The Design Age

"experiencing selves" and "remembering selves"

2010-03-02T17:35:00.003-12:00

This is an amazing talk!
Whats interesting about this talk is that is says there are two types of 'selves' - one is 'experiencing self' and the other our 'remembering self'.
Take this examples : you are listening to a nice music for 20 mins and enjoying and suddenly at the end there is some distortion. What you remember about this would be that it was "Bad"; though you might have enjoyed the previous 20 mins.
This has a great application in user experience design; image you create a amazing experiences all through the site but at the end you make the user frustrated/unhappy. What they will remember is the "bad experience". As in the software products you dont have a very easy way to figure out where users exit your site/application. You may not want to make them unhappy at any point.
Which means the experience should always be thought through (in most cases) "end to end".
Make sure we dont create bad experiences that people "remember".

Watch the video here:

My New Website and Portfolio with Google Sites

2009-11-17T21:05:00.005-12:00

I'm really excited about my new site - Its called Interface with Design

I had my previous site on Google Pages. But this looks to be shutting down. So I thought of trying Google Sites.

Overall 'sites' is pretty cool; but there are a whole bunch of restrictions especially in the page layouting & font sizes. Also there a huge bunch of stuff you can do with HTML coding, but I think it should be supported from the UI menus itself.

What I'm struggling to find is how to put a redirect on Google pages to this Google sites. Whats really crappy in sites is the URL. Its practically not possible to remember it or tell it to your friends - its too long.

Anyways, Overall i found the sites to be useful. Another cool part was the easy intrgration with Google Analytics.

Pain of handling 'Error condition' & designers' dilemma

2009-09-11T02:19:00.008-12:00

We have have built a complete web analytics application (internal) for tracking Yahoo! products. Being the only designer for the product I got the chance to work on every BIT of it; from each and every component to every pixel. I can tell you its quite an experience handling such a big product on our own - that too when you are not only the interaction designer but also user researcher, product designer and visual designer. I'm not boosting but 'cribbing' :(

With so many flows and interconnections it become overwhelming. During design we fix these complex flows for most ideal conditions. The design works flawlessly; but then came the surprises - ERROR handling.

The product behavior was built such that the settings can be transferred. To give you an example, you are looking for mail data; then you put up certain segmentation settings like show PVs from India with age group 10-15 with users as male. Now you click on another metric like time spent - the rest of the setting of age, country & gender is transferred. The behavior is to change only the setting which user chooses to change.
This on paper looks flawless work well iin concept but then comes the conditions - in some cases it doesnt work. So this behavior works for most cases (lets say 90%) but in rest cases it throws up error.

Designers’ dilemma
Should I change the behavior to make sure system gives less errors (or conditions of no data found) or to provide a way which give most value?

Well, I choose option 2. Most use cases will work perfectly and give tremendous value, as the user settings are seamlessly transferred. I am providing value for 90% cases (this number is rough assumption) and spoiling the experience for rest 10%. But I guess its worth the risk; as it seems to be working :)

But then I had to figure out ways to make sure those 10% cases are also taken care of. This may not sound to be perfect, but we 'redirect' users to conditions that give data - of course with user consent. We show them the options of redirect.

That’s the best we could do for now.

But one thing I realized. Error conditions can some times spoil the party!
Your perfect design can be derailed with these fringe cases. But that what makes a complete design isn't it?

Too soon a conclusion

2009-09-07T20:26:00.003-12:00

There is something that i have observed around me that has motivated me to write about it.
Data analytics is not very natural to designers; its not a part of design training. I see people around me claiming data without understanding them. Some key points to look out for -

Number is just a "number"
Number is just a number; it doesn't convey anything without other supporting information. To give you and example - So if you say my site got 1000 Page Views the question is "What does it mean?". Nothing unless you say it got a 10% increase. So others know if things are going up or down.

Understand the Scale of the number
Secondly, understand the scale 10% of 100 is 10; 10% of 100000 is 10000. Understand this sense of scale in the number.

Number in Context
Don't make conclusions with one metric. Look around and see the other behavior. Eg. Site A is having a 10% rise in PVs but the UUs is going down by 20%. What does it mean? less users are giving you more PVs. But why are you getting less users? This can't be explained by data alone, which takes us to the next point.

Support Metric with other methods.
The data can tell you PVs are going down by "why" is a question that lies beyond data analytics.
There is a lot that data can tell you but you need to triangulate the data with other methods like doing user study (quantitative methods). There is lot that might have gone in the offline world that has influenced the performance - eg you might have run an Ad or might have done marketing. Or some event that has triggered a behavior. So keep that into account.

Where is your traffic coming in and what are the clicking or going is what primarily you might want to look at in the beginning. Next you might want to slice and dice data to look into detail - eg. you might want to segment the traffic based on age, gender, country etc.

These are some basic pointers for designers to get started on analytics. Keep in mind 'dont jump to conclusion too soon; you might land up with the wrong analysis or may only see just one aspect of the problem and may miss out other obvious stuff.'

After a long break!

2009-08-14T19:00:00.001-12:00

I’m back to blogging after a looong break. I was involved in a major project, which took my time and attention. Now that the product is in Beta testing I can have some spare time to write about design.

Digits 2.0
Let me talk about my new product for a while. I was working with ‘Digits 2.0’; which is a Yahoo! Network analytics product. It helps teams and execs keep track of the entire Yahoo! Products.
It was a massive project as it involved looking at so many use cases across the company and on top I being the only designers. This being an internal application; the scope for getting more resource was always remote.
Designing this web analytics tool was an eye opener because it opened up a whole new way of looking at design. With design I got the opportunity to see the domain of analytics so closely. With proper understanding of number it gives enormous power to a designer to understand 'performance' of a site/app. But you truely need to understand the metric and dimensions in order to understand this aspect.

I'll be sharing about my understanding of this domain over subsequent posts - also about designing apps and design architecture/framework.

Awesome presentation on human behavior - cheating

2009-03-17T16:35:00.003-12:00

This is really very insightful. It talks of 'cheating'; though unrealted to design in general. But having said that its important to know human psychology. The more we know the better we design.....ok ok ok im not preaching. There are some obvious implications for design.

Really a nice one to watch and consider in design. These are kinds of talks which make you feel - why am I not doing research; there is some much to know!

The design process debate

2008-12-10T22:14:00.003-12:00

I must confess that I have strong opinions about “design process” and I'm biased by my understanding of design. Some of you might disagree with me.

Process is so boring!
Process word reminds me of ‘industrial process’ or ‘manufacturing process’. The mental image I get is that of a conveyor belt where a product (which is manufactured) is moving from one person to another. And each one is fixing their own piece without knowing the relevance and the larger picture. Process comes in when to mass-produce items – when the research I being done and all parameters understood.

Also when we know the outcome of the product – manufacturing process where the outcome is predicted. If you use an iron metallurgical process you know that you will get iron of a specific quality out of a process. You can manipulate the process parameters to change the outcome slightly.

Design as research
But what about Design? I don’t see design as an industrial product one where the solution can be predicted or reused (without modification). I don’t see design to be close to industrial/manufacturing process, then where does it lie?
Looking at pattern design process – where specific patterns are to be used. Isn’t this another way of mass production? Yes I know for large enterprise it’s difficult to think out of those due to practical issues. But isn’t this is another conveyer belt? Where a designer is expected to fit in specific “item” (from a selected few) without knowing the complete problem. So the thinking is subject to ‘validation of what fits well’ than what is the solution.

Design as problem solver
I’m a strong believer of design as a problem solver. I see design closer to Research than to manufacturing/production. So how do we think about design then? Does following a process ensure an innovative solution?
I guess not. Innovation is closely tied up with how well the designer understands the ‘problem’. And process doesn’t highlight the problem – it’s just a ‘way’, not a ‘destination’.

Can’t we dump the process?
Is there a better way to look at the process or should we just change our approach to thinking about process? I guess the real value is in knowing the ‘problem’ in its all dimensions. If you have this approach you don’t need a process; all you need an attitude – to solve the design problem to its fullest.

Innovation comes from idea and intellect. Nurture talent not process as your primary objective.

Consulting Design & Product Design

2008-11-10T22:37:00.002-12:00

Lets talk about two different models of design – consulting and products. They are essentially involve different levels of involvement, thinking and approach. The more I have interacted with designers from consulting firm the more I’m appreciating the product design (this is my personal view).
One basic difference that I see in product is the ‘sense of ownership’. Don’t take that word lightly but it really shapes up the way you think about products/design.

Tracking design
Generally when we talk of design we essentially talk of the process of design – doing research -> brainstorm -> design -> launch. And then it ends. We never talk about what happens next.
While what goes up next is really important; this is where only the product designer get the ‘opportunity’ to work. We all put in biases – make assumptions; after launch is when you get you insights; things that work or don’t. And there is no there way to know it other than post launch (or a bucket launch) research.
There will be cases where you don’t know what is going on. That’s the most challenging part of design. Use both qualitative (User Research) and Quantitative (Data) to track design. This is the best design education you will get – to see your design fail!

Design for future
As a product designer you need to innovate. The product needs to be ‘competitive’, its not a solution to a problem (unlike consulting). It needs a ‘placement’ in the market place. To have an identity and uniqueness as an aspect of design, really makes it interesting (especially if you have Google as your competitor ;)
The product needs to be bult for the future – when it gets launched; it has a shelf life. It needs to stay there for that period of time - gaining and not loosing its customers/consumers, be relevant, be competitive and be useful.

