strange way of writing contact numbers

August 19, 2008 at 12:46 pm | In interaction design | 3 Comments
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I went home during “rakshabandan” in Anjar, Kutch, Gujarat. There I came across one interesting guy who had a very strange way of writing his contact numbers. I don’t know whether Nokia has come across these strange methods of writing contact numbers, but it is simply amazing. I think it’s a best example of “ how people find out convenient ways for themselves” Mobile phone owner is 7th fail.

1. Sorry for the unclear photographs. Above photograph shows the selected name as “AAA H.M.M”. H.M represents the name which is Hemant Mehta. Another “M” represents the city which is “Mundra” a small town in kutch, Gurjarat. Now the question comes is what is AAA. He has put AAA because he calls Hemant Mehta maximum number of times a day. So according to him, if he saves him like H.M.M then everytime if he wants to call him, he has to first type “H” in his phone book which is very long process for him. If you see the names after AAA.H.M.M then also there are names starting from AA. According to him, if I see the phone then I will not be able to understand any name written in his phonebook.

2. Here the title written is “M.ANLBE.S.M.207.3”. M stands for Mundra (small town of kutch), ANL=ANIL (name of the person), BE=BHAI, S=Sorathia (last name of the person), M=Mobile, 207.3= survey number of the land he owns. Mobile owner is a broker and he remembers lots of numbers through survey number.

3. Another interesting phone number. Here the tittle is “M.ASKBE.MASVR.MUR”. M=Mundra, ASK=ASHOK, BE=BHAI, MASVR= MAHESHWARI. last name and MUR=MAYUR. Here the number is not saved for Ashokbhai, but his son Mayur which he remembers as Ashokbhai’s son. If he wants to save the number for Ashokbhai, then he has written like “M.ASKBE.MASVR.M” here the last M stands for Mobile. (shown in the below image)

search engines

July 30, 2008 at 4:43 pm | In interaction design, interface design | 2 Comments
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One the step of google, i think there are lots of search engine application design is happening. Recently i heard that google engineers have started their own search engine and they claim that its much faster and accurate than google. Though i do not have screen shots of that, but i have just come across to some interesting search engines.

1. searchcloud

Interesting thing here i found out was, emphasize on the keyword. User can weight their keyword by given options in the website.

As shown in the image, i can give importance to some of the keyword which i like and search it accordingly. I would say an interesting way of looking search engines.

2. cuil

In addition to searchcloud another application i found was Cuil.

Under search column, there is small tag written say 121,617,892,992 web pages. Personally i liked the way they represented the data. Something like gmail says ” you email space is 6.873932930 GB and continuously updating”.

When searching for “interaction design”, in addition to topics related to interaction design, it also suggests some keywords, authors, people related to that domain. So in our case it shows human computer interaction,  usability, design, information architects and many more. I have not used it much, but one of my friend who used it says that interface is good, but search results are not satisfactory.

mozilla firefox

June 17, 2008 at 3:54 pm | In interface design | 2 Comments
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Now every browser gives you a facility of remembering username and password, so you do not need to login every time. It automatically does that. But before your username and password has been stored in your browser it asks you to remember it or not.

Just came across one small but very important thing (i think). Recently i opened my linkedIn, where i put my username and password and something like this popped up.

Now when i see this, i do not understand where i am.. means what is by default selected.. whether it is “never for this site “, “not now” or “remember”. And if i press enter without looking it, i do not know whether it is going to save my username and password or not. Then i discovered that by default it is “not now”.

Now question is, in interaction design point of view, aren’t we missing here something? Shouldn’t be “not now” highlighted by default? One thing i would like to point out is ” i do not know whether it is only with mac (as i use mac) or it is there for windows also.

What say?

new iphone 3G

June 10, 2008 at 5:35 am | In interaction design | Leave a Comment
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So.. whats the difference between new iphone 3G and iphone 2G. The first noticeable thing is its price. New iphone 3G 8Gb is of $199 and 16Gb is of $299. Other noticeable things are..

1. Changes to the interface structure are minimal. The screen flips accordingly with the phone. However, Apple still neglected to include a landscape mode for the onscreen keyboard.

2. In addition to onscreen keyboard, there are other features like multimedia texting, voice dialing, video recording, cut and paste, and the capability to purchase iTunes music over the 3G network are missing.

3. New iPhone 3G offers true GPS, which is significantly better than the previous model, which used triangulation via cell towers. The iPhone’s large touch screen gives its GPS functionality a significant leg-up over what is offered on other smartphones.

4. The iPhone 3G announcement was bulked up with a slew of new applications for the device. Some highlights include Sega, TypePad mobile blogging, and Cow Music, a neat program that lets you play various instruments on the phone as well as mix music.

5. The iPhone 3G is getting plenty of games under its belt. One called Super Monkey Ball responds to your movements. Expect more tap and tilt games going forward.

