for couple of times and try clicking close button until it goes away :) QA know this... but what about the normal User? .... Interesting!

Ford GTXI - Gear Up!

2010-01-29T22:25:00.001-08:00

My first table top photography experiment..! Equipment used..Tourch light bounced from front through a "KICK" perfume on a flat teak table. Background used for this is a white board. A match stick from top to get the light reflections..

Subject: Hot wheels Ford GTXI
Camera: 450DXSI Canon
Lens: 50mm Canon
Technical Spec: ISO-800; F 1/8
Post processing: Photoshop; Light Room
Photography & Design: Ranjeet
Project 365 - Day29
Copyright © 2010 | Ranz | www.ranjeeth.com

Usability vs User Experience

2010-01-26T00:24:00.000-08:00

I have noticed there is lot of confusion to many people between the "User Experience Design" & "Usability". Let me try to explain in few words..!
"Usability refers to the ease with which a user can accomplish his or her goals using any tool. (...) Somewhat in contrast, user experience refers to the way a user perceives his or her interaction with a system. User experience design encompasses both interaction design and visual design and seeks to promote an interface that is pleasing to the user."

Is Building Brand Loyalty Tougher Than Ever?

2010-01-21T03:30:00.000-08:00

With more ways than ever for consumers to get what they need when they need it, it’s tougher for retailers to build and maintain brand loyalty online. Online shoppers are in fact the most demanding of all shoppers, with high expectations surrounding the breadth of products offered, up-to-date pricing including sales and promotions, a variety of shipping options and more detailed information than is available in a retail store or catalog.

It is a highly competitive online market space and it is not always the traditional multi-channel retailers that are top of mind when shopping online. In our newly released Brand Loyalty Whitepaper leveraging privately-funded research undertaken with BRS Group Modern Research earlier this year, Adobe found that only eight e-retailers score higher than 6% in unaided recall among online shoppers. Further, social media, more than advertising, is shaping customers’ perceptions on businesses (reviews, feedback forums, blogs, etc.) and the result is an influenced economy that is forcing everyone in the public realm—including the owners of products and brands—to become more transparent, open, conversational and honest. Merchandisers are now in a position where they will have to rethink the way influence is distributed and the new role of marketing communications in an information landscape dictated by consumers.

A few affordable suggestions to gain the much-needed traction e-retailers are after include price transparency, product interactivity (connecting with customers via live chat), RIA’s to create an overall engaging online experience and feedback forums to encourage shoppers to share their recommendations with others.

Our research shows that online shoppers are still walking away from shopping carts (an epidemic rarely seen offline) mainly because there is a lack of information, even less engaging content, and little promise that security (still a top concern for consumers) won’t be compromised. How are you stopping this trend? Adobe would love to hear about loyalty tactics that have worked for you. It’s important to us to share that kind of insight with our customers and reveal problem-solving techniques Adobe know can make a difference in ROI.Download the new whitepaper here.

Usability in Movies...

2010-01-18T21:46:00.000-08:00

watch this movie and this may give a clear picture what Usability mean..!

Yes!....Flying..Heights!

2010-01-16T05:49:00.001-08:00

OK...Finally this Sankranti... had very great time...! Sankranti is one of my favorite festivals. Every year all our relatives gather at one place at heart of the city and fly kites. This year couple of my cousins who plays an active role was out of town and the climate was cloudy which initially disappointed me.

But luckily it did not rain but there is little wind around. We had cut many kites and couple of my friends joined me. End of the day, we lost more than 20 kites and had cut 40 kites overall... The day ended with lots of fun, joy & happiness...!

BTW my dad has taken a beautiful portrait of mine, I simply loved it :) ...Thank You very much..Dad!

Fine writting Instrument...

2010-01-05T04:00:00.001-08:00

Fine writting Instrument...
Originally uploaded by ranZeeth™
I love Mont Blanc logo a lot..! Mostly because of rich logo and the finest quality. I finally bought this pen @ Bangkok streets for 200 Batts ..! I am happy as this pen looks the copy of original ..lol!

Just tried to capture this with my canon 50mm lens for my day 02 of project 365 and tweaked in Photoshop and created this advertisement.

eXperience a Wonderful New Year

2009-12-31T21:01:00.000-08:00

Wising you & your family a wonderful new year..2010

Just back from office and bit hungry for some concepts to design a greeting card for you folks! This was bit late night and other side; my friends are calling up to join the New Year Bash! ... Kya Karo...Checked couple of my old photography captures...but i am not convinced...much!!!! So...finally...got an idea...and just play around with the camera and my fingers. And finally tried different lighting / camera settings... But this was awesome..! and made my DAY 01 :)

"Hey! By the way.. I did not reveal you right! what is this "Day 01" and why i am specific..here? ....I am starting a New Innovative Project Initiative from this New Year called "PROJECT 365"... Basically.. i will be capturing ...one photograph every day! ... :) Is it not...Creative & Interesting.. folks!? ...Yes..It is! .. May be lets how far...i can do this.... Now i will be updating in a separate folder called "Project 365" My Flickr pro account. My positive energy say that... I will be posting one unique...rocking! Capture...every day! You can view and comment on each photographs...let’s...keep an eye on this....& please do comment..!

"Project 365" - Day 01

http://www.ranjeeth.com/

The Phone-O-Scope: Attaching SLR lenses to an iPhone

2009-12-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to learn a bit more about the optics involved in mid- to pro-level cameras, and googled around and found this intresting article. Great idea of optical couplers - that is, a system to transmit light from one optical device to another to make an image.

Just to get the inevitable question of 'why' out of the way - well, why not? There are no similar SLR lens to camera phone attaching attempts anywhere else online (not including the mini-lenses you can get as they're not 35mm lenses). The Phone-O-Scope doesn't take especially superb images, and it's a bit clumsy to handle. On the other hand, it's fun to shoot with and produces very analog (almost Holga-like) results. You also get the advantages of SLR lenses - that is, DOF effects, and the wide range of available focal lengths (i.e. macro to telephoto).

There are plenty of interesting designs for cameras floating about, and plenty of nice phones with reasonable optics attached. I'm hoping that this experiment takes the concept of a camera phone to it's illogical conclusion.

Click here to see more details...how to sink SLR lens & Apple Iphone

Wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS

2009-12-25T02:27:00.000-08:00

Wish you a Merry Christmas...! Wish you a Merry Christmas...! Merry Christmas...!
In my recent trip to Bangkok we spent some time taking some photographs from The Baiyoke Sky Hotel, rising 88-storeys which is the Thailand’s tallest and Bangkok’s most scenic hotel. The hotel is strategically located in the heart of downtown Bangkok, surrounded by bustling markets and various entertainment attractions.

While enjoying the spectacular view of the colorful city from the artistically built hotel. Went to the Roof Top Bar & Music Lounge on 83rd floor for live entertainment and found this Christmas tree and captured couple of pics to share greet this Christmas with this photograph!

Organized & Managed "1000 Smiles project @ GOA"

2009-12-22T22:02:00.000-08:00

1000 Smiles project @ GOA - A great Success!

Goa, The land of Sun, Sea & Sand!