Scalability
“Its your mess and you need to solve it”. Its very important to foresee the future of your product from a UI point of you. What if there are more feature add/a new tab/a new action. If you don’t think about it now, eventually you have to in future. So better be now than land up in a situation where your UI can’t be scaled. Personally I have seen a lot to redesign project taken just because the earlier UI was not able to scale – add new requirement.
Don’t just think about design as it is; think of scale. Is it the difference between a good design vs a great design? May be :)

Experience
User experience in products goes beyond the UI. It starts from marketing to packaging to instructions to support. Design is a strategic – and it goes beyond.

Selling design
If you are a product designer you not only have to sell your design to the stake holders (which itself is a pain), but also to you consumers. A better understanding of your user; along with market, competition etc is handy. What it essentially means is - ‘you need to be more aware of your product, user and market’.
And this requires time, effort and a lot of experience in that domain.

What next?
‘Now that I have launched a product - what next?’. As a designer you have to find an answer or help others find an answer. What is the next best feature that will be really important to your users/product.
This sounds like ‘tracking design’? Well the difference is this is larger strategic question. You not need to find problems with design (tracking design) but also think of the future development (of the product not only just UI).

So, ‘personally’ I find product design to be more challenging and exciting.

Flow!

2008-10-30T20:20:00.003-12:00

It was awesome to see this video on TED. I read Csikszentmihalyi's research papers on Flow when I was working on my research on online shopping. I actually used this in the online shopping model that we built - which helped us in understanding all the aspects of shopping and the experience.

I have found the Flow Theory to be highly relevant in user experience design. It is a good way to measure a "very compelling and engaging experience". If a user gets immersed in your design - that is the highest level of experience. And this can be applied to all levels of design - be it a complete application/site or a small component.

Also it a good way to design - 'think of the experience (design) as a flow'. I recommend Flow Theory to all designers. It is a really useful read.

Anyways, listen to this video. Its an amazing feeling to "see" the person you have read and admired.

Breaking Boundaries

2008-07-31T00:01:00.003-12:00

Having moved from so many project I have started realizing the advantages in doing the same. Every domain or say a business vertical works very differently. The design approach and also the mind set is very different.

For example, Online Video site might have very different approach to design; say like engagement or time spent or videos viewed might be important. How much time user spends on your site may well be a parameter of success. While for a portal the success and approach might be to divert the user to a content or application. For Search, more time spent is disastrous. Social Networking might say number of Unique Users they get, or no. of logins per account or virality of their application is what defines the design and success approach.
What I have seen is that these all verticals (if you call them) have their fixed mindsets. There are somewhat clear approaches defined by (whom?) – Competition. What goes on becomes a norm (without analysis) and all of us follow it.

Breaking boundaries

Competitor analysis becomes an important part of our design research and it also sets up the path to design. We mindlessly follow what others are trying to do and what defines its success.

Its useful to break away from this and see the design problem in a new light, what if I apply Online Video design approach in Social Network? The solution might be drastically different. I guess its really important to broaden our boundaries about design concepts and explore unrelated products to see if they could add any value to us. Otherwise we keep our thinking limited to already known parameters and concepts.

Move Horizontal for freshness and Vertical for quality

It’s a different approach to drilling deeper. It’s more of moving horizontally. Look for whats buzzing with user (which is unrelated to your product) and then see if there is any thing that you can borrow or get inspiration – or that allows you to think differently.

This is what I learnt from moving across teams and products.

Awesome! what it means to be human?

2008-07-03T22:19:00.000-12:00

Memory, spaces and a dream

2008-05-05T23:08:00.002-12:00

I had a dream yesterday which made me to think about it all through the day today. It sort of open a new way to look at ‘spaces’. Though it started by a physical space but it could be translated to virtual spaces as well. Let me just tell you my dream first:

The Dream

I was dreaming that I had gone to my old school IIT Roorkee and I’m strolling around the campus. But the campus has changed a lot since I studied there. Then I go to the Library and it looks to be ‘modified’; modified in a way that some portion is the older one – one I can related to- and the other is ‘new’ part which I haven’t seen before.

The Library

When I woke up I kept thinking about this Library. All though my dream I was trying hard to “evoke” my memory about the good (& bad) times I have spent in that campus. That Library became the climax. I was seeing two part in a space one which I able to recognize and identify with; one which was giving me “happiness” as I was feeling nostalgic being there. While the other totally alien; one I’m not able to relate to – one that gives me a feeling that I not been here before.

Change dilutes recall (?)

This reminded me of old times when old alumnus used to visit the campus with their families trying to related to the “new” looking campus. It has evolved from their times and they used to find it difficult to evoke their “old time memories”. So I guess we can say that change can dilute the recall. If there are more unfamiliar “looking” things then it would be difficult to related to that space (I guess both physical and virtual).

Lets think

Memories can have a physical space associated with it. When you visit that place it evokes old memories about that place – these memories could either be related to an

‘Event’ – eg. I got married in this church.
‘Interaction with the space - Active’ – eg. I used to sit here, this was my favorite spot.
‘Interaction with the space - Passive’ – eg. There used to be a clock here in our times.
‘Socialize’ – eg. Our gang used to come here during the break. (There could be more. But this is what I could think of. )

Now these memories give us ‘pleasure or happiness’. It allows us to relive the past – be it good or bad.

What is crucial here is a time gap – “detachment”. You need to move away from the space for a period of time. how much time? Well I guess it ‘might’ depend on :

Individual,
Usage of the space,
importance of the space,
time spend in that space
user’s acquaintance with that space.

Roll back in time: Product Strategy opportunity for retention segment (?)

Now that I know all of us have associations with the physical spaces is there an opportunity for us to build a product strategy around this? We know most companies are trying hard to retain their users; so can this be in any way help us in building a strategy or design to retain them?

Can a “retro” feel bring some excitement on users getting bored with your social network site. Take them back in time when they had ‘fun’; make them excited again?

Or should a dormant Email account get activated to the an old UI – one which that user was familiar with?

Or does it also indicate that redesigning you site might not go well with your most frequent users? Is this a reason why Google hasn’t done any drastic changes on their search results page?

I guess there is a lot to research & experiment upon to get some sense of how a physical space and virtual space is related emotionally or rather psychologically. But I do see some connections in the way we need to think about product strategy and design (UI). The whole approach to Redesign could change for products which have regular users for a very long time if people associate with virtual spaces

Micro-Macro detailed design

2008-03-20T15:18:00.004-12:00

Working with different products I see some differences in the level of detail each one goes to. Look at two contrasting examples: Search Results page vs. Product Promotional Page. Search Results page is the highest level of detail (Micro Details); all aspects of design are detailed to the core; be it interactions, information – how much; how long; what to show, visual design, design research/usability – usage, eye tracking, semantics, etc. All aspects that are possible generally are thoroughly considered to build a design.

One the other hand we have Product Promotional Pages – high on experience; informative but not so thoroughly evaluated, less interaction, less complexity in Information architecture etc. So generally if you are designing this you don’t get through a thorough screening of the design (Macro details).

I kept thinking why do we have such variation? And I thought may be there are three basic reasons:

Impact on business
Products that are very high on business impact are very ‘cautious’. Any changes or design issues could affect the company drastically. So every company get very careful in designing and every element of design are reviewed to make sure the effect is positive. Thus more details in designing.

Impact to user or habit forming
Traffic on site and usage is another important reason for a detailed design. Products like Search, Calendar or even some online enterprise software need to build a habit in users. They need to be learnt and should be easy. One advantage of habit forming is to build a loyalty around that product – like Google Search. To build a habit you need to have a compelling product; thus need a well thought out design.

Competition Landscape
Fierce competition could also lead to detailed design approach. Competition is fighting for both the above parameters – Business and Traffic/Users. Thus if you have a competition it makes you more cautious in design.

Impact Matrix
Micro Detailed design or more detailed design requires a lot of resources and time. The decision making is slow and thorough; thus it takes more thinking, iterations, approvals and research. It all comes down to the question of how many resources (in terms of time, money, people etc) versus the impact. And I guess we evaluate the the above three parameters we could make a rough guess about this. We could make a matrix to evaluate the impact.

Let make it for search results page.

Impact | Importance
Business | High
User | High
Competition | High

For Product Promotional (micro sites) site
Impact | Importance
Business | Low
User | Low
Competition | Low

For Yahoo! Front Page
Impact | Importance
Business | High
User | High
Competition | Moderate to High (mostly indirect competition)

As a next step we could built out some concrete evaluation parameters to figure out High, Moderate or Low importance.

Suggestions are welcome :)

In search of Universal Design. But does it exist?

2008-03-11T19:01:00.000-12:00

Few days back I met my old friend as usual we started a discussion. It was quite an interesting topic – Localization of design. The debate started on a point saying – can there be a single design which works for all regions/countries/cultures?

The inner feeling say ‘obviously no’ but then look around us, ipods, cell phone or a TV. Why is it that ipod has been successful in most cultures? Why do cell phones have same interactions regardless of the culture/region? There is something about these which goes beyond the boundaries of cultural understanding? Go to US, UK, Korea, India or any other place you would find people using ipods or cellphone pretty much the same way.

I guess there are basically two reasons –

New learning (?)
Gadgets or technology needs to be ‘learnt’. Thus regardless of cultural understanding everyone has to learn it the pretty much the same way. This goes beyond cultural understanding – Can we say, “gadgets/technology unify the human race?” It’s premature to say but in some ways it may binds us all together with a common ‘language - a behavioral language of technology’. When I go to another culture I may be alien but I would still know how to use a iphone or a TV or say Yahoo! page. Language and to a less extent icons could be cultural; icons could still be learnt quickly. Apart from that interactions and behaviors are universal, I feel. So this ‘new learning’ may allow us to transcend the cultural barrier.

