4sq Superuser: “With great power comes great responsibility”

Ever since the “Superuser” was introduced for 4sq users, many users all over the globe cribbed on blogs that they never received their “power” even after they did so much to control the quality of User Generated Content on their beloved 4sq database. It must be massive with the number of absurd places, tips & photos upload every day, minute or second on the 4sq servers.

Though Cafe Coffee Day, the first to offer “Specials” [India-specific] was introduced on 4sq, many managers/staff claimed ignorance of such offers. Not sure of actual numbers of them though. Lot more specials at other brands did get introduced later :-P

Why am i stuck on the app, even after a year? because of all the “tips” my 4sq friends update about food places & their discoveries. The ease of use, badges & mayorships do add up to the delight. The mayorships are sometimes funny though! [probably due to the territorial nature?]

Well to get back to the “Superuser”-ship, will the “Supers” be loyal, non-biased & retain their integrity to get rid of the “scum”? How long will they survive? Will they continue their righteous path in-spite of no benefits?

How to simmer for 20 mins on low flame on an Induction stove?

It is quite amusing how the knowledge transfer [over the mobile phone] for recipes happens between my mother & me [the new bride] because she uses LPG stove whereas i use the induction & electric cookware.

She would say “Simmer on a low flame for 20 mins” & i would have to relate that with 6 types of induction cooking styles of “Hot Pot”, “Boil”, “Saute”, “Fry”, “Stir Fry”, etc & the temperature variation between 120 degree centigrade to 2000 degree centigrade. Of course over time i.e., burnt spices, asphyxiation, etc [The apartment complex where we live actually upgraded their fire extinguishing equipment] we did get to create edible food :-)

How to make your SmartPhone more Smarter.

Layar Reality Browser

Description

Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone.
Layar is a global application, available for the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in all Android Markets. It also comes pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy in the Netherlands.
How do you use Layar?
By holding the phone in front of you like a camera, information is displayed on top of the camera display view.
For all points of interest which are displayed on the screen, information is shown at the bottom of the screen.
What do you see in the screen?
On top of the camera image (displaying reality) Layar adds content layers. Layers are the equivalent of webpages in normal browsers. Just like there are thousands of websites there will be thousands of layers. One can easily switch between layers by selecting another via the menu button, pressing the logobar or by swiping your finger across the screen.
Added features of Layar Reality Browser 2.0:
Layar has some cool features which include:
Unique layer specific icons/markers
Featured and Popular section
Search function
Add layer to favorites
Map view and list view
Enhanced AR view
Accuracy information
“Take me There” function
Who is the team behind Layar?
Layar is run by Raimo van der Klein, Claire Boonstra & Maarten Lens-FitzGerald.

Update: check out this post: Layar: See Beyond Your Surroundings

Adobe AIR links

Here are some excerpts from an article i came across that would be useful to get to know Adobe AIR.

adobe_air

Adobe AIR

Published 28 May 2008 by Gil Harland

AIR stands for, the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and is one of the latest interesting development from Adobe.

AIR runs on Windows, Mac OS X and a very usable Beta version for Linux. It installs the first time you download and run an AIR application, much in the same way that Flash is installed on a computer if the user visits a web site using Flash and they don’t already have it installed.

AIR applications run on the desktop and are half way between web based applications (which run in a browser) and full blown desktop applications such as Word or Photoshop.

Developers can create AIR applications using the HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, Flex (A flash framework) and PDF knowledge they already have and AIR acts as a wrapper that allows them to run on the desktop and go beyond the limitations they would normally have if they were running in a web browser.

AIR applications differ from current web applications because AIR applications do not run in your web browser and therefore are able to use desktop features such as full drag and drop between applications, save files to the local hard drive or network and store data locally in a database.

When compared to traditional desktop applications, AIR applications are simple to deploy, easy and cost-effective to build, have better web integration and will run on all three of the major operating systems.

AIR is also smart enought to know when it is and isn’t connected so you can create programmes that work with online data and use the local database as a fallback if the connection to the internet is dropped.

more on AIR at Adobe® AIR™ Applications Wiki

Download the latest version of Adobe AIR

RefreshingApps.com – Showcase for Adobe AIR Applications and Resources

10 Adobe AIR -Must See- Applications

Adobe AIR Marketplace

Agile and UCD, clash or collaboration?

After being conditioned to UCD in grad school, Agile or Extreme Programming can be quite unnerving when you initially start out in a company that practices this methodology.

Here are some resources out there to start an initial phase of “getting used to”

Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User-Centered Design
by Desiree Sy
Source Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2007, pp. 112-132
[Do download the pdf of the Article Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User-Centered Design ]

Clash of the Titans: Agile and UCD
By Richard F. Cecil
Source UX matters, Published: December 18, 2006

How to incorporate user-centered design into agile development methodology
Activator: Pawan Vora
Source Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA 2004 Idea Markets)

I found a lot of resources in slideshare and added them to my favorites with the tag “agile”.

Search Results on Breadcrumbs

On my present on-going projects, i had to place the breadcrumbs in a strategic way and make it look good.

Here I have complied a list of links which I visited to help me keep track of them and remember on which project I used it for.

Useful search results with keywords as ”UI patterns for breadcrumbs” on Live and Google search engines.

The Daily of User Experience

An excerpt from Building the UX Dreamteam

IxD means defining system behaviors to answer the question “how does a user take the action they want?”…”

What motivates me to become an interaction designer…….unable to tolerate bas experiences and interfaces? Sometimes my tolerance level is high just because of a product being popular but then i realise i dont belong to that league, i cannot deal with mediocrity.

I am not a great designer, i am not perfect but i am sensitive to environments and experiences which enable to work towards my obession of becoming a perfectionist.

A couple of months ago, we got home a DVD player, with such an interface which represented the computer folder icons that my mother completely freaked out that she wont be able to operate though she knows how to use a computer.

my Yahoo! India email sign up experience:(i wish i had saved a screenshot of the page!) I got two options,

to retrieve my mails from the US database or wish to retrieve from the India database at my own risk (that is they could not guarentee the security but it would be faster)

Seriously! i was offended!! or is our Email Internet security system really that bad???