We associate Goa with Beaches, Churches, Temples, Monuments and heritage sites. This is only a part of Goa, its real essence lies in its people. The 1000 portrait project is an attempt to capture & showcase the 1000 unique smiling people of Goa.

After organizing and managing 1000 portraits project hyderabad with my team we got very positive spirit and want to take this project to the national level ...making India Smile. As part of this we have executed in Goa with associating with local goa photographers.

This project is about 10 Hours – 10 Teams – 10 Locations with cameras in Goa and 1000 portraits at the end of the day. As a part of this project we will ask people from different parts of Goa to smile at our humble attempt to capture the true spirit of Goa. Shoot was done on 11th decemeber and exhibition was showcased on 19th & 20th to showcase the same.

Will update the details later.

My Thailand Trip - Bangkok & Pattayya!

2009-12-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

Landed up at Thailand for a vacation with my friends. We had a great time spending our holiday and exploring the beauty of Thailand. Spend 3 days in Pattayya and 4 days in bangkok. Taken tons of pictures around and i dont want to write much and post some pictures.... a "PICTURE" speaks more than "WORDS"

My Thailand TRIP buddy Gang :)

Me & Cishore on a NINJA BIKE :)

Our Deluxe Room @ Ervan Hotel - Pattaya

Alcazar Show @ Pattayya

One shall not miss a chance to see the world-famous Alcazar or Tiffany show. You will be entertained with music, lip-sings, dances and various shows played by many perfectly beautiful female actresses. If you are unaware of, you cannot imagine that these female actresses were actually male from origin!
The Alcazar Show has been delighting audiences from around the world of almost 20 years. Thrilling 1,000,000 with laughter & impressions. You'll experience the magic of Alcazars state of the art computerized lighting system and be dazzled by the effects of its Circle surrounding sound DTS system, but that's only the beginning. Prepared to be entertained in grand style by its 400 staff wonderfully talented artists and entertainers.
The Phettrakul Family is the Founder & Owner of the Alcazar Cabaret, which is located on Pattaya 2nd Road. Originally, it was a small theatre of 350 seats with 40 employees on almost 20 years ago. The floor, stage & technical equipment were rudimentary and in fact the business was not so successful in that early day, however, the family never gave up and continued to improve and upgrade its facilities until Alcazar Cabaret Show became "World Famous"!
Today's Alcazar features a Grand Beautiful Theatre with a capacity of 1,200 seats & 440 employees. With state of art light & sound system featuring the ultra high tech "Circle surround sound DTS system" & the most modern computer technology. Today, the Alcazar Cabaret is "World Class"!.
Alcazar Cabaret of Pattaya is now well known throughout most of the "INTERNATIONAL" in equivalence to both Lido & Moulin Rouge of Paris. But Alcazar is different that Lady-man stages it. Alcazar can successfully blend the art of acting, stage design, costumes & the sequence of the shows so well to be impressed by every one of all ages. So Alcazar is a must to visit for both Local & Foreign Visitors don't miss it ever.
View from Baiyoke Tower
It contains the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest hotel in Southeast Asia and the third-tallest all-hotel structure in the world, with 673 guest rooms.
IThe building is 304 m (997 ft) tall, or 328 m (1,076 ft) tall if its antenna is included. It has 85 floors, with a public observatory on the 77th floor, a bar called "Roof Top Bar & Music Lounge" on the 83rd floor, and a 360-degree revolving roof deck on the 84th floor. Construction on the building ended in 1997, with the antenna being added two years later, in 1999.

Goldern Buddha Temple - Bangkok

Mother of Buddha

Huge 50 feet golden idol at Bylakuppe, I believe she is Buddha's mother?

Dancing Dolphin Show @ Bangkok ZOO

This is worth seeing and its awesome!

Paragliding in Pattayya

Finally CELEBRATION @ Bangkok

Nederburg Sparkling Wine @Hotel Grand President Swimming Pool Deck, Bangkok

Designed Posters and Logos for my friends short film "HOMECOMING"

2009-12-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

Short Film "HOMECOMING" - By My friend Sekhar
One of my good friend "Chandra Sekhar Singh" who is a banker by profession who has a great heart & love rowards photography. He has experimented a short film and i just contributed some of my skills in desining posters, logos, etc.

We had a preview on 6th Dec 09 @ Prasadz Preview theatre - Hyderabad where 100+ guests are invited. There was a great responce and we all had a heartful satisfaction. This small move is about 30 min and reminded all the viewers about their childhood. Looking this film i was loaded with memories, expressions & feeling... Immediately i went on to stage and shared some of my childhood moments to the audience. Let me share you some films summary , Posters & Some photographs..

Film Summary
In a pursuit to find happiness a talent realizes that he was locked in a box for years, trapped in a fateful coincidence with himself unable to escape the consequence of change he sees himself finally standing in front of the law of happiness which was always probing him to look at it. He finally sees it.

Ram the protagonist is caught in a disappointment with the world around him he seeks no religion nor comfort but happiness from somewhere he only fantasizes to exist, his fate makes him visit his virgin-self by making him sail in an odyssey of his past.

Ram in his early 20's is asked by his dad to complete a small taks, from where fate takes over and puppets him into a journey back in time where he finds himself as a kid, untainted by the world. Which eventually leads him to find a treasure which is grounded for many years by him in his adolescence. By finding this treasure of immense value he breaks the wickerwork around and finds happiness. He realizes that happiness is always around us, it is us who fail to perceive it's presence in every inch of this world.

Do you know how Google and Nike got their names?

2009-12-03T23:35:00.000-08:00

Google got its name from googol - the number one followed by 100 zeroes which represents the amount of information the site was expected to cover, and Nike's name come from a Greek goddess, reveals a new book.

The book narrates the weird and wonderful ways some of the world's top firms got their names are revealed in a new book.

While many companies like Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencer are named after real people, others have bizarre beginnings, reports The Sun.

Google is a reworked form of googol, and tyre giant Bridgestone sounds English but is a translation of the founder's surname, Ishibashi - Japanese for stone bridge.

Nike is named after the Greek goddess of victory.

However, computer company Oracle does not have any connection with mythology. Instead it comes from a top secret CIA project that founders Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Milner were working on before they started the firm.

Ikea is a combination of the initials of founder Ingmar Kamprad and his home, a farm called Elmtaryd in the Swedish town Agunnaryd.

And Aldi is a cross between the Albrecht family who began the firm and the word discount.

How the Internet Enables Intimacy- Worth Seeing this Ted Talk

2009-12-03T05:27:00.000-08:00

Stefana Broadbent’s “How the Internet Enables Intimacy”. She presents meaningful commentary on the reality of how internet tools are used in a social, and intimate fashion. And I think her findings might surprise you.

You are so special to me MOM!

2009-11-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

This time Diwali 2009 was so special to me. We got lots of crackers but i was more interested in capturing the fireworks and was busy clicking...wonderful colors and lights :) Captured many pictures, done different photography experiments and played with low light photography. Do you know who is my Model? As usual regular model "MY LOVING MOM" ...!