Basic Human Psychology (?)
Another thing might be an inner common human psychology which is beyond the cultural understanding. Do we all like Apple feel? Why do we? Is it because it in some ways uses elements that we as human beings like – say wet table feel, continuity in interactions, smooth edges etc.? Are there elements that we see all around us in offline world that we like? I guess if we could translate elements that we like in offline world into products we design it ‘may’ create similar effects in us as humans -going beyond cultures.

Sorry for a badly written post.

“Gut Feeling” & design

2008-02-17T20:10:00.003-12:00

I was having a conversation with one of my design colleague. He was telling me about a design discussion he had with a Product Manager. The story is very interesting – they had a conflicting views about a UI issues. The discussion later on went to –

Designer: …because I think this is a better way to do it; its my gut feeling.
PM: …but this also my gut feeling; why should I go with your gut feeling and why not mine”.

Well there isn’t much that you can do to help anyone here. But this kept me thinking – the PM is not totally wrong (is he?). If we are fighting for design without any data; what can you do to convince the product teams? Or is there more to a “gut feel”?

Personally, “I feel” the designer was right in suggesting a design; but without any valid proof it’s difficult to make an argument. The best situation is to do some test; get some data and then prove. But data is not always available. We make a lot of decisions on our “feeling”.

So why should people listen to our gut feels and not their own?
I see the difference lies in ‘experience’. We constantly build our mental database about things that worked or not. So rather plain ‘gut feeling’ we try to make “intelligent guesses”.

User research is a great way to build user behavior repository. Not only does it gives you data but also help you build the ‘user’s behavior and understanding’. How much can you push your design, how simple should you be in UIs or in communication etc. You could "benchmark the level of complexity" that a user can easily use/understand through user research (even observing a study can teach you a lot).

So my suggestion would be – next time when you are having an argument rather than saying ‘my gut feeling’ state ‘examples’ or take your team to the user. But never make it a clash of the ‘egos’. Because it’s not only you (or other) who looses, but also the ‘end user’.

Don’t deprive end user of a good product.

Services mindset in product design

2008-02-10T23:26:00.000-12:00

IT industry in India is inherently a services industry. The mindset is to provide a service and move out of the project. This approach to ‘projects’ seeps into the product companies as well.

The fundamental difference in services is same as the difference between a concept of a ‘project’ vs ‘product’. Project gets over after a deadline but a product keeps living on.

Product design

One bad thing about a product is that if you don’t address an issue in a release you have to readdress it in the next -‘Its all your responsibility; its all your mess’. So you need to be careful; and need a sense of responsibility in what you make. Secondly, you need to have a clear larger vision of your product (I know you can argue; but there should be some vision). How will this step going to effect the course of the future. If you change your deign approach after a release; then there is a lot of mess that you need to sweep out. It will all go back to the drawing boards from a design point of view.

Most importantly you need to be ‘constantly’ aware of the market; knowledge is supreme. To be ahead you need to innovate. So the more aware you are the more you can innovate.

Product lives on thus it requires more sense of responsibility; more engagement; larger longer vision and a sense of ownership.

Working and talking to industry people I feel this sensitivity to product is missing in India. Everyone focuses on – ‘just release it’ without thinking the mess that we will create with it. I guess our market needs more maturity in terms of dealing with products & not to think of them as ‘projects’.

Product doesn’t end in release; it stays back with you, to give you either sweet dreams or nightmares. The choice is yours.

The Best Designer of all times!

2008-01-14T00:12:00.000-12:00

Truely awesome. No one can beat 'nature' when it comes to design. Keep talking of "delight"; "surprise element"...but you can never beat this...watch the video.

second objective? Emotional objective

2007-11-26T20:37:00.001-12:00

I was reading Emotional Design by Don Normal and was quite moved by some of the "user experiences" he has shared about objects which some feel pride in using. This makes me think about UIs; emotional appeal is indeed important for making a product "long lasting". Should "emotional appeal" be considered "strongly" like we consider "tasks"? I guess yes.

During designing I take up an objective which helps me be on track. My small trick is to frame an objective in a single sentence. My observation is if you are clear about your product/problem you will be able to frame it in a single sentence.

So all my projects have a "objective". All of these were related to Tasks or logic related. say like, "building a product which help users FIND and SHARE <certain> information." This makes design decisions easy for interaction designers. But what about - Visuals or content? I guess here is where the emotional design will fill in.
Build an emotional objective - say like "to make the user smile every time he visits (or interact etc) this product". This is very good way to think about visuals and content (including error messages). This could keep an emotional punch in your product.
So while interaction, information, usability can keep the product simple and usable; this can keep the product "engaging and fun to use". Have 2 objective one task related one emotions related. What do you say?

Blogged with Flock

Changing times

2007-11-13T06:25:00.000-12:00

Well I wanted to write this; but somehow wasn’t getting enough time and motivation.

Changing times – good times or the bad times? Don’t know; what I know for sure – its definitely interesting.

I’m seeing a trend in internet companies and the internet in general. There is a significant shift from the traditional models of internet companies. It becoming more “open” .

The single point focus on consumers is broadening to include Advertisers, publishers and developers. Look at latest acquisitions from all these big companies MSN, Google and Yahoo!. All companies are trying to broaden theie focus to include a good portfolio of products/connections to Advertisers and Publishers. What should we expect? Well I wouldn’t be too surprised if these “advertiser / publisher tools” become a focus of design and get more attention (like consumer facing product) – become better designed products.

Also I guess the companies are realizing the power of “open system” – the spider model. Innovation can not be done from closed doors; it can come from anywhere. So what we do? Don’t push innovative product but push TOOLS. Let people build on it. I really like this idea of open innovation. Two recent news Google Mobile OS & Awards for facebook developers point to this changed mindset. It’s difficult to innovate continuously with a closed system; the competition from individual could be enormous. Thus its intelligent to join the league than fight it.

These are interesting times. We need to wait and see how all of this shapes up the next big thin. This could be a start of Web 3.0; who knows?

Design in exceptions

2007-10-22T00:37:00.000-12:00

Thinking of the project/products I have worked on I realize that the real design was not in designing for normal cases but in “exceptions”. Imagine yourself designing a Search Page.

User types in a query = result found. Query Page + Search Results page. Job well done!!!

Simple isn’t it?

But look at the broader picture – lets say there are cases where the query is not exactly found. What do we do then? How will the system behave?

Should it show the results along with the message? Or should we not show irrelevant results and ask few more questions from the user? And also when should we do that – if the relevance is 75 or 50 or 25?

These are the complication of design. How do you deal with these numerous cases in your produce really defines how comprehensively have you thought about it. Normal cases are easier to handle they don’t take so much time and your mental resources.

Thus design is in exceptional cases. You will design with an approach – every thing will go well but suddenly there will be one case where this approach will crumble. How smartly you deal with it really defines how well the product get designed.

Is it worth?

2007-10-10T16:27:00.000-12:00

I was in Sunnyvale few weeks back and I was having a discussion with Prasad over the lunch. Prasad mentioned something interesting about discussing design.

Most often we land up discussing with PMs or Engineers or other designers and the discussions land up in conflicts say about changing the link color from blue to black. Now it’s difficult to argue especially with PMs who have data to back up their claims most of the time. So as designer you loose the argument unless you have the data or a design research to back your point.

Prasad mentioned something interesting. He said when you discuss these issues also look for a new parameter “If I change this how much impact is this going to create to the users”; “Is it impacting a substantial amount of our user base or just 50 of them?”; “If its just 50 user that this change is going to impact, then is it worth doing it?”

It’s a very crucial point if you look at it deeply. Not only this ‘parameter’ can be used in design discussion but I guess also effectively during ‘designing’. It is worthwhile to look at our design and ask – is this change going to impact a large user base? Should I focus on this problem or shift to other problem which can have a greater impact?

Nice and important point.

Sprinting: the Scrum experience

2007-09-16T21:03:00.000-12:00

Scrum is an Agile PD process, which is seemingly becoming very popular in the industry. So I thought of writing about it a bit. I was fortunate to work on two projects – one was using scrum the other was not. So I could see the difference between the two. Let me share some of my experiences with you.

The worst problem with scrum is - you land up working hard all through the product lifecycle :(

Implementational approach
My feeling has been that Scrum has a very ‘implementational’ character. Implementational? A very focused approach to ‘implementation’ than design, exploration or research. It’s very effective if you know what you are implementing. Thus this basic implementation approach most of the times conflicts with design. Which by character is more exploratory and research oriented. Design due to its subjective character involves a lot of analysis and discussions (with shareholders, PMs etc).

Design: subjective (& dynamic in internet business)
Another issue with design is that it has dependences on business; any changes in business and strategy could substantially influence the approach to design and design solution. Thus it becomes critical how and when you use Scrum for design. Suddenly a competitor comes in the market and you have to rethink strategies and design; thus in internet business the situation is very dynamic. You should always be ready to change you approach to your environment.

It would be recommended that design comes into scrum with a little ‘home work’. The earlier phases of research and exploration should be kept out of scrum. Build up a little understanding of the project and then start sprinting. Otherwise the problem would be that by end of the sprints you might not have a substantial ‘deliverable’. Though you might have done a lot to understand the project you may not necessarily have some thing concrete to share with you non designer teammates. If you are the only designer then you can understand you might understand your situation would be tough. Some people call this ‘Sprint 0’. I would say this is important.