It will be released on July 11.

online card sorting

June 3, 2008 at 4:41 am | In interface design | 1 Comment
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i believe that card sorting is one of the most important exercise to to know more about the context. The project i am working on is about developing a low cost retail management system for small grocery (kiryana) shopkeepers. Now this is totally unknown field and it requires lot of research and findings about the context. During all research finding i came across a stage where card sorting became a necessary part. Now going to small shops, with a big sheet and lot of post-its, its total mess (trust me, i did it). So, i was looking at some methods where i can do online or may be a web based card sorting and i found out optimal sort. Have a look.

You can easily make your categories, sub categories etc. Just name them and put it on left side (see above image) You can drag and drop all the options to the main window and even define a new category by clicking and writing it.

Though there are some other ways of this type of card sorting. I think there was a discussion also on IXDA list on this topic.

feedbacks

May 29, 2008 at 8:06 pm | In interface design | Leave a Comment
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I just added a friend on my orkut list. Though as an interaction designer i should know that feedback is vital thing in terms of IXD in any software or web. As soon as i sent a friend request i got a feedback message from orkut saying,

As an interaction designer we should know about the importance of feedback, but do users really understand or does it make any difference to them?? In a similar way, gmail also gives a pretty visible feedback. Like,

Telling you the fact, before pursuing interaction design i never noticed the yellow colored feedback given in Gmail. So, again the same question, does it make difference to users?? In my life, i have never used “undo” option in the feedback(see above image). Though i completely agree that it has to be there, but how many of users (lets try out of 10) use this feature?

Let me talk to some users. :)

Source: www.gmail.com, www.orkut.com

Bruce Sterling at IFID

May 29, 2008 at 8:29 am | In ubiquitous computing | Leave a Comment
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As IFID (Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign) was trying to reflect the whole spectrum of interaction design and innovation, they needed the voice of a visionary. Who else than Bruce Sterling. Now when Bruce Sterling talks, you just shut up, listen and enjoy.
She came with some interest thoughts, as usual.

“A computer interface for everything in the world: that doesn’t sound realistic but that’s because i’m a visionary, it’s not my job to be realistic! Something like that is going to happen. It’s going to be difficult but you’re going to do it. And you will be getting a lot of money when you succeed in doing a part of it.”

Another one which i like the most is,
“Do i want to interact with my toothbrush? What’s the toothbrush of the future? A toothbrush that advertises that if you upgrade it you’ll get 20% more of the plaque removed. Nah! That’s boring. How about the new Apple iBrush? It takes pictures of the holes in my teeth and sends the images online. Do we want toothbloggers?” just great.. Actually my mind started running in that direction.

Also,
I want to be able to give a device (let’s make it a tablet) to a four year old boy and let him tour the world. He could go to downtown New Delhi. The tablet will book the plane trip, get him through the controls at the airport, order a special meal, play games, pay the taxi from the airport, book the hotel, bring him to favourite food places, etc. The tablet can do all that for him. It has biometrics so no one but the toddler can use the tablet. The tablet would send twitter messages to his mum every 15 seconds. It’s like he never left! And of course the device has geo-locative capabilities to tell her where her son is exactly. The kid doesn’t have to learn how to use it, doesn’t have to be careful, doesn’t have to be afraid to loose his passport or wallet.
There’s not many technical pieces missing! Only thing is that you don’t send a toddler to New Delhi.

Source : http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/ubiquitous_computing/

Degree 44*

May 27, 2008 at 10:47 am | In creative | 1 Comment
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One of my favorite destination is IDC (Industrial Design centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India). These days final year batch is busy with their DDS (design degree show) which is from June 9th to June 15. Students of IDC have created some explorations.

This is the one i like the most. Created by Suri Manekar.

Now question comes is-what is Degree 44. The first thing in my mind comes is “it is sure 44th year of IDC”. But, not. This is 39th year of IDC. So finally the idea behind “Degree 44″ is,

“This year IDC produces 44 young, spirited, enthusiastic and ambitious designers. The 44 designers are ready to take on creativity, with a fervor of unmet needs of the society and will to make a difference.”

design your next shoes..

May 27, 2008 at 8:24 am | In design fun | Leave a Comment
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Designing your own next shoes. :) While looking at we make money not art  there was small flash animation happening about designing your own shoes. I had a small visit, and see how it is..

It includes lots of tools like liter, different sizes of markers, sprays, colors, tap, putting your own images, texts, letter and also some design templates. Have a look :)

create your own fonts

May 27, 2008 at 7:49 am | In creative, design fun | Leave a Comment
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I just came across a website called fontstruct.com, where you can create your own fonts, download it and use it. Hows that??

I would say it is my favorite pass time as i get relaxed and i get to do something creative. I am done with my alphabets but not with the numbers. 

Hows thats??

 

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