I really liked the lights in a row. Just looking for some time got an idea to gift something special to my dearest mom. Taken a low light shot in a bulb mode (Low exposure) using a tripod. This came up very well and immediately given for large size print and beautifully framed with silver frame. That's my Diwali gift to my MoM and this thrilled me a lot and this made Diwali...a awesome memory for me...

Check the photograph

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranzeeth/4022705671/

Thank You, God, for giving Me the gift of living. In this curious, strange World where all things change And where I can grow to be My best and utmost me. Thank You that I desire Always to mount up higher And be something more Than I have been before, And thank You for my mind That always seeks to find The beautiful and true And be one with You. You are so special to me....My dear MOM!

Design philosophy

2009-10-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

Something Interesting...!

Eyetracking: Is It Worth It?

2009-10-20T05:18:00.000-07:00

"It is easy to get excited about eyetracking. Seeing where people look while using your Web site, Web application, or software product sounds like an opportunity to get amazing insights into their user experience. But eyetracking is expensive and requires extra effort and specialized knowledge. The heat maps and other visualizations certainly look impressive, but what can you really learn from them? After using eyetracking for the first time, many find that it is not easy to know how to analyze the visualizations and make conclusions from them. Does eyetracking really provide any additional insights you would not have discovered anyway through traditional usability testing? Does the value of eyetracking outweigh its limitations? This article will discuss and answer these questions." (Jim Ross - UXmatters) ...more

Wishing you all Happy Diwali

2009-10-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

Diwali or Dīpāvali (Sanskrit: a row of lamps), the most colourful Indian festival, is celebrated on the Kartika Amavasya or New Moon, which falls during October/November. This year it is on the 17th October, 2009.

Diwali as we call it today comes from the Sanskrit word Deepavali meaning garland of lights. There are many legends and important events associated with this highly auspicious day. Hence it is said that any Pooja, mantra japa or stotra recital on this day gives 100 times more benefits. Actually it is a 5 day festival with each day having its own legend, customes and rituals.

Wishing you all a Happy and Safe Diwali .. I will be posting some pics and details how i have celebrated this year..

*Condition Apply- How many people understand this?

2009-09-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #5 for UMO 2009

Advertisers attract people by creating an attractive advertisements and offers to grab the attention and sell their products. But often gets attracted by the advertisements and always get diverted to other track without reading the small invisible (*Conditions apply) which will be in the bottom which is almost unreadable font.

Most of the people don’t understand what is this (*) means and what would the conditions apply mean. This is a he problem where always people are always confused and no idea what it really mean until they speak to customer care or read the instructions if any.

USB Ports in the computer is always confusing.

2009-09-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #5 for UMO 2009

Always USB ports are big pain points to connect with the desktop or laptops. No idea which side to pin the USB in. Always need to try couple of times to plug it in a correct direction. Most of the time USB ill be in the CPU but CPU can placed any where like below the table, under the table self, self, locked cabin, on the table, etc. It is difficult to connect the USB reaching the CPU most of the times in these cases so it would much better to have a USB connection in the monitor as it is very easily accessible and upfront.

Soft drinks & Beer can lid design is sometimes dangerous and persons need to bend their head to the top along with the can to get the last drops out.

2009-09-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #4 for UMO 2009

Design Problem: Beer cans and Soft drink cans are design in way that once you pull the lid handles outer direction, the knob pushes down a specific area and get opened. Most of the times the handle gets break as it’s a light weight metal and the corners are sharp enough to cut the upper lip areas.

The other problem is that this design is very difficult to satisfy the use case when there is only some amount of liquid in it. The person needs to bend their head and the can totally up then only all the last drops come out of the can.

NO INDICATION WHERE TO TARGET THE JACK UNDER THE CAR AND LIFT THE JACK TO MAKE THE PUNTURE

2009-09-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #3 for UMO 2009

Indian roads most often tyres get punctured. Each car has a different placement to target the jack and lift the car. Some cars can be targeted to the side steel rod below the door and for some cars it should be targeted to the tyre rods or just beside the connecting rod. There is no indication or mark below the car where the jack has to be targeted to? This is always a big pain to try different options to point and target the jack and lift the car.

BUS FOOT BOARDS ARE ALWAYS DANGEROUS. DRIVER CANNOT SEE EVERYTHING FROM A SMALL MIRROR.

2009-09-29T07:10:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #2 for UMO 2009

In India most of the people use public transport. The Busses will be traveled full most of times people will be hanging on the Bus foot boards. Especially when it comes to the front foot boards it is very dangerous as the type is very next to his leg and he may be pulled into the type if his dress or get slip from the foot board. This is a very bad design as there should be grill or something which might avoid the person to fall into the type.

Always Indian bus stops are always full and crowded with lots of people. IT is very dangerous as the led can easily go into the type or the driver can start the bus and move forward on the peoples legs as he doesn’t have entire visibility from a small mirror. Most of the time drivers find difficulties in the bus stops. There should be a grill or something which helps to prevent go under the tyre.

IS CAMERAS NOT DESIGNED FOR LEFT HANDERS? HOW A LEFT HANDER WILL USE?

2009-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

BAD DESIGN CONTEST, MY SUBMISSION #1 for UMO 2009
IS CAMERAS NOT DESIGNED FOR LEFT HANDERS? HOW A LEFT HANDER WILL USE?

Cameras are designed for the right hander and the click will be in the right and the camera to be holed by the right hand. Cameras predominantly have the hand grip, shutter release, film wind lever and commonly used selection buttons, switches and dials controlled by the right hand, lens controls (where present) tend to be accessible by either hand. When a left-handed person uses a right-handed camera the hand control can be less steady and hence produce camera shake leading to poorer pictures at low shutter speeds.

When cameras were predominantly mechanical or later electro mechanical, it would be difficult and hence expensive to produce a left-handed version of a right-handed camera. Video-cameras also tend to have the hand strap on the right side of the camera. Thus the camera must be held using the right hand, which often leads to a shakeier video being captured.

AIR INDIA “USER IN EXPERIENCE” Design

2009-09-06T02:18:00.001-07:00

Air India online ticket booking experience...nothing worse than this...
Recently, I was looking for fight prices to Bangkok and found Indian Airlines flies from Hyderabad - bangkok from yatra.com

Once i clicked the URL www.inianairlines.in it displayed Air India logos and site branding. Then i thought may be these two companies have merged now. Rechecked the URL but still it showed me www.indianairlines.in. There are 3 sections and each section has button just like a drop down design.

No idea where to click as there is any description. The 3 options are Air India Express, Air India AI Code flights.. (No Idea what this mean).. Air India IC code flights.. (No Idea what this mean.) Tried sometime and it looks like Air India Express is something different service and it has different fleets. Could not flight out difference between AI & IC codes... as there of the links take me to a different websites in a new windows and all of them has its own booking engines.