Involvement and sharing
One of the best part of scrum. It keeps you ‘involved’. You know various components of the system – from data; to backend engineering to front end etc. Also it gives the designer an opportunity to educate and make the engineers aware about design issues. When people know what you do - they tend to respect you. Sometimes you will land up at a situation where you feel a certain engineering weakness/error/problem could be countered through ‘design’. Thus it keeps you involved.

Pressure to be ahead of you engineering and time estimation
Using scrum you’ll be constantly finding a sense of urgency to be ahead of your development teams. You don’t want to be blamed for slowing down the project. Thus you have to be at least a sprint ahead of the developers.

Another common problem is that you will never be very sure of the time for your tasks. Design often is dynamic and keeps changing through the course of the lifecycle no matter how hard you try. Even there is a restriction (by Scrum) on PMs interfering with their basic task; still you will encounter changes or suggestions that may have a significant impact on your work or time.

The best idea would be to keep your task broad and a bit generic with more time allotted. This will also give you some buffer time to explore and to some extent nullify the estimation issues.

What worked for me was for a 3 week sprint was that I used to keep one day off. This used to give me some time to explore or even reflect on my designs (which is very helpful if you are most of the time in the implementation mode.)

If you follow the ‘spirit’ of scrum I’m sure you will like it. Especially if you are the curious kinds who want to know all about the product you are working on.

Trust & Design – its all about trust

2007-09-02T23:42:00.000-12:00

Design is subjective by character. Design shapes up the way you build it. Every stage & every element that needs to be designed have multiple solutions. Every solution has its own pros and cons. And what you choose defines the next set of options you will get in the next stage. Not only do you have to think of elements alone but also how they interact with the rest of the elements. Thus design is subjective – it all depends on the design decision that we take along the process.

Subjectivity & multiple solutions: call for conflict
This subjectivity and multiple solutions create conflict in design. If you are a designer and work with Product Managers you would have faced these kinds of debates. There would be occasions when you would land up in a situation where the design choices are even. Both have their own qualities. What do you do? Use reasoning of course. And to add to the complexity in designer’s life – every one can think about design. It’s something that every one encounters and thus they have ideas or opinions about it. Design is primarily thought driven than skill driven; and thus every one can think. The only differentiator for designer is the ‘awareness’ and his ability analyze more parameters than the untrained designers.

Trust
Thus a designer’s job isn’t only to provide design solutions; there is a lot that goes ‘behind the scene’. As a designer the first thing you want to do is build ‘respect’ and ‘trust’. Very often you would land us in these 50-50 choices; and here how much you team trust you makes a huge difference. Not every small decision can be tested with user thus you need to be responsible and careful with your design decisions. One error and you’ll lose you ‘veto’ power.

Moving to new team? You are back to zero
This could be one of the reasons why some designers don’t want to shift teams. Every time you move to another team you are back to ‘zero’. You again have to build your respect and trust. As design is subjective unlike mathematics or engineering so it becomes really difficult to prove your solutions.

I guess ‘design’ is all about ‘trust’ – trust in you decisions and trust in you by your team.

I Design

2007-08-29T04:50:00.000-12:00

I’m not talking about any product or the process today. What I’m talking is a problem that most designs must have faced and have done. I’m sure all of us have said this at some point in our careers/projects “I think…” “In my opinion…” and “my idea (is great)…”

I’m differentiating two different issues here – one is related to opinions which I’m calling as ‘I think’ syndrome and the other ‘my idea’ syndrome. They may be related or may be detached. Let see what they are:

‘I think’ syndrome
This is some thing that you would find very common. I have seen that lot of decisions get influenced by personal opinions and biases. The situation becomes even more complex at the visual design stage. Visual design is tricky; it very difficult to evaluate or even measure the success of it. And you would find many opinions floating round the table – ‘I don’t like this…’. If you ask why? There is no concrete reason. And also there is a very thin line between an opinion and some ones learning (from experience). Insights from an experience ‘can’ be very valuable; it allows you to not commit the mistakes you have made earlier. An opinion is just a feeling – it ‘may’ be right in some cases. But you don’t know when you are making the right choice. Also the question comes back – are we doing justice to design like this? You may make a choice to please your boss just because you followed his ‘opinion’. But is this justified or is it a responsible design? These are very tricky questions. I don’t have answers here; I guess the best way is to be sensitive and responsible in design. Judge if we are swayed by opinions or we truly have reasons in the decisions that we take. ‘Self awareness’ is the solution I guess?

‘my idea’ syndrome
Another of the complexities in design: designer’s obsessed love with their own ideas. ‘My idea is great’; a common problem in most people. This is one issue that I have seen through my professional and student life. This becomes more evident in a group. Another complexity that it adds is that ‘design/idea’ becomes a part of self esteem. If you reject my idea; it means you don’t think I’m good. Thus it hurt my ego.

This I would guess is a Design Managers nightmare. Handling designers thus is not an easy task. The biggest problem with design is – nothing is right or wrong. It’s all about what the object of the problem is. Even the solution that a designer brings in have their pros and cons. I don’t know if there is something called as a ‘perfect design’? It’s perfect for a situation and person; but no universal. Thus evaluating design is not so simple. And this attachment to our ideas sometimes blinds us in rationally evaluating it.

So the basic question is. What is design? Is it a creation of people’s personal beliefs/bias or a conscious solution driven by understanding the problem? How much of our solution is driven by our biases? Is it good? And how do we make sure our solutions don’t get biases by our beliefs?

What is a good design built from? Any thoughts…

Design Research – the fuel to design?

2007-08-25T17:20:00.000-12:00

I recently attended Yahoo! Usability and User Research Conference in Seoul. It was an internal conference focused on methodologies and sharing amongst various international offices.

I have already known the value of research in design and this conference just concretized by belief and trust in design research. Any design process needs design decisions. Making the right decision is important to make your product/solution accurate. If you think closely how do we make these decisions?

These are based on our past experiences, our understanding of the users and mostly our ‘biases/assumptions’. I would say majority of our decision are based on what we think (read as ‘assume’) the user would want. Thus there is a lot of ambiguity and differences in what is need and what we assume is needed.

This is where the design research fills the gap. It becomes a bridge between the user and the designer. I personally feel any kind of design research has a lot to offer to designers. Even though they may not make an impact the top management; there is a huge value in day to day working of designers. As designers we should seek as many cue and clues what help us build a better understanding of the actual usage. The objective- reduce assumption and build concrete understanding. The less assumption we build on our design I feel the better designs we can deliver.

So I would suggest treat your design researchers very well. Treat them & give them gift because these are people who could really help you create better designs. And this not only helps you in a specific product/project. These understanding are going to stay with you for very long. This may have direct impact on current project but indirectly this is going to have significant impacts on products/project to come in future.

Star Fish, Spider, Hot Teams & DESIGN

2007-07-17T21:53:00.000-12:00

I recently read two amazing books – “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations; by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom” and “Art of Innovation; by Tom Kelley”. Both were very interesting reads.

“Starfish and Spider” concept is very interesting. It talks how organizations can survive and thrive without clear leaders. Where there are independent units that work together and take decisions. Metaphor the author takes is that if you cut the star fish into two both parts will re-grow to become 2 starfishes; while if you cut the head of the spider it dies. Its talks of the shift from a hierarchical system to a more democratic (based on peer relationships) and localized one.

Kelley in a way also talks of a similar approach in design. He talks about “Hot Teams”, which are small groups which work together without a clear hierarchy and take critical design decisions. These both are interesting because on can see a clear advantage in this non hierarchy approach for design management. Who takes the decision about design in the organization? The CEO or the Head of the organization? Well that’s not the right model to follow.

The success of design is through the multiple perspective it can bring in and democracy in decision making. Yes people who have a better understanding can influence the decision. Just because the CEO doesn’t like blue color does not necessarily be the reason for changing the color. CEO may not be aware of the user needs or the ground reality.

This is a decision that the product team has to take. Product team working on a project knows more about the product than anyone else. The best and the more creative structure for the design driven industry is to create these small Hot Teams or Independent Circles to understand and take decisions about their designs.

I think there is a very delicate balance between the freedom and the hierarchy. Hierarchy to make sure all other aspects are taken care of, like design managers being facilitators – Catalysts (read starfish book) – for design and for other organizational needs beyond design.

I guess the best way to handle design is by a starfish approach. Design is democratic ("Lets discuss and find a solution") not hierarchical ("I'm the Boss, I'll tell you the solution")

Transforming Maruti 800s to BMWs

2007-07-11T17:57:00.000-12:00

I was making a presentation yesterday for Web Dev conference yesterday when this idea came to my mind – “We designers create BMWs from Maruti 800s”. Now for all those who don’t know what Maruti 800 is – it’s the most basic and the cheapest car available in India.

Let me tell you the whole story. So I was writing about how design helps create Humane Softwares – softwares that are pleasant to use. The argument was that functionality and the experience has to go together to create a WOW software. Now for the functionality driven engineers – who believe functionality is the only aspect of software – I made an argument saying as we all are humans we have ‘feelings’. We always look for feeling in anything we do.

Is Art functional?
What functionality does a painting have? Nothing. It just hangs on the wall without any function. But people still – see it, appreciate it and buy it (by paying millions of dollars). What does it create – it creates some feelings in us and that’s what we all care for in art. The same applies for software – we are humans we look for a pleasant experience in using them.

