my Bus ride on the 500K Volvo

I believe i have the average height of an average Indian female. Now, standing inside a bus (regular BMTC), can be pretty painful if your hand just reaches when you need to hold and you got to painfully stretch your hand and stand!

I shifted from my 2-wheeler to opt for the comfy ride of the Volvo from work to home, (also due to stress & hyper-tension caused by the honkers and the undisciplined traffic!) but Bravo! to the traffic cops and volunteers, they are doing  us a big favor by managing the ever-growing mammoth traffic in Bangalore.

The Volvos are much more comfortable with AC & radio to drown the Bangalore traffic. Also sometimes they play Tom & Jerry cartoons over & over again on the display during the peak hours.

My post just sounds like a Volvo advt promotion post but believe me it just took the load off traveling on my own.

my antics at the XYi atm

Do you get nervous standing being a first timer at a different bank’s ATM thinking about how the interface will be like (hoping the same as your old bank’s ATM interface) & how you would take out the cash with ease and take pride that you would have taken the least time inside the ATM than any of the members of the queue?

OK…i’m in, now what? i swipe the card, then i look at the monitor….stare to figure where to ‘touch’…i realize unlike  PIPIP bank’s ATM there is no buttons alongside the monitor, should i press the numbers or should i touch the monitor?….yes it is the monitor…..boy, if they were recording me on the security cam, i’m sure they would have had a blast!! and i’m taking more time than usual!

People behind me might think what a ‘dork’ i am….keeping them waiting. The information architecture is similar so i have no problem navigating and then i do the needful of withdrawing the cash.
Now my dilemma is, am i out the system? (it is very clear in my previous bank’s ATM) what if i am not logged out? i can’t figure out from the screen because it is showing me something that i cant seem to comprehend …because i’m tensed about getting out there as fast as possible. Now i don’t want the next person behind me to come and withdraw all my cash right? so i press multiple buttons and leave!

Phew!!
what was that??
Did i just behave like that? or do people generally freak out every time they need to use a new system?

my comp is slow…

I have a 9  year (& 3 months) old computer at home and yes! it is still operational and i am using it.
When i got it it was the highest config anyone could get…so far i just keep upgrading the RAM…now i gotto change the motherboard and the size of the monitor :-P
Has the computer slowed down? why is my system slow?
The answer is, i have gotten used to a faster machine :-P

I, no longer have the patience for any program to load on my machine, as i need to get my work done fast….and so the upgrade.

Upgrade which reminds me of my parent’s dvd player for the TV, bought at a bargain (couple of years ago) will not play certain formats such as mp4!Now how do you upgrade such an equipment? well for one thing, take the mp4 format and covert (on the comp) to the format acceptable by the dvd player. yup! havent you done it?

How to sell your ideas?

Right now, i working on getting my wireframes converted into ‘spectacular’ visual designs :-P and it is not Easy!!
Came across Can you rescue your ideas? by Eric Karjaluoto.

Excerpts from this post:
If you can’t effectively sell your idea, it will die.

Let’s face it; the risk is starting to set-in for the design buyer. I’ve seen it many times, and I have to say that even the most sensible people can lose their nerve at this stage.

If you can, arrive 30 minutes early to set-up the presentation and talk to people individually as they arrive. This can “loosen you up” and help you build rapport with attendees.

Here’s a secret about presenting creative that many designers find difficult to accept: it’s not about the visuals.

It’s also nice to begin with a review of the points to be discussed in the meeting. This allows people a clear idea of what they can expect from the talk. And by all means, DO NOT hand out any documentation until the end of your presentation. If you do, they’ll skim it quickly and leap to conclusions. I’ve seen entire projects get the axe from a person who’s having a bad day. Take your time and get them “on side” first.

Ensure that this remains a “business” discussion; avoid allowing it to become subjective and about personal preference. So, instead of, “Do you like this?” ask, “Does this meet the project objectives?” You’ll maintain your course by doing so.

It’s in your interest to remain open to good feedback and accept that you might not have it all quite perfect yet. This means avoiding the desire to defend and instead just listen. Take in all of what your client is telling you and make clear notes of their feedback.

Additionally, everyone’s a critic. Ask a hundred people for feedback on a film and you’ll get a hundred responses. But, is all of this feedback relevant? (I have lots of opinions about health, but you don’t want me performing heart surgery.)
Do what you can to keep the focus on the project goals and the informed responses of committed stakeholders.

Sometimes clients will try to “help” by building their own visuals; we call this “design by committee”. In our experience, this is always a bad sign and must be addressed immediately. You’ve been hired for your professional abilities. In turn, the client’s role is to comment upon whether your proposed solution works or does not.

Through all of this, it’s easy for a “client vs. designer” battle to result. This really shouldn’t (and mustn’t) happen. Talk to your client and explain that your goal is to help them do what’s best for them.

Always get documented approval to proceed, whether it’s in the form of a sign-off, or even an email asking you to continue. Either way, have this documented and stored safely; not doing so is perilous and will cost you at some point.

Frankly, ideas die all the time. I’ve seen it happen on numerous occasions, and often for the wrong reasons :-(

Monday morning usability blues

As more applications are moving on to the internet, it is getting more challenging to create user experiences for the non-IT savvy people.

10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of is worthwhile read, found when i was browsing for more categories to be added to the customised usability checklist, while doing a Heuristic Evaluation of an application.

Thoughts on Interaction Design is added to my blog roll :-) , i have found Welie’s Pattern library extremely useful for UI patterns while designing for webapps.

Acceptance and rejection online

How many of the people you know have email other than their names on it? I am sure you also know people who have ‘creative’ names for their email IDs. I’m sure they have their disadvantages to it. Most of the times the emails are considered as Spam by email engines to be subsequently filtered to the Spam/Junk folder. I’m sure many of my mails have ended up there :-P

For example: I add friends on chat, the chat engine (experience had with Gtalk) just displays my email ID and not my name. How would anyone who didn’t know that the email ID was mine accept me in the first place? I would first have to send them an email informing them about the email ID and then wait for their acceptance, just increasing my work load in my hectic lifestyle :-P

How about adding people on social networking sites? How do you know that the person you found had accepted or ignored your invitation? What if the person had not logged on since ages or was unable to retrieve his/her password; would you treat as a rejection?

In this hectic lifestyle do we really keep in touch with everyone we know? We just update our profiles to let people know we are alive and kicking!!

Fun with Adobe Kuler part II

kulerI have graduated to 38 themes now :-)

the beach‘ being highly popular, 17 downloads and favorited by 7 members;32 downloads and favorited by 13 members (Updated June 24th 2008); with ‘Fresh‘ coming in second 8 downloads and favorited by 3 members.

Shades of Orange‘ , ‘Proteus‘ , ‘Proteus II‘ received comments from fellow members, it is always encouraging to get feedback.