Useful keyboard for designers

Photoshop is a awesome tool for designers. The flexibility of shortcut keys is something which needs to well appreciated. I am so much used to shortcut keys and rarely use menus & navigation. Found an interesting key board and its very useful for any Photoshop designers. Worth sharing... 

Yeh Lal Rang!

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...

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

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

The Future of User Interface & Design Technologies

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 :)

Help Japan... Let us be more Human

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 

Do you know about me?

 

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

Attended UPA International Conference 2010 @ Munich, Germany.

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...

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

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 :)

Advertisements kills the credibility & main functionality

"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!

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 in Movies...

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

eXperience a Wonderful New Year

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/

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

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?

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.

GOOD DESIGN in 'Ten commandments’.

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

Design Research Methods for Experience Design

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.

UX Groups

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.