Maruti 800 to BMW
What’s the function of a car – to take us from point A to B. So why doe we buy or aspire to buy (like me) a BMW (luxury cars)? Just because they are a pleasure to drive. We, designers in the software industry help to transform Maruti 800 (functional car) to a BMW car (sedan). But if BMWs don’t work properly (functionality) I don’t think anyone would buy them. Thus both functionality and experience has to go together. Same arguments can be made with Architecture as metaphor. Why do we go to an architect or interior designer?

Now, it’s for the engineers to decide whether they want to work in a Maruti factory and keep creating Maruti 800s or do they want to work in a BMW factory and work on BMW Luxury Sedans?

Temptation to clutter

2007-07-04T23:30:00.000-12:00

When you are doing the “information design” either at a layout level or a detailed level, you generally are tempted to add as much information as you can. It’s really tempting to add information blocks to you screens. The argument could be that more information is better. And from my personal experience its so easy to add more and more information; because you always have a “reason” to add more of it. But that reason may not match us with the reason of the users. Its really tough to “remove” information but at some instances it could be useful. When you are design make sure you are not overloading the user with too much information. See Google; “Less is more” or paradox of choice.

There are 3 ways to get out of it – one is the focus. Be clear on what’s important; categorize your information with priority to help you decide. Second, look at the associations in information. Sometime information is related and you can mix two information modules to convey the same message. Third, there are always better ways of showing information. Use visual design to support you information. Make sure the correct information/structure/cluster/section is highlighted.

Indians like cluttered Pages?
In India we inherently believe that Indians like too much information. I don’t agree. I guess the information consumption should be related to human psychology & cognition rather than a ‘strong’ attribute of cultural background. By Hall's cultural model India is a High Context Culture (unlike Germany with is Low Context); thus through this Indians should be able to communicate without describing details. We all are humans and we are all uncomfortable with information overload. And we all equally appreciate good design (see Google or BMW or ipod).

Design Evolves

2007-07-03T17:17:00.000-12:00

Evolution is important; humans evolved to become better ‘designed’ beings (better? umm…do u agree). But we definitely evolved. During the course of your evolution we phased different challenges; which kept changing with time and the environment. This shaped us and made better to face these challenges – read Better Design.

Thus design evolves – to be better. It all starts from the very beginning – when you think about a product you start with an idea. Then we start to add up parameters of environment (competitors; users; their needs, technology etc.), this slowly shapes up the product. It may start by random thoughts/sketches (unicellular bacteria) to a working prototype (complex multi-system organism). The design evolves (constantly improving) from an idea to a prototype and then finally into a full product. The parameters keep adding up, changing the design. Its survival depends of its evolution; shaped up by the design decisions. Bad Decisions?? You are extinct.

Does the story end here? No. Even after the launch it has to keep evolving to be in the race. The ‘survival of the fittest’ remember? To be the best you have to compete with the changing environment (competitors, users, technology, business etc.).

Thus the changing environment - keeps changing the designs. It’s a constant race. And evolution is a reality.

This applies to all the fields I guess. So it’s better to be prepared and conscious of it rather than being surprised by it. Thus keep looking for the changes happening around you. You never know when an ape transform into a human and then takes you to a point of extinction. Be informed, be adaptive and keep evolving.

India Maps: Tiles from Google and Yahoo

2007-07-02T23:54:00.000-12:00

Left Map tile is from Google India Maps and right one is from Yahoo! India Maps

Click on images to enlarge

Life & Experience; Analog & Digital

2007-07-01T16:08:00.000-12:00

I was traveling back home when I had this thought about iPhone & real life. Well you can say what a weird combination.

Ok, now let me explain. I was thinking about how well the user experiences of Apple applications are. When I tried to think of the details that Apple has in its interaction and visual appeal. One thing crossed my mind; they recreate a physical real world. Real world is Analog – not discreet by a continuous flow. Think of even your thoughts, they are in flow; one though leading to another and thus it creates a chains of thoughts. If you observe Apple interaction they are continuous. Think of a conversation now – conversation is not discrete by continuous; a point leads to another. So a conversation might start by a topic 'A' and may flow through topic 'B' to say 'H'. Now imagine 2 persons 'X' and 'Y'. 'X' is involved in the conversation from the beginning and 'Y' came when discussion was at “K” (it started with A). Now 'Y' will not be able to understand the conversation for a while till he gets the context, while 'X' have will no problem understanding the conversation.

Thus the same principles apply in UI designing. If we keep the user in context by bringing in analog experience the communication should be effective. A discreet systems always creates a problem as it becomes difficult to relate to the previous state (think of Y’s situation). This is what Apple in most cases does right – recreating flowing/continuous experience. Now for any effective communication and experience this flow is important. So next time you thing of design think in terms of flow. Also the 'Flow Theory' emphasizes the need for a continuous experience. Real life is analog not digital'.

When design conflicts with business

2007-06-28T15:28:00.000-12:00

For a change I’ll talk about my Architecture days (good old days). When you pass out as an architect you have some much enthusiasm about what you can do. You dream about changing lives of people through designs and all sorts of things.

But when you step out from the academic life to professional one; thing change drastically. The ‘value’ system begins to shake – the real life is not driven by the same value system of providing better life to people; but money.

This conflict and transition is difficult to come terms with. And to be frank I could not adjust to it; and I left architecture. Yes! I agree that you can become a hero and fight with the system. But unfortunately I wasn’t one.

I saw this video on TED and it reminded me of my days when I had similar dreams. Change this world; design organic and all that. Though during those days there wasn’t much awareness about the Global Warming and Environment issues. Its not there even today I presume.

In architecture, design directly conflict with the business. Most people are more focused towards short term goal to earning money. "Too much design is costly, who will pay for it?". At the end of the day the design has to deliver money. Who cares about the environment? Architecture in India at least is devoid of design – design as this talk highlights it. It purely driven by business- it’s not driven by user or environment. The biggest handicap for an architect is – it needs a ‘client’.

I sincerely wish I could positively contribute to the urban landscape around me (in Bangalore); where the tiniest open space is now being covered by tall housing or commercial complexes. I some times feel – what a wasteful life I have.

Paradox of choice

2007-06-26T23:31:00.000-12:00

This is very nice and interesting video. A different perspective in looking at things around us.

Paradox of choice? Ask a designer. Its part of his every day work.
Design is about choosing the right decision. Every step in design is filled with options. And to add to complexity AJAX has adding many more choices to decide (more degree of freedom) from for designing UIs. I have seen a lot of designers getting stuck at points just because they fear of taking decisions.

The biggest thing is "Responsibility"; if you are responsible for a design you have to make it work. And for that you have to make the correct choices all along the way. More choices you have more chances are there to get it wrong. We have to learn to live with choices and become smarter in decisions. I guess this can only come when you know your job well. Same as if I know and I'm confident I'm buying the right stuff; my chances to taking the right decision are more (and be satisfied with it). What I need is, to be clear about those parameters that are crucial for me. And remember humans have a low short term memory; its difficult to compare more than 4 parameters at a time. See this is convergence - cognitive science with psychology :)

Thus i guess; 'more clarity' lead to 'better decisions'. Be clear on your 'decision making parameters'.

Accidental Designs (Serendipity)

2007-06-26T15:45:00.000-12:00

Accidental Designs? Well I didn’t know what else to call them. I recently attended a conference USID 07 in Hyderabad. There was a talk by Google. And the same old story – Google’s Homepage. Yes; I know, recognize and appreciate their Home page.

But!! Was it designed? Not exactly. It’s an “Accidental Design”. Just because Larry Page didn’t know HTML he created this Page and it worked. I’m not sure he knew what users wanted when he launched. Its not a thoughtful design - it was not intended.

Getting the design to ‘work’
This is the most critical aspect in design. Getting the designs to work perfectly; which is the most challenging part and is a “Black Box”. While designing you never know what will work. So if you know what is working its more than half of the work (decision making & getting the parameters) done. I feel its easier to know what doesn’t work; while it’s a challenge to know what actually works. If Google Home page had been a failure they wouldn’t have known how to “redesign” it (they would have known some problems; but what’s the real problem to solve?). They were lucky to get their page to work and thus may have discovered why it’s actually working. And now they seems to have built a whole philosophy of UI design built on this - which I guess works.

Coming back to some earlier thoughts (in earlier post) some best designs like Periodic Tables or "The 1854 London Cholera Epidemic map" can also be debated if they are accidental designs. One thing to know in design is – will it work? And because of the subjectivity of design, that question is the hardest to figure out. Even with best of processes and analysis you are not sure if it will work till you see users using it. The only way to know it is to put it in front of users – let them play & they will teach you. I’m trying to imagine how would the Google Homepage would look like if Larry Page has asked a designer to design it? I’m sure it wouldn’t have been so different from the other competitors that time.

What to do
In the huge pile of failed designs these Accidental Designs come shining through. The trick seems to be experimentation and a bit of luck. Also getting them right at the fundamental level is critical because it defines how far the designs can go. If it works, you know how to go ahead; if it fails – God bless you – it’s a rough road ahead.

Some get it right
I also feel there it’s a talent - some designers have a knack of getting their design to work. And some even though they work hard never get it right. It could be intuitive and depended on the value systems & design decision parameters.

G! Maps…Street View…rocks!!!

2007-06-04T00:44:00.000-12:00

Google launches ‘Street View’ for their maps. It’s a really WOW – it surprised me with what it can do and with the quality. Very neatly done – full points to them. I have a very healthy respect for Google designers.