Ok, finally I thought lets try IC and find out flights for Bangkok.
Here is my booking experience...@ AirIndia .. :)

- The heading says. Book a flight - IC flights... (No idea....What is IC?)
- Multi city link... what it means..? Why is this placed after return...? No idea..!
- More cities link was placed after the cities. I was expecting this might open a other drop down in place and list more cities... but surprisingly it has taken me to other website.. :) We will find similar booking engine and it has few more cities added in the list and again you find a "more cities" link which will open the previous website "IC" in one more window :) What a great workflow..!
- I have selected Hyderabad - Bangkok and selected "Return" radio button and selected dates as Departure: 6 Sept 2009, and Return: 31September 2009. I was looking for the search button and did not find. By mistake I thought "Reset" Button is search and clicked on it. All the fields were reset to current date. I was confused because the reset button was given more priority than the “Book:” by placing this in right. Retyped everything and this time carefully looked into the user interface and realized I need to click on "Book Now" for searching...flights. - Once clicking the "Book Now" button it showed me the same screen, then I clicked 2-3 times but still in the same page. Looked carefully and noticed that there is an error in red color saying "Invalid Departure/Return Date" I thought that there might be no flights available on that day but the fact is that there is no 31st date in September. System doesn’t validate and tell the user about dates being a booking engine. Very sad and bad user experience…ever experienced…!
-By Default Indian Rupees is selected and id don't know why they want Any other currency radio button and a Drop down deactivated - selecting "Australia - AUD" Looks like the designer want to make the interface very busy without any room :)
-Instructions text is very funny; it occupies ~20% real estate and unwanted secondary information.

- All fares are reflected in Indian Rupees.
- Equivalent approximate fares in your chosen currency are also displayed.
- Sale of International Sectors (Ex-India or Return)is now available on our website.

Finally this website has eaten my time and I have decided that let me go back to some private fight booking website and do the booking. I have lost all the good will / credibility about this Air India spending some minutes on their website. I came to a conclusion that if something goes wrong in my shopping cart, I am not sure getting my money back easily...
Tried calling some local agents... at the end of the day :) as I felt they will respond me if I call them and intimate me the status rather than I solely taking risk :)

Summary: For online ticket booking site, search and the booking engine is the heart of the user experience. Too much of information will kill the experience, keep the site as simple as possible and design it more task driven. Have proper validation and give an impression that this site is secured and your money will be safe / secure. Divide the tasks in to primary and secondary and make it simpler to use by providing proper user assistance elements inbuilt in the design. This website needs a serious redesign and need to follow UCD model. Don’t know why Government is putting lot of money in other stuff but why they are not focusing on small things which give revenue to the government and happily diverting the business to the private folks!

1000 Portraits Project - A great success

2009-08-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

1000 Portraits - 10 Photographers - 1 Day - 1 City - HYDERABAD. Whenever we think of any great city, we think of the monuments, the historic places but the real essence lies in its people. The 1000 portrait project is an attempt to both salute and celebrate the people of Hyderabad.
One Day: Sunday 2Nd, August 2009
10 People: Cishore, Sekhar, Vijju, Rebel, Naveen, Ranjeeth, Chaitanya, Suraj, Preethu, Janki, Jusri, Peddu, Charu, Abhi & Kartik
1000 Portraits: www.flickr.com/groups/1000portraits/

We have started the project at Necklace road and we split into 2 groups and we started clicking. We have divided in to three categories for each group. Clickers, Snickers and Flickers. Flickers will flick the people and talk to them and make them smile. Snickers will catch , note down the details of the capture numbers and the contact details. Clickers will do the most easiest thing which is capturing & framing.. :)

We have taken ~2400 portraits in a span of 10 hours in 10 different locations and interacted more that 3000+ people. I personally had an interaction with 1600 people and got an good opportunity to explore and study emotional behaviours, facial expressions, smiles, different communication, etc. I was surprised to see that Hyderabad people are very open minded and most of them has no issues to share their smile and photographs.

Initially we had some difficulties in convincing people but when we explained about the social cause and our profiles people came forward to share their smiles. Overall this is a great experience in my life capturing 1000 portraits in one day. This is done for the first time in ASIA. This was done in UK, USA, Spain in the past and now we the "Hyderabadies" has done it. All the expenditure for this project will be shared by this 10 people just for making "Hyderabad Smile".

A exhibit on will is planned this month end and the venue will be updated shortly. You can view 1000 portraits here:

View all 1000 portraits in Flickr

For more details please visit www.1000portraits.in

Amazing web-trend map! (I Love This)

2009-05-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Amazing web-trend map! Web Trend Map 4 by Oliver Reichenstein
You can find details here..

When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods

2009-04-27T03:30:00.000-07:00

Modern day user experience research methods can now answer a wide range of questions. Knowing when to use each method can be understood by mapping them in 3 key dimensions and across typical product development phases.

The field of user experience, is blessed (or cursed) with a very wide range of research methods, ranging from tried-and-true methods such as lab-based usability studies to those that have been more recently developed, such as desirability studies (to measure aesthetic appeal).
You can't use the full set of methods on every project, but most design teams benefit from combining insights from multiple research methods. The key question is what to do when. To better understand when to use which method, it is helpful to realize that they differ along 3 dimensions:
Attitudinal vs. Behavioral
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Context of Website or Product Use The following chart illustrates where several popular methods appear along these dimensions:

More details...click here http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-research-methods.html

Comparing UXD Business Models

2009-04-27T03:16:00.000-07:00

This manifest need for UX leaders to learn—and share—best practices was the rationale for the authors, Jim Nieters and Garett Dworman, to write and present a CHI 2007 Experience Report on the organizational structure that Jim Nieters created for his UX group at Cisco

[1]. It also motivated us to follow up that presentation with a CHI 2007 Management Special Interest Group (SIG), “Comparing UXD Business Models,” in which participants compared different models of UX organizational design

[2]. Our intent was to share experiences and systematically explore them in the hope that this information will aid companies in structuring their internal UX functions. To this end, we generated SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analyses of four UX business models.

Visit: uxmatters to read the complete article

Just back from Adventure photography trip

2009-04-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

We are just Back from Coorg :)

Recently back from Coorg (Kodagu) adventure photography trip with my photography friends. It was a long weekend trip a(march-27th to 29th) we planned and was a awesome experience and this reminds me for the rest of life.

That’s Coorg for me incomparable scenic beauty, lush green valleys, coffee plantations, teak wood forests & majestic mountain ranges. Add to that a strong, brave martial race of Coorgs (Kodavas) that reveres tradition, has a distinct culture and lives life to its fullest.

Coorg is situated on the Western Ghats of Karnataka in South India. For the adventurous at heart, it is an absolute treat. There are trekking, golfing and angling (Mahaseer too!) options available. Religious trips abound on Hindu and Buddhist circuits. Family getaways can be easily arranged. You can also relax your body and mind with special Ayurvedic massages. Coorg is also as trendy and happening as its close neighbour Bangalore.

But the predominant entity here is nature at its best. Coorg is like the dreamland of the philosopher. If you’re the type who likes to mingle with nature, romance in the mountains, feel the tingle of the cool and gentle breeze, watch leaves flutter in dance-like movements and hear sounds of birds fill the air, then Coorg is just the place for you!

I have of exciting experiences to share with you and will update this shortly.. Till then bye...! Come back again..!

GOOD DESIGN in 'Ten commandments’.

