Google – another microsoft in the making??
I am starting to feel a microsoft , within google software. 
Lately Gmail is the victim I suppose. I get random error messages which doesn’t tell me what happened and what does it expect me to do. Eg., I have been composing this email using the language tool for more than 30 mins on an important assertion and all of a sudden, gmail throws me a message “Your connection is lost. Login again”.
Where did all the customer centeredness go? thru the window? Just because they are growing big, and just because they are throwing N number of new features into Gmail doesnt mean they start treating me like a bull ___. pardon the language. Frustrations build up over time. I am still and will be a fan of gmail, because I Trust it.
Wish they don’t fall a prey to becoming BIG and sacrifice usability..You have for long been known for all the good and simple stuff people need. Getting people to start instantly, ease of use, zero learning curve, speed, and helping people to finish their job quicker. Never get out of these basic blocks to tread into some new territory…
stop innovating…
On the other day i visited a nearby temple and there was a nice nadaswara kutcheri going on. The way the person played the miruthangam (percussion instrument of south india), was stunning. My 2 year old kid was spell bound by the players’s agility in using the instruments and the music….These instruments have been invented atleast 1000’s of years back and they still did not necessiate an innovation…Why?
Because they serve the purpose very well. They are supposed to create good music by interacting with them and they do it well. They are simple but serves the purpose. They require a basic skill to interact but rewards accordingly. They exploit all 10 fingers to the maximum usage. Learning curve is high but when you master it, you can create wonderful music and have an emotional and engaging relationship with the instrument itself…
This actually is true with most of the music instruments. I am sorry to part ways here…So why doesnt this happen in real world products. Few products blur this interface like Apple iphone or Blackberry. But there is a huge scope in many products and services for improvement to create an engaging experience.
In today’s Industries innovation has become a needless buzzword. Everyone wants the ‘new’ in everything they interact or use. So the product makers are pushing the envelope and creating so called products and services slowly killing the experience and complicating life…
we demand simplicity..and why is it so difficult to achieve?
UX sucks at American Airlines..from Dustin Curtis
A must read article from Dustin Curtis..Its sad and unfortunate that the short sighted decisions and approach of AA has cost the job of a competent UX designer…
http://dustincurtis.com/incompetence.html
Redesigning Craigslist
Craigslist has been working good for many people for quite some time. So any attempt at the redesign should not rock the boat. The attempts are interesting and good. The major focus being its information architecture reorg. The search and browse mechanisms should be available for any site that promises to fetch the information or dataset that you are looking for.
So a combination of browse and search always works better for the end user. But for certain communities like ‘craigslist’ where users have been well versed with their model, got adopted to their features and information architecture, a sudden change could mean that they may have to unlearn things and do something new.
My 2 cents: Do the changes in phases. Make the design transparent slowly, so that users don’t feel the pain and keep the users involved all throughout the redesign exercise. Involve them, get their feedback and announce to them what is coming…..it will work for sure
Read the original article below…
Secret recipe for success in a failing economy
I came across this wonderful post……
How’s this for a secret of success? You don’t survive a downturn by encouraging your most experienced people to leave. Perhaps more business leaders can resist this wrong-headed practice—and hold on to those employees who have had the most practice in their careers.
Session expired…and i am tired!
Scenario:
I have to submit my tax details today and am all geared up to do that. I sign in to MyPay, open the page and look into the details and start doing the calculations and after 5 minutes start to do the updates. And i hit Submit.
“Sorry your session has expired. Please relogin!” Just like that…
Just like that you stole all my thoughts, my calculations, my time…and my effort!
Why is that? I am the lone user of my computer and why does it throw me off??
No warnings! No options! Just threw me off. I felt like a stupid…
Redesign the experience:
Allow the user to take responsibility. If he doesnt sign out or leaves his machine for his colleague to use it and the colleague changes the salary acct to his own, …. are these the alternate dangerous usecases? Then its all upto the matured individual! isnt it?
For a normal user, just allow him to work on an app as long as he wants to. When he thinks he is done, let him sign out. Anything deviating from this experience is going to cause frustrations for the user.
Hope someone listens here…TIME IS MONEY and this is true for everyone of us…
Quote on hiring
If I have two candidates in front of me, one that included a cover letter about how he hand-rolled his own blog, comments, and feed aggregator for fun to learn a new framework, and another that just sends a resume with a one-liner in the body of the email, I’m going to be much more inclined to say “hire” for the guy with the cover letter, even if the second guy’s resume is a bit better. Similarly, I’ll be more likely to say “hire” to the Eagle Scout, triathlete developer than a candidate who bludgeons me with all of their “accomplishments”…A company’s hiring process is usually a pretty good indicator of what kind of talent it employs, and thus the kind of quality the company has. The higher the bar, the better the talent, the more interesting the company.
Get REAL today…
I have been obsessed lately by this small great nifty company – 37signals. They have a slew of wonderful web based products. These products claim to make your life easy and productive and after using them for a month, I am convinced and swear by them.
Try their products, and you will also agree with me. Its not just you, the world agrees too as this small company with just 8 people have been listed by TIME as one of the top companies. Apart from theoir productive software, they have also released this cute inspirational book called -
GETTING REAL – The smarter faster easier way to build a successful web application
Man i was blown i shud say..by the book…read it to believe it…The online version is free..many budding entrepreneurs with nice niche ideas are following these people now..
Get the book here:
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php
And the company:
www.37signals.com
‘i’ for innovation – Ten Faces of Innovation
From the idea factory ‘IDEO‘ – the company that discovered the mouse, Blackberry, designed Macintosh machines , comes yet another great book on innovation. The Ten Faces of Innovation authored by Tom Kelley along with Jonathan Littman is a great read for any individual entrepreneur or established company that needs to rethink its strategy on Innovation, innovating and creating a great drove of innovators.Every company likes to sculpt a story of success. And everyone knows that success these days comes always packaged with the ‘i’ word – innovation. So whats the receipe? Kelley and Littmann shows how in a great book on all the below personas and how each persona help build the culture of invention and innovation in a company. You can find so many instances of great inventions in IDEO throughout the book, that makes it a great read.
The book covers 10 different personas organized in 3 different categories.
Learning Personas
1. The Anthropologist
2. The Experimenter
3. The Cross-Pollinator
Organizing Personas
4. The Hurdler
5. The Collaborator
6. The Director
Building Personas
7. The Experience Architect
8. The Set Designer
9. The Story Teller
10. The Caregiver
Read it and share your thoughts.
Read more about the book and the personas at
http://www.tenfacesofinnovation.com/tenfaces/index.htm