I can understand the feeling of ‘satisfaction’ and the feeling of ‘achievement’ maps team would be feeling. Or may e they have got used to it :)

The one thing I don’t like about Google is their disrespect to visual design. They don’t use it properly. I think a bit of color can significantly increase their page layouts and make the information segregation better. Too much white space is good; but not so much. If I were to do their page I would have done this way.

click to enlarge

Hiring Designers? Some thought on ‘Patterns in Designers’

2007-05-31T23:16:00.000-12:00

I can say I have met quite a number of designers both during my college days to my professional life – especially through interviews. I have been involved in hiring process for designer for Yahoo! for quite some time now. My involvement mostly have been to evaluate the ‘design thinking’ of the candidates. Interacting with people I’m starting to see some patterns in designers. These are some patterns that I have seen in designers and design thinking :

Feature Thinkers – For clarity they are not ‘Ideators’ or ‘Thinkers’ or ‘Innovators’ if you think. These are generally designer who generally give good ideas about a new feature, product etc. They can think at a macro level and can give nice ideas on it. But these may not be the best people to implement it. They’ll give nice ideas but are ‘generally’ not able to transform (implement) these ideas into usable/useful designs. These are broad level ‘feature thinkers’. They generally throw wild ideas.

Implementers – Implementers are thinkers but of different sort. These are designers who can solve the problem effectively. These are innovators who can make things ‘work’. They may not be the best of thinkers who can provide broad level “out of box” ideas. But they can solve design issues at more of a grass root level. Their innovation is in making thing work; give them an average idea and they will make it good by their implementation solutions. One attribute which ‘could’ be associated with them is their eye for detail.

Hybrids – And then there are hybrids. A mix of both ‘Feature Thinkers’ and ‘Implementers’. And these are the one who are toughest to find.

Followers – These are sadly the most common to find. These are designer who are Skill Driven. You tell them what to do and they will do it in no time. But they don’t add anything to you knowledge pool or to design. They just follow what’s told to them. These designers thrive on their software skills and they could be useful in some cases.

I guess the best team would be a mix of all these types of designers. Every one has their own qualities. The best would be to get implementers; but identifying them is difficult. One needs to analyze them thoroughly to know if they are good implementers.

Innovation happens at every level – at feature level or at implementation level. Thus I haven’t called Feature Thinkers as innovators. Innovation is considered an innovation if its come out of the ‘factory’, just good idea is not innovation it needs a good implementation. Thus for innovation you need both – ‘Feature Thinkers’ and ‘Implementers’.

These are my thoughts; so don't ask me to support my claims with data ;)

Design Patterns: Are we looking at them from the wrong way?

2007-05-20T21:11:00.000-12:00

Was thinking about patterns some days back and was wonder why haven’t created the impact they could have. I’m not talking about big corporation which use them extensively, but small companies or innovation oriented companies.

The reason I feel we are looking at them from the wrong perspective is because the way we structure the patterns are not easily accessible. Let look at the common scenarios of design – what time will you look for a design pattern? Most when you are taking a design decision. Lets look at the current structure of pattern libraries available on the web today. Most of the sites have them classified by their names like breadcrums, drag and drop, tabs, double tab etc. Now if you look at them from the usability perspective; while designing do you think we need breadcrums or I need a drag and drop ? The question that usually comes to mind is “I need to how the user where this current page is located”. At this point of time you want to see what all design options you have to show users the current location of the page. And here the current design pattern structure fails. Unless you know breadcrums are one of the solutions you may never be able to find the right design solution.

The current structure is usable if you know all the “names” of the design patterns that are in use. So what happens most of the time is that you end up using only those patterns that you are aware of.

Another common way that I have seen some people using is by making a self library of design patterns from the web. Designers choose certain design patterns that they like and then start to design their pages trying to some how fit those into their design. This is very negative way to approach design. Design being a problem solving process shouldn’t encourage this kind of usage to patterns.

It’s something like - to create a movie you first start to choose certain scene from other movies that you liked and then try to mix them together to create a story out of it. For better results it should be like you create the story (purpose), then look at the catalog of scene (design pattern) that fit into that story.

This tells us that its not the name of the movie clip that is important but what it shows (purpose) that is important. At the right point of time I should know which scene is to be put together by “purpose” than by it “name”.

It’s a pure information categorization issue. How to present the data to users to make it more sensible to them.

I need to see some solution to a specific information or interaction. And I should be able to find it through my problem rather than by name –

“Double Tab” – it makes sense to people who know it, but I’m sure there are a lot who don’t know the name but may be aware of the design. Thus names could be unintuitive unless we create a Nomenclature which is universal and which may also indicate the purpose of the pattern. The current categorization needs a lot of learning; we have to find ways to cut them and make it more logical.

I’m be writing about this more in future…

G's new Header

2007-05-16T15:41:00.000-12:00

Google changed its universal header today. And interestingly it looks very similar to what I once proposed. But the background needs to be a bit different so that it can stand out from the rest of the page. If top header gets segregated from the rest it will bring more focus to the page. Slight grey or light bluish can do. Also the bg could be made a bit transparent to allow it to gel well with iGoogle themes. I hope Google is not listening...

This was my idea.

See my original post

Understanding “WOW” & “Neat”

2007-05-04T00:06:00.000-12:00

It’s a very fuzzy topic to write about. The industry has been using these terms to explain the outcome of a user experiences. These are common words – Wow or Neat.

Lets try to see what they mean and what ‘might’ generate them. Lets talk about WOW. When did you said wow for any UI? Of what I have gather through my memory about my WOW moments; I can say – I said them when I got surprised (for sure) or when I liked a liked a very visually impressive UI (hmm say while using Mac).

For sure I can say my WOW moment was when I got surprised – when I didn’t expect some thing but was there. One way to get this wow moment is to think out of the box feature or “may be” a new impressive interaction. The other way to get a wow is by detail – surprise a user by the designing for the minutest details (and getting it right).

“Neat” is I guess slightly different. It’s more to do with getting your structure right. Where every component on the page fits together properly to bring out a clear message (communication). Neat is uncluttered but may not necessarily mean “visually impressive”; thus may not be complete in User Experience. Also Neat doesn’t require a surprise while by my understanding WOW can’t be achieved without it. Neat is essentially doing a standard stuff in an easier/simpler way.

So I can say WOW is the complete Holy Grail of user experience while “neat” is one step short. Looking at examples around us I will say – Apple products fall in WOW while Google fall in the category of “Neat”.

Dealing with GIS

2007-04-29T20:11:00.000-12:00

GIS is the next generation technology; one that deals with geographical data. GIS makes a basic layer which can be used as a base to build multiple utility products from - building a local business product; to urban planning; to architecture layouts to Town planning;to topography sheets in geology - everything that has anything to do with Geographical data.

The first thing that you would like to ask is - What data do you want to show at what zoom level (‘if’ you are dealing with zoom)? This totally depends on the intent of the design – what is to be achieved is what will define what data is important and how is it interconnected. Thus the full information set needed - with priority of each.

One data set (for one zoom) could involve multiple data – roads (with numerous categories); water bodies (with numerous categories); land use (with numerous categories); Electric lines; topography; soil type; vegetation etc. The list can be enormous.

After you choose the data type you have to visually represent it. Now it’s easier said than done…look at the options you have to control to make your designs -

For - Vector Line

Line width (in px) + color/pattern of line + Transparency (alpha channel) + Line type + (maybe) elevation – z axis data as well;
Border (in px) + color of border + Transparency of border + Line type (dotted, dashed, complete etc.) + Anti aliasing;
Text (Name of the line) + Font for Text + Color of the text + Border to Text + Color of border to the text + Transparency of the text + Name to be rendered – full, part, abbreviate.

For - Polygons (regions)

Color/pattern of region + Transparency + (maybe) elevation – z axis data as well;
Text (Name of the region) + Font for Text + Color of the text + Border to Text + Color of border to the text + Transparency of the text + Name to be rendered – full, part, abbreviate.

For - Points

Marker/Icons;
Text (Name of the region) + Font for Text + Color of the text + Border to Text + Color of border to the text + Transparency of the text + Name to be rendered – full, part, abbreviate.

Every data has a lat-long info attached to it. Thus all the points correspond to a point on earth. But there is another issue for you to solve – the correction in making a map by taking into account the circular aspects of the earth. Though thats a mathematical problem; but as designers there are a lot of scenarios where it makes a difference (like if the map is to be imposed on any background like satellite images; aerial images etc. or if it has to corresponds exactly on a point in earth - say for planning.).

This is definitely huge list – how many permutations and combinations? This is the kind of information overload you are dealing with. The only way to design – simple – if you are focused, you know what you are doing…this is a piece of cake. If not…you’ll be lost. It’s just a pure ‘age old’ information design problem…just digitally enhanced in terms of degree of freedom (more parameters are to be controlled now).

So it all depends on "design" how much users might want to control in GIS; how much parameters (degree of freedom) can be controlled. There are interrelationships and dependencies which are to be accounted while designing for a specialized use.

The more you are aware of what data you are dealing with and what is the importance of it...the better you can design - both the GIS or its usage.

Intelligent designs!

2007-04-15T20:22:00.000-12:00

I was going through TED.com when I saw this presentation. I must admit this is one of the most interesting presentation I have seen. Ted's UI design itself is interesting; have a look sometime.

At one of the point David talks of “intelligent design”. I guess that some thing very very important in design. That is one factor that separates a good design from a bad one. Trust me making ‘intelligent’ designs are not easy; the only way one can make is by very good understanding of the problem. As I always say at every step there are multiple solutions; but there are very few (mostly only one) “intelligent” ones. And to get to that solution(s) you have to pass through all the rest. Meticulously evaluating and removing them one by one; and this is no easy task. This is the LOGIC part of the design; one which need analysis and thinking.