2009-04-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Back in the early 1980s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world around him – “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.” Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design?
As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important criteria for what he considered was good design. Subsequently they have become known as the ‘Ten commandments’.
Here they are.

Good Design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good Design helps a product tobe understood
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is durable
Good design is thorough to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is a little design is possible

For more details check : http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/gooddesign
Vitsœ’s designer Dieter Rams. Photograph by Abisag Tüllmann

Feel proud to be a UX'er...

2009-03-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Usability Experience Specialist is considered as Top30 careers for 2009
Overview: This profession has a hard time agreeing on a name for itself. It's called, for example, user experience specialist, interface designer, information architect, usability practitioner, user-centered design specialist, and usability manager.

Whatever you call them, their job is to help ensure that products, especially technical ones, are easy and pleasurable to use. How? First, they observe and interview potential users to identify their needs and preferences. They may conduct a task analysis to break down the user experience of a product to its component parts and make suggestions for each. After a prototype is developed, they may watch and interview potential users again and suggest revisions. Usability specialists may work, for example, on voting machines, the next generation iPhone, a medical imaging machine, an athletic shoe production line, a shopping website, or a bricks-and-mortar store.

A potential downside of this career is that shortsighted companies believe they can make products without a specifically trained usability expert, so you may have to spend considerable time justifying your service's value. Another drawback is that you may need to make efforts to avoid being typecast as someone who can help design only one kind of product.
Those concerns are usually dwarfed by the ongoing creativity and the good feeling of continually creating products that are a pleasure to use.

A Day in the Life. Because you're the only usability specialist in your company, you're involved in all stages of the product development process. You might actually never get to participate in all aspects in one day, but here, we'll suspend that bit of reality so you can get a better idea of what the career is like.

Is this intresting and want to read more... http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2008/12/11/best-careers-2009-usability-experience-specialist.html

Attended User Experience Metrics workshop

2009-02-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

Being Effective in HCI Work through User Experience Metrics by Anirudha Joshi at Hyderabad.
Anirudha Joshi is a faculty member in the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. He teaches and does research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design. He has organized a tutorial on User Experience Metrics (Measuring User Experience) full day training. I have attended this in Hyderabad and it was a great learning. ~25 people were registered for this but we were hardly 10 people who have attended. That is only because it’s a "VALENTINES DAY" (Feb 14th).

During the course, we worked on hands-on sessions calculating some metrics for different products, defining UX goals, etc. We had lot interactive, Q&A, idea sharing, brainstorming, and discussed other UX related topics.

Anirudha finished a round of one-day tutorials on user experience metrics in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. These tutorials went off smoothly without exception every where. The user experience management (UXM) team of Satyam has provided the venue and local support in Pune, Bangalore,Hyderabad and Chennai.

Free Ride in a POLICE car..!

2009-02-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

Free Ride in a POLICE Car "If you Shop Lift" :)
Interesting sign board I have came across in Astoria, Oregon. I just found one store which is closed and there is a sign board "FREE" Ride in a "Police Car" ...If you shop lift. This was very neatly designed and very highlighted words separately. I thought its some great offer and went near by to read this... and went ga gaaaa! “Some small cartooned stars jumping on my head!
This is distributed to all the stores by the Astoria Police Department. :) Great idea! Very interesting..!

By the way, did you notice my reflection on the glass?

Brand vs. Usability

2009-02-19T03:33:00.000-08:00

The importance of brand vs. usability ..."Which is more important: brand or usability? Does there have to be a conflict between the two? Today, we'll tackle the subject and try to find a middle ground between form and function. On one hand, best practices enable better usability.

But adhering to them too much stymies innovation and possibly brand differentiation.Does your site represent a strong brand? If not, you've probably built one that looks like every other site on the Web. If your brand doesn't have a strong voice, your site's voice is generic. If you don't have a strong visual brand, users probably can't tell your site from anyone else's. You don't want your company's services and products to become a commonality, but you don't provide enough brand experience to generate any real loyalty.On the other hand, maybe your brand is carefully guarded and has very clear style guides and rules about its look, voice, and feel. In this case, your site has probably eschewed accepted standards of common sites in an effort to make it stand out. If you have a strong offline brand (e.g., luxury brands, highly differentiated retail brands), you may have striven to adapt that offline brand to online. While it may make complete sense to your current customers (who get your brand, voice, and nomenclature), how does this experience work for new customers who aren't brand loyalists?A Strong Brand Equals Loyal CustomersFirst things first: if you want to have loyal customers, you need a strong brand.

Customers are attracted to the things that differentiate you. I spoke at a corporate conference a couple years ago, and Gary Hoover (of Hoover's) was on the panel with me. In a discussion about brand, he mentioned the supermarket test. It's simple: if you're knocked out and wake up in the frozen food section of a supermarket, can you immediately tell which supermarket you're in? In general, the answer is no: all supermarkets look the same.But if you're in a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's, the answer is yes. Their brands aren't just the signage they use. They're embodied by everything in the store. Mind you, those two companies follow best practices for grocery store layout. But they do it with their own flair and attention to detail; every shelf and aisle reflect their brands."

Will the Real Information Architect Please Stand Up?

2009-02-16T02:32:00.001-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation about information architecture.

View more presentations from Gail Leija. (tags: design interaction)

Bad Usability Calendar - 2009

2009-02-08T06:02:00.000-08:00

NetLife Research has released 2009 version of the bad usability calendar and it’s now available online. Learning by bad examples is often a good way in discussing usability with people that are not hardcore usability people. I’m currently taking few A3 digital prints and want to put on my desk.

I really like the concept of "BAD USABILITY CALENDER". I am collecting all these calendars from past 3-4 years, I think from 2005. You can also see yearly calendar in my desk too... :)
Most of my friends / colleagues ask me "Ranjeeth .. what's this- bad usability?" Why do you like bad usability concepts...? Blaw..Blaw..Blaw..!

Hmmmm.... I realized that people points only different things much.. Also trust me they feel interesting..! and they will also start thinking.. Why are these called "BAD" and "NOT USABLE"
GET YOUR COPY TOO- Download from: Badusability.com

Google User Experience

2009-02-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

Every millisecond counts.
Simplicity is powerful.

Engage beginners and attract experts.

Dare to innovate.
Design for the world.

Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.

Delight the eye without distracting the mind.

Be worthy of people's trust.

Add a human touch.

Google doesn't know everything, and no design is perfect. Google products ask for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. When practicing these design principles, the Google User Experience team seeks the best possible balance in the time available for each product. Then the cycle of iteration, innovation, and improvement continues.

What the Heck is User Experience Design??!! (And Why Should I Care?)

2009-02-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Some describe it as making things easy and enjoyable to use. Others describe it as all the elements that impact someone’s perception of a product or system. Jesse James Garrett says it’s a lot like going on a great first date.
For those who haven’t heard of it before: You’ll be surprise by how much it impacts your life.
For those who know it well: Believe it or not, the complexity made simple. You’ll finally know what to say in the elevator when someone asks you what you do for a living.
Have a listen to Teresa latest podcast on www.TeaWithTeresa.com.