Design needs brains; it needs thinking…

First Step is hardest and the most critical

2007-04-11T20:01:00.000-12:00

Some days back I was thinking about design when this thought passed by. I have always believed that the first step in design in hardest. Building something from scratch and making the first draft is so tough. The reason that I though its tough is because of this is the step when we deal with “ABSOLUTE” values. To tell you an example – for the first time when we built the spec for cartography, we had to do some much analysis – what to show; how to show; will it look good? So many questions came to the table. But once we built and render the first set, things became easy – now it all became “RELATIVE”. This doesn’t look good so remove it, or add some thing, push this down to a lower zoom etc. Suddenly you will realize it’s now much simpler to edit/manipulate/modify things; now that there is some reference to look forward to.

But there is another important reason why the first step is so critical. It ‘defines’ the number of iterations the design would need. The closer the first step is to final (finished) design the lesser the iterations. Also it give that much more time to iterate and finish you design to the best (or even allow you to extent you limit of ‘finish’). The final step/finish thus depends on the first.

But also if the first step is a failure; either the iteration cycles become enormous (some times unmanageable) or one has to go back again to the drawing table. Thus this step is very important and critical. A good designer should keep this in mind – the more effort you put in the beginning – more the chances of finishing the designing properly (and to your satisfaction).

Product: Competing in established market

2007-04-11T19:30:00.000-12:00

We were having a casual discussion over the lunch when a nice thought came in. It is practically impossible or extremely difficult to build a new product to compete with competitor products which have been there in the market for some time. What’s difficult is to bridge the “time” difference between the products. Take an example of Maps; Map products have been around for more than 2 years (I guess) in US. So if some company now wants to come up with a new map product it has to bridge that gap of 2 years. In two year the competitors would have built so many features and enhancements that it is practically not possible to bridge that “time” gap instantly.

The best way could be to not make an exactly similar product but a different/unique product to compete. Some one mentioned Gmail; mail was around but Gmail stole the show because it was different. If it would have been similar to other mails, it wouldn't have created any impact. Its a really nice thought...

This is to some extent the state of whole Web Industry in India. Because it started late; there is hardly any innovativeness or uniqueness. Its lags in time from US; thus innovation is hard to come by. If we move 2 steps closer to them; they again more 3 step further from us. Because now things are well established they can make huge jumps forward; while most of our energy goes in just building the basic stuff.

So if you want to be a part of innovation; want to work with products that are ahead of their time…you have to be in US. Or so I think.

Visual Design as an Information Design tool

2007-04-09T19:54:00.000-12:00

Visual Design or Graphic Design as people might call it; has been mostly associated with the Experience and Look n Feel part of design. But Visual design is tremendously powerful tool when it comes to information design / information architecture. I personally feel the real power of this has not been truly utilized on the web. With usage of the age old “Gestalts Law” information can be presented in a very interesting manner. The kind of tools that Visual design uses are – Typography, Color, Placement, Layout, Texture/patterns, etc.

Starting from the Layout – the page itself can be designed to allow users to focus on certain aspects of information / section.

Typography, placement and color could be used to effectively create chunks of information which can be effectively used in segregating information. Also this could effectively create the hierarchy in information. Important information / section can be ‘subtly’ highlighted very effectively. Even simple things like 'bullet points' can be used as visual cues to point to an information.

One aspect that all application should account for is ‘Glazing/Glancing’ and design for it. What I mean by that it; user by just glancing on the page should get as much information as possible. This will substantially increase the readability and understandability of the information presented to the users.

To even use this there is lot of thinking that need to go into design. One has to really understand: what is the - information hierarchy, information chunks and more importantly the “objective” of the page/screen. Objective – Why do we need this page/screen; what the user has to understand in the screen/page; what user has to do in this screen.

The challenge is that if you want to use this you need a pixel perfect both in design and HTML. This is where a single pixel or slight change in color can create a huge difference in design. Just one pixel the information chunks comes close and suddenly you will find that they don’t appear to be two different chunks but one. Here you need a good eye for design.

These are aspect which if present will not be so much noticed by the user; but if absent would make it difficult for users to understand the UI.

We used these techniques in the Map cartography and even the UI.

Designing Maps...

2007-04-02T02:04:00.000-12:00

This blog post is for readers/students who want to know about the designing side of Y! India Maps. For our map product we designed both the map cartography and UI.

Map Cartography

Map

Maps cartography is the designing of the maps. Map cartography is a pure “information design” problem. There are two aspects to it – “what data to show at what zoom level?” and then “how to show?”. From the design stand point they combine together to create the desired effect. Thus we used the Visual Design in a way to assist the information (Data) architecture. We had a limitation in terms of what we can do – like we can not have a border on text, there were limitation on transparency etc. So we work largely with colors. Things that the users want to see more often have brighter colors or are enhanced (by changing the width, border etc); secondary information is subdued. Every zoom level had a purpose (objective) in terms of what they will convey. And also every zoom level had relation with the previous and next zooms. This was important as the map is interactive; on zoom the user should feel as if hes zooming. Zoom spec tried to connect both the relationship aspect (with other zooms) and the individual aspects (it shouldn’t look cluttered).

Map Tile some time in Nov. It all began with this... (this is Zoom 06 and you are looking at Delhi)

To see this location (with same zoom level) in current version. Click here – you won’t believe it!!

Hybrid

Though the design principles remained the same the strategy was a slightly different. The Data in this case was a supplement to the Satellite images. Though at higher zoom levels the things don’t matter much but as you zoom in the specs starts to change. As the city level starts to appear the Satellite image itself becomes a huge repository of information. Then you start to see what information is going to add value to the image below. If you are looking for your house and you know which locality you live in, you could navigate through locality and some landmarks through our Y! India Maps.

User Interface

We tried to keep the page as light as possible - as less images as possible. Another question I had been answering from the time I proposed it was “why right navigation”. Well there is a long story behind it, which i'll tell later. But we kept the info pane on the right just to experiment; but this layout suddenly started to make a lot of sense:

The Left became very less cluttered.
The is not break between the info pane or map area – as in other map site with left info/navigation pane.
The listings in the Search Result Page comes closer to the map. Its on the left on the right pane. Thus better visual connection.
The map which is the main information space get the Topish –Left space. Most viewable area of the screen.

I had to create a separate twiki page (internal web page of this product) with the explanation because so many people asked this and so many times…

Another important aspect was to keep the information (and the UI) incontext. So you will see the yellow message boxes appearing below in “Do more with maps” section (one that comes after you search for a allocation). We designed the UIs with full feature in mind. Right now I can say its just 30% of what we deigned for. The design is largely scalable as functions grow they will be added without major changes to UI design.

We never tried to coping anyone; we wanted to solve the problem with the best effect. Some differentiators of Y! India Maps could be -

Right navigation/info pane.
The Split of the top header marking the map area and info pane area.
Map being attached with its header than detached.
The use of ‘Color’. Which are broadly taken from Yahoo! Local (US) – the blue being a little more bright to add a little “life” to the UI.
The error messaging styles.

One thing that we didn’t think much was the Printable Version page. It still needs a lot of thinking and improvement.

Its encouraging to find that people have started liking it and writing about it - webyantra

It was real fun working on maps and we sincerely hope you’ll find it fun to use. Please do take some time off and post you feedback on the product. The stage is now set, its time to rock n rolls; hope this product goes a long way. Though I may not be there but I wish Y! India Maps - All the very best…

Google Header

2007-03-28T15:50:00.000-12:00

I love Gmail but really hate Google's header. I was thinking of some solution for it...thought of a design. Though its not so great but still I guess would help to improve their design.
see a small screen shot at this link.
http://abhishek.iitr.googlepages.com/googleheader

Good UI ideas need not come from designers; but good ideas should also translate to good design…

2007-03-20T00:35:00.001-12:00

Good UI ideas don’t just come from UI designers; they come from any where; at any time and by anyone. So why do you need a designer? Good question indeed. There is good reason why you should…

Now first thing to look about these “AHA! good idea” moments is there timing. If these ideas come very early in the conceptualization stage they are easier to accommodate. But the real problem comes when these ideas come at later stage. As I have been saying before design is built on decisions and they are like a pyramid of cards. If you try to replace a card placed some where at the bottom the whole pyramid can collapse. It becomes harder to design as we move up the pyramid. There are lots of dependencies that one has to take into account to add anything new to the design. Every thing in a UI is interrelated. Adding or changing can have a severe impact on the UI; a lot can change in order to do even some small changes.

This is where the designer comes into picture. Yes any one can get good ideas but what any one else can not do it to “translate” a good idea into good design. A good design fits into the scheme of things and blends perfectly with its interrelated elements. A good idea may look good in a specific use case; but may also spoil a bunch of others. A designer can make sure (if he’s good) to make that good ideas look good in all use case/scenarios/conditions. What designer can bring in is that multi perspective analysis to make sure it doesn’t conflict with any other elements on the UI and that the communication is not hampered. This is the beauty of design “make good ideas look good always”.

Thinking!!! Is all what ‘design’ is built on…the more you can ‘think’ the better (& more complete) design you can build. If you can think hard, your are already a designer :)

Built on decisions

2007-03-15T19:39:00.000-12:00

Design is all about design decisions…at every stage you are trying to decide what will work for your designs. These decisions came very early in design – be it deciding what product you want to make to how would it look to how would it work…

At all step you are involved in taking decisions; and success of your design closely depend on these decisions.