Designer behind the Obama Logo

2009-02-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

Thought I would follow up my two previous posts about Barack Obama's campaign logo by highlighting an interview that Steven Heller of the NY Times had with the designer of the logo, Sol Sender. Turns out, Mr Sender never even met with the actual decision makers during the initial presentation of the logo concepts, that was handled by the design firm that hired him, Mode, a motion design studio in Chicago.

The interview is very informative and interesting, especially where Sol Sender explains the thought process that went into creating the logo:
"When we received the assignment, we immediately read both of Senator Obama’s books. We were struck by the ideas of hope, change and a new perspective on red and blue (not red and blue states, but one country). There was also a strong sense, from the start, that his campaign represented something entirely new in American politics — “a new day,” so to speak."
Read the entire interview here.

Design Research Methods for Experience Design

2009-02-05T04:43:00.000-08:00

According to Michael Hawley - There is a trend among some in the UX community to take the U out of UX and refer to our discipline simply as experience design. One reason for this change in terminology is that it lets us talk about a specific target audience in terms that resonate with business stakeholders more than the generic term user—for example, customer experience, patient experience, or member experience. The other reason for using the term experience design rather than user experience design is that it recognizes the fact that most customer interactions are multifaceted and complex and include all aspects of a customer’s interaction with a company or other organizational entity, including its people, services, and products. Customer interactions encompass much more than the usability of a particular user interface.

They include all of the social and emotional consequences of a customer’s interaction with an organization or brand, including trust, motivation, relationships, and value. But if the name of the discipline is evolving and the focus of design is expanding, does that mean the design methods are different? Are traditional usability and user-centered design activities useful for gaining insight into the broader implications of the emotional impacts of a design? Or do we need different approaches? To explore these questions, it is helpful to look at the strengths and weaknesses of two existing alternative design approaches: user-centered design genius design.

Thinking Aloud...!

2009-02-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

What is this?
Thinking aloud (Nielsen, 1994), may be the single most valuable usability engineering method. It involves having a end user continuously thinking out loud while using the system.

Purpose
By verbalizing the users thoughts, the test users enable us to understand how they view the system, and this again makes it easier to identify the end users' major misconceptions. By showing how users interpret each individual interface item, THA facilitates a direct understanding of which parts of the dialogue cause the most problems.

Points of Interest
a failure to lend itself well to most types of performance measurement; the different learning style is often perceived as unnatural, distracting and strenuous by the users; non-analytical learners generally feel inhibited; time consuming since briefing the end users is a necessary part of the preparation. Causing users to focus and concentrate is both an advantage and disadvantage since it results in less than natural interactions at times and THA results in being faster due to the users focus.

Logo Interface -Google's "Simplicity vs Usability"

2009-02-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

Logo is one of the important element in the webpage which gives an impact. Yes, google branding with emotional design techniques made google much emotionally attached with users. Users love this because its clean and very simple. They always feel fresh and they know that they will get what they want. I saw many people type www.google.com for even checking weather the internet is working or not! Hmm...People love google because of usability / simplicity and performance.

Perhaps the people who praise Google a lot (myself being one of them) are simply using the search engine to do just that—search. When landing on the Yahoo! page, the numerous options are distracting, almost to the point that I forget why I came there in the frist place.
Am I a “good user”, and my mother a “bad user”? No, just different kinds of user. Google works well for me, and not well for my mother. Should Google disappear? I hope not (even though I don’t own Google stock).

“clicks vs. clutter”, i.e. you can have a clean homepage that minimizes clutter, but you might have to clickthrough several levels to get the content you want; or you can have a busy page where all the links are visible out front, but then the information gets obscured by all the clutter. In Google’s case, I think they chose the simple interface because that’s what appealed to Web searchers who were getting sick of all the search portals that (when Google went live) were loading up their homepages with ads, irrelevant content and all kinds of junk. Still, people who make generalizations about Google’s UI being superior because it’s “spare, clean, elegant” forget that this kind of UI design, which is fine for search engines (some search engines), does not necessarily work for other site categories.

Google’s popularity is undoubtly due, to a great extent, to its simplicity of use for searching the web : its interface is cognitivly restful, and we “web addicts” often need some rest !

Words to inspire user experience designers

2009-01-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

Inspire UX - Great quotes!

“Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.” - Jared Spool

“I’ve been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration—likely because so much bad design simply is decoration. Good design isn’t. Good design is problem solving.” - The Art & Science of Web Design by Jeffrey Veen

“For businesses to bottle the kind of experiences that rivet minds and run away with hearts, not just one time but over and over, they’ll need to do more than hire designers. They’ll need to be designers. They’ll need to think like designers, feel like designers, work like designers. The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.” - Marty Neumeier

“When we blame the user, we teach them that technology is perfect and that the errors are their own. Because technology is hard to use, we are teaching a generation to be afraid of technology. We are teaching a generation to believe in their own stupidity… It’s not the user’s fault.” - Jono DiCarlo

“Most [clients] expect experience design to be a discrete activity, solving all their problems with a single functional specification or a single research study. It must be an ongoing effort, a process of continually learning about users, responding to their behaviors, and evolving the product or service.” - Dan Brown

“Don’t design for everyone. It’s impossible. All you end up doing is designing something that makes everyone unhappy.” - Leisa Reichelt

“If you want to reach the greatest number of users possible, it’s best to write clearly and simply and design your interfaces to be consistent from page to page. For some people, simple usability advice like this is an absolute accessibility need… And anyway, people of all abilities fail tasks that are confusing. Why should we all suffer an interface that proves itself to be unusable?” - Matt May

“Technological advances have always been driven more by a mind-set of ‘I can’ than ‘I should’… Technologists love to cram maximum functionality into their products. That’s ‘I can’ thinking, which is driven by peer competition and market forces… But this approach ignores the far more important question of how the consumer will actually use the device… focus on what we should be doing, not just what we can.” - John Maeda

“It’s always helpful to look outside of the web for your inspiration, to places where you might not at first expect to find a solution. The world is a collage of inspiration, from newspapers, magazine publishing, and advertising to product design, architecture and the fine arts.” - Andy

“Designing a website can be a bit like being a kid and inheriting a sweetshop. It’s easy to get carried away. There are so many choices. A website can be like an attic that never fills up. Space is not the problem. Attention is.” - Gerry McGovern

Design Anthropology

2009-01-18T06:34:00.000-08:00

Dori Tunstall (professor of design anthropology at University of Illinois, Chicago) has just written a great piece for the Adobe Design Center's Think Tank on the intersection of anthropology and design.

In her brief article she clearly describes how an understanding of culture and people informs good design. She presents case studies and a simple academic framework for an anthropological understanding of people that makes design successful and powerful. This is a great read.
It may seem like an obvious argument on the surface: designing for a "known" is much better than designing for an "unknown". But one of the things that Tunstall does so well is characterize what it means to be "known". She correctly reminds us that anthropology has moved beyond a primarily colonial focus on the exotic "other" and has brought huge value to design and innovation by focusing on notions of change, identity, and power - and that all these things help us know people and design well for them.

Design Anthropology is not about understanding behavior, but rather about understanding, in Dr. Tunstall's words, "what it means to be human."

Design Career guidance session at ICAT-Image College of Art, Animation and Technology

2009-01-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

Ranjeet & Raj @ Career guidance session at ICAT-Hyderabad

I was been invited for a guest lecture and career guidance session at ICAT-Image College of Art, Animation and Technology, Hyderabad. (ICAT) is a unique college, set up to identify, introduce and prepare students exclusively for a career in the Digital Media industry. Image College of Arts, Animation & Technology (ICAT) offers a range of courses extending from Under Graduate to Post Graduate programs and offer programs in 3D Animation, Visual Effects, Game Design and Game Development. This is India’s Largest Digital Media CollegePioneering Full Time Education in design / animation and multimedia in India.

There were 150+ students in the conference room. Initially I thought of teaching new techniques in multimedia / graphics and VFX industry and when I had interaction with the audience, I felt there is some need to give a design / graphics industry overview.

I have covered these topics in detail:

Visual Design
Emotional design
Usability & User experience
Inspirations for gaming experiences
Multimedia (Industry Domains)
Design & Animation careers & challenges
Finally…..Question & Answers

This went for ~4-5 hours continues session and was more interactive. My friend Rajasekhar Reddy also has presented his topic on Careers in Web & Graphics. Finally this was really great experience to do some career awareness programs and helping / guiding upcoming professionals just with skill set and experience.

I would like to give back to the society with my skill set and domain experience without charging anything... I am ready to help / support any education institutions / engineering colleges to share my knowledge in these areas:

User experience design
Usability engineering
Multimedia
Animation & Graphics
Logography & Branding

Please get in touch me if you represent a Non-Profitable organization, NGO, Charity / Voluntary organization, Educational institutions, computer training centers working for a good cause.

Missing IxDA - Interaction 09 conference

2009-01-02T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) 2nd annual conference will be held February 5-9th in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. IxDA 09 is being held in conjunction with Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. Several hundred Interaction Designers from around the world will come together to address the design of various types of interactive systems: web and desktop applications, mobile, consumer electronics, digitally enhanced environments, and more.Interaction 09 will feature three days of inspirational and tactical sessions geared at anyone who practices Interaction Design, as well as a day of pre-conference workshops.Pre-Conference workshops are starting to fill up, but there is still space left.

Some of the invigorating sessions available include:
Well, we did all this research . . . now what?
So you want to be a hardware / software Interaction Designer . . .
Web Form Design
Designing and Building with Patterns and Pattern LibrariesOut of the many sessions this year, the ones I am looking forward to the most include:
Rapid Design Labs
Sketching haptic and multimodal interaction

Designing Natural Interfaces: Notes from the Multi-Touch, Multi-User Frontlines
Mission Critical Interaction DesignThe six keynote speakers this year are:
John Thackara
Genevieve Bell
Dan Saffer
Fiona Raby
Marc Reddig

Kim GoodwinInteraction 09 will be a great experience for any Interaction Designer to network, fine tune their skills, and have a great time. Prior to and during the conference, there is a social networking site attendees use to discuss events, outside activities, and lots more!

I am truly missing this.. best of luck you focks who are attending!

web directory called 2.0websites.com

2008-12-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

I found this neat web directory called 2.0websites.com - for web 2.0 related sites and products.
Quote:“2.0 Websites is a web directory for those interested in what’s available and happening in the Web 2.0 arena.”
The directory would include list of sites which are in the areas of Web 2.0, including the evolving areas of Security 2.0, Identity 2.0, Media 2.0, Data 2.0, Programming 2.0.
Certainly worth checking out & bookmarking.

Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering, Pune.

2008-11-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

I have attended "CAUE - 2008" a national Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering, November 27-28, 2008 at Pune. This conference was organized by Department of Information Technology at Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology (V.I.I.T) considering the need of a platform to get together the professionals, academia and students to discuss and share their experiences in the emerging field of usability. There were ~125+ registrations and the interesting part is 90% of the audience is the Industry professionals. Initially I was not much interested to attend this and was in a fickle situation whether to attend this or not, as my schedule were very tight. Thought for a while and decided to attend as I know the organizing committee and have good contacts with Pune usability friends.

When conference started, felt as a college annual day celebration and not much smelled as professional conference. Some topics were really boring as same old stuff "WHAT IS USABILITY" THE UCD PROCESS... blaw..blaw..blaw..! Later this became more interactive and interesting. The best part is all the invited speakers were also actively participated and made more interactive, shared their experiences, questions, views, etc.

Most of the paper presenters topics and invited speaks were really good. I really liked the second day of this event better than first day. VIIT team has worked very hard to make this event successful and for the first time they have organized this type of event and done a great job!

One thing which really felt bad is that I did not submit my paper on usability (as it was ongoing ..... iterative state – may be, I am following UCD process for my paper too ;). By seeing the conference published hardcopy proceedings, realized that it is very important to submit my paper and which will help some of the new upcoming professionals and indirectly our society.

Pune industry people should join as volunteers and help the VIIT team to make CAUE -2009 more successful. Dr.Dinesh Katre, Y.D Deshpande and VIIT team were the main back bone for this event and made this successful. Closing ceremony was dragged too long. End of this event i can say this is overall good, great networking, met most of my old usability friends and some learning’s :)

Tips on Google’s new open source browser Chrome

2008-09-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome released out for downloading. It is very fast, simple and good looking.It has an important feature which is given in Firefox;If your system turned off suddenly when you browse, after restarting the browser you can restore the pages.Number of features are given in Google chrome.New add-on’s will come as it is open source browser.This browser will be a competent to other existing browsers like Firefox, IE7, Safari etc,.If you didn’t download Google chrome, Try downloading it at Google Chrome web page. I will give you assurance that it will be great experience for you to use this browser.Lot of Tricks have been found and i take this tips and tricks in front of you with this post.

CTRL+SHIFT+N:-If you try this you will be open a new window in “incognito” mode. In this mode no trace out’s are left behind your pc like cookies,passwords,usernames. So, now we don’t have an extra task every time to delete history,cookies etc,. You can also open “Incognito” in new window by going to CURRENT CONTROL PAGE on right side of address bar and select NEW INCOGNITO WINDOW.

ALT+HOME:-Loads home page you have set as default and displays thumbnails of recently visited websites or pages.

CONTROL+T:-Opens a new Blank Tab.CONTROL+SHIFT+T:-Opens the most recent tab you have closed and if you give another stroke with CONTROL+SHIFT+T then it opens another recent tab you closed one just before opened tab.CONTROL+NUMBER

(CONTROL+1,CONTROL+2 Like that):-This will shift between tabs currently available.CONTROL+TAB:-This let you open tabs in an order.New Firefox 3 comes with a new feature. Drag and drop a link to a tab. This feature is available in Google Chrome.CONTROL+B:-By using this you can hide or show Bookmarks bar.CONTROL+H:-Open History page.

CONTROL+J:-Open download page.Google Chrome allows you to see how much memory your tabs and Plugins are using by implementing Task Manager.Point your mouse pointer to the top of browser window and right click the select Task manager. You can close particular tab or Plugin by ending process.

SHIFT+ESCAPE:-Opens Browser Task manager.about:plugins - This lets you see what plugins are installed in your browser.about:crash - This lets you see how a crashed tab looks like.about:stats, about:network, about:histograms, about:memory, about:cache, about:dns, about:internets - These lets you know more about Google Chrome.

‘Clickless’ online user interface

2008-03-25T00:07:00.000-07:00

This website features a one of a kind ‘Clickless’ online user interface. Navigating this site through simple movements of the mouse is a breeze. No button clicks are necessary. Isn’t it cool? Check it out on the following link.\

Check this link and experience yourself without click.. :)
www.dontclick.it

10 Best Intranets of 2008

2008-03-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

Bank of America, US
Bankinter S.A., Spain

Barnes & Noble, US
British Airways, UK
Campbell Soup Company, US
Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, US
IKEA North America Service, LLC, US
Ministry of Transport, New Zealand
New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Australia
SAP AG, Germany

Source: useit.com

Pixels, EMs, and PXtoEM.com…oh crazy!

2008-02-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

What is an EM?
Wikipedia puts it well: “An em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography, equal to the size of the current font.” If your font-size is at 16 pixels, then 1em = 16px
For more information visit Wikipedia and W3Schools.

What is the text sizing difference between PX, EM, %, PT?
Pixels and points are static measurements. 1 pixel is always 1 pixel. 1 point is always 1 point. Points are a little different because they change size based on DPI. On paper, with its higher DPI, 12 point text is actually more pixels that 12 point text on a computer monitor, which has a lower DPI than paper.
Percent and EMs on the other hand are relative measurements. The size of EM or percent-based text depends on its parent. If body text is sized at 12 pixels, then text set at 120% or 1.2 EM inside the body will be 1.2 * 12, or 14.4 pixels.

How do I convert between PX, EM, %, and PT?
Assuming you aren’t using PXtoEM.com to keep it simple, here’s the formulas PXtoEM.com uses.
Note:16px is used as the body text size in all conversions because that is the browser default on today’s browser. You will change 16px to your base text size.
PX to EM: text size in pixels / body text size in pixels = size in EMs
Example: 12px / 16px = .75em
PX to %: text size in pixels / body text size in pixels * 100 = size in %
Example: 12px / 16px * 100 = 75%
PX to PT: text size in pixels * points per inch / pixels per inch = size in pt
Example: 16px * 72 (72 points = 1 inch) / 96 (96 pixels per inch in Windows, 72 in Mac) = 12pt
EM to PX: text size in EMs * body text size in pixels = size in pixels
Example: .75em * 16px = 12px
EM to %: text size in EMs * 100 = size in %
Example: .75em * 100 = 75%
% to PX: text size in % * body text size in pixels / 100 = size in pixels
Example: 75 * 16px / 100 = 12px
% to EM: text size in % / 100 = size in EMs
Example: 75 / 100 = .75em
PT to PX: text size in pt * pixels per inch / points per inch = text size in pixels
Example: 12pt * 96ppi / 72ppi = 16px

Why size your text with EMs in CSS?
Style sheets that use EMs are easier to maintain for the designer (especially with PXtoEM.com at your side) and more accessible to end-users.
Style sheets become easier to maintain because all text set in EMs scale to the body font-size. Only one element’s font-size needs to change instead of individually changing the font-size of each element.
Accessibility is increased for end-users because text is scaled based on their preferences rather than set statically in pixels. Additionally, end-users can use hot keys to scale the text in all browsers. Many people have difficulty reading small text on a computer screen.
For more information visit A List Apart, informIT, Jon Tan’s Blog, and this SharePoint Blog.

Pay Per Play Media - New era in advertising ?

2008-01-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

(especially those who are bloggers), I want to show you how to get a 100% conversion rate on your website traffic.
This is not a sales pitch and there is nothing to buy. There is no squeeze page that is designed to sell you anything later either.
This is an event that you should know about…
First there was Pay Per Click advertising which pays you on the small percentage of website visitors that actually click on an advertisement.
Now there is “Pay Per Play” advertising that will pay you on 100% of your website traffic… NO CLICKS NECESSARY!

Pay Per Play caters to an audience that is larger than radio, television and print media combined!
Billions of dollars are being spent by big brand advertisers and they are ready to pay you. Will you claim your share of the pie?
Or will you let someone else have it?
To learn more about Pay Per Play visit: http://tinyurl.com/2zvrs9

Seem like its a crazy way of making new ads hysteria :)

2008-01-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

Wishing you my best wishes for this

New Year-2008

www.ranjeeth.com

HCI- Upcomming Events in this Year

2007-11-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

15-16 November 2007
CARS 2007, ChiCl Annual Research Symposium, Preston, UK.

22 November 2008
USAB 07, Usability & HCI for Medicine and Health Care, Graz, Austria.

26-28 November 2007
UCS 2007, International symposium on Ubiquitous Computing Systems, Tokyo, Japan.

29-30 November 2007
HAID 2007, 2nd international workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design, Seoul, Korea.

30 November-2 December 2007
UMO 07, National conference on Designing for User Experience, Hyderabad, India.

6 December 2007
HCT 2007, 10th Human-Centered Technology postgraduate workshop, Sussex, UK.

UX Groups

2007-11-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

Usability World
Usability World is a group of professionals from India which includes Usability Engineers, Usability Analysts, Interaction Designers, UI Designers, User Experience Designers having vast experience in Usability, User Interface Design, User Centric Design, Usability Analysis, User Experience Management, Visual Design, Art Direction, media Design, Product Design, Accessability, User Testing, HCI, and Human Factors.

UPA Hyderabad
A local UPA chapter(http://www.upahyderabad.org)exclusively for HCI enthusiasts in hyderabad working in the field of Usability Engineering & Human Comptuer Interaction Design. A free platform to share news and resources in HCI. A forum open to all people from Art, Design, Research, Testing, Documentation, & Students in Hyderabad.

Design IndiaInteraction platform for Professional Designers of all kinds. Product designers, Graphic designers, Fashion Designers, Animators, Illustrators. NID, IDC, Srishti, NIFT , Symbiosis or from other colleges.
Faculty, practicing designers, journalists, writers all welcome.STUDENTS who are doing their industrial trainings and or final projects are welcome to join in too. Students must mention the year and diploma project.

CHI MumbaiCHI Mumbai a ACM chartered special interest group for professionals in the field of Human Computer Interaction based out of Mumbai region in India. CHI Mumbai brings together people working on the design, evaluation, implementation, and study of interactive computing systems for human use. CHI Mumbai provides a national, interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas about the field of human-computer interaction HCI).

HCIIDC
This group is related to human-computer interaction design. We discuss interaction design, usability, information architecture and related fields. It is primarily a group of professionals from India. Students and those not from India are welcome too.

Bar Camp Bangalore 4.0

2007-07-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

BarCamp Bangalore 4.o BCB4, is happening this weekend @ IIM Bangalore. Looking forward to some interesting conversations related to AJAX and User Experience. BarCamp Bangalore 4.o BCB4, is happening this weekend @ IIM Bangalore. Looking forward to some interesting conversations related to AJAX and User Experience.

For more details contact http://muthuonline.com/