The most important part of design decision is how many parameters are involved in that decision. The more the parameters you are using to take the decision the probability of creating a good design is more. What it means is that your designs are designed for all those parameters. It like you have to create a protective cover for an art work; so you want to make sure that the cover takes care of ALL those things/conditions that “will or may” damage that art work. The same is for design; you try to make sure you cover all aspects that are going to affect the product you are designing.

Another critical aspect of design decisions is their “interdependency”. What do I mean by that? Well I mean is all along the design process you would be taking certain decisions at say ‘stage 1’. Now when you move to ‘stage 2’ you would be taking another set of decisions. But now these decisions will be highly depended on what you decided at ‘stage 1’. Thus all along the design you would be taking decisions which you be so inter depended that if you try to change a certain decision that you took at a lower stage the whole design would fall into pieces. It’s like a pyramid build of cards. If you remove a lower card the whole pyramid falls apart. This is because of these interdependencies of the design decision.

If you take one wrong decision you land up with a wrong design…and if you realize is late – you are dead!. Thus design is one profession where you need to be very sure of what you are doing. And to add to the complexity the decisions that are involved are very “subjective”, with each path/decision having certain pros and cons. This is where the real adventure lies? Is it?

But with thorough logic, analysis and understanding you can to a large extent reduce the unknowns of design and bring in some objectivity in design decisions. Thus design is not about creativity it’s also about analysis and research…find out the problem and the solution will find you…

'Degree of Freedom' in design depends on…

2007-03-12T16:17:00.001-12:00

We have come close to launching a product in some time now. When I look back I realize that what I realize that my “degree of freedom” to design closely depended on – Product Manager and the Front end/Web developer.

The reason I say this is because these are the two important people who really defines what you can do as designers. The Product Manager is product owner of the product thus he is the one who take the final decisions in terms of Business strategy, Engineering and also Design. When I look back I realize that I could ‘explore’ so much because the Product Manager allowed me to do that. It’s very important for a designer to have confidence of the Product Manager and the team. How much you can explore depends on how much “trust” they have on the designer/design team. This is very critical. Also if the product manger is willing to experiment there is a lot of freedom that the designer gets. What’s important here is that both the Designer and to some extent the Product Manager should “own” up the experimentations and their decisions. The most difficult part in design is this ownership of design decisions because of the subjective nature of design. So both Designers should own both the success and failures of UI. And I know its easier said than done; it’s a great responsibility. But the PMs should also own a bit of it as they are also part of most decisions.

The reason I have mentioned the Web/front end developers is because s/he is the person who is responsible for the implementation of the designs. Design doesn’t end by building JPEG screenshots but in final HTML (that what people actually see). And I know building the Front End is whole new ball game. They are essentially two different set of operations with both work with “different parameters and different decisions”. Design is subjective while Web development is very much mathematical. If you are lucky to get a good front end developer you can experiment a lot; else you are restricted by the web devs limitations. Thus the degree of freedom closely depends on the web devs also.

There are a lot of other people also who influence designs. But I guess these are the two very important people who really define what a designer can do. Over all as I have been saying…

The product is as good as the people who build it…to build innovative product you need creative people all along the product cycle.

Designing for the New Age Web

2007-03-10T22:04:00.000-12:00

I recently spoke in “National Conference on Web 2.0” held in Bangalore. The topic that I touched was about the challenges for designing for Web 2.0 products. Web 2.0 has essentially changed the way we now have to think about UI design. It has added a lot more to think about now in terms of designing. I’ll touch upon some of them in this article.

Web is changing

Web is changing; and why should we be surprised by the change? Even the environment of the users is changing. Their economic, social and cultural environment has changed; and we web has been one of the instruments of this change. Even the other technologies have brought in new needs for web products. The famous examples are – Flickr and You Tube; if there hadn’t been digital cameras = digital photography/video these won’t have been existed.

These new found needs are pushing the way we have to think about the next generation of products. What’s important to know for designers is to be able to see these upcoming ‘needs’ and track these changing environment of users.

Designing for Web 2.0

Looking at the changing trends and evolution of web technologies are pushing the limits to how we design on the web. The two important aspects that AJAX have changed are the –

interaction design
information design
One critical aspect that has been added to the arsenal of the design is TIME.

A better control on time has brought in a whole new change in the way we have to think about Design. Now with power to control elements in time a whole new concept of animation comes to picture. And with animation comes Story. Story that can be used to effectively inform the user about the change in the state of the system.

Let’s look at this new design paradigm change:

In-context Operations
Animation / Story
Continuity
Multilayer of information
Multitasking

In-Context Operations

Operations that needed another screen now can be done “in context”; user can be present in the state where s/he wants the operation is done.

Animation / Story

A good example of animation is from My Yahoo! When the user click on the ‘Close’ button the section blurs out and is removed. The lower block moves up.

These 2 set of animations – blurring + movement is what builds the story. The story saying “I have closed and now the place emptied by me is taken by another section”. In this case the user doesn’t actively participate but witnesses the change of state of the system. Now when you are implementing this the developer will ask how much time we should give for this to blur and the lower block to move. Then suddenly you realize that you are now dealing with “time”. This brings in a whole lot of thinking.

Continuity

What In Context features have brought are a lot of controls on the screen for a user. User can do multiple operations on the same screen. What it means is there are now multiple “trigger points”. Trigger points are objects/behaviors on screens that trigger operations like buttons, hover actions, roll over actions etc. Not the designs have to thoroughly understand the various states of the UI.

What if the user starts an operation and clicks on some other trigger point mid way through the first operation?
What are the dependencies of one operation to another?
Will or how will the other trigger points change if one operation is done?
How will they conflict with one and other? How to solve it?
How will the one operation conclude and how the next one will appear? What should be the feedback?

Multilayer of information

Now with AJAX the same component/place holder/ information holder can be used to convey more information. The two basic ways of deign are –

Either the additional information came in a different layer
It can be animated - removing one and showing another after an interval of time.

Multitasking

New web technologies are allowing the designers to think about allowing user to do multiple tasks at the same time. The one famous example is the new Yahoo! Mail which allows the user to do multiple tasks at the same time through its Tab design.

What does it mean for designers/product managers?

This means that the “Degree of Freedom” to think about design has drastically increased. The new aspects have added a lot for designer to think before they find a solution. Also it means that now there is more probability to go wrong in design.

So as the degree of freedom has increased there is more need to think about design in product development cycle.
More is the need to conduct User Testing to make sure you are on the right track.
Create new set of Web 2.0 patterns for designers.

Design an Adventure?

2007-03-06T00:38:00.000-12:00

Can design be adventurous? Yes of course, it actually is. When you actually work on design there are a lot of decisions that one has to take. And for most of these the designer doesn’t necessarily have user research data. Thus most decisions are built on intuition, experience, understanding etc. So for most of this part there is complete “Black out” about how will the users reacts to it. You can never be sure till you launch the product and start to get feedback. Thus design is pure adventure…you don’t know how the design will go with users. You will be biting your nails till the design goes out.

A lot can go against this as well; that ideally you should know every bit about the user and should design for it. But practically speaking this is impossible. My little experience in design has showed me that “most” UI designer are afraid of taking decisions in these case. I feel that’s the best part – a little “sensible” and “logical” experiment is what makes design so exciting, right?

Failure is just a step forward to success :)

Be a responsible adventurer…and enjoy your designs.

Chain is as strong as its weakest link

2007-02-27T16:40:00.000-12:00

I was reading some article when I read this line “Chain is as strong as its weakest link”. It suddenly struck me how relevant this is to product development. Working on product at Yahoo! I have realized that product can’t be just pulled in by any one team or person. It indeed is a collaborative effort where different expertise comes together and makes their dream a reality. Every one involved in this chain of building the products effects and influences the outcome of your product. So if the backend team is weak your system is weak; your design team is weak, your communication is weak; your front-end is weak, design is screwed up and the list goes on.

What’s important to identify which the weak links in your product development chain are? If you can identify those then you can make extra effort in those areas to bring it up. Give more time to that areas/teams/person or try to pull in some expert who can balance that team.

As being in design team I can say how important a front end team is. Design doesn’t end by making mock or JPEGs. It ends with the product being finished. So it’s that much more important that the designers and front end engineers work in sync with the other. What users see is not the JPEG but the HTML…design ends at HTML and not on JPEGs. So if your design team is weak make it strong if your front end is weak make that strong.

Conquering the Interactive Map: notes from my dairy

2006-12-18T23:23:00.000-12:00

Creating properties like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or MSN Maps is quite a challenge. I’ll take you through the various issues that are involved in designing such properties. Lot of people seems to be now a days interested in such products; so I thought I’ll write about some design issues that one needs to understand and solve. These are from my working dairy/notebook.

Objective & Approach

The most basic thing to start the design is to be VERY sure of what the purpose of Maps. Next comes the audience as this defines the kind of approach you can take in building the UI – communication.

Communication elements - building the UI Layout to connect the Map with the information and Search elements.

This is the most important connection as these three basic elements combine together to make sense to the user. How one compliment the other is critical. Just for your thoughts – “how do you connect the search box with search results? – Proximity? Think about the current Layouts being used “any chances of improvement?”
How one places the elements helps the user connect the information that appears on the screen. Information Placement and Visual design could easily help you to establish the connection of the information on the page.

Designing and defining the Map – sequential information: connect the zoom but still be uncluttered.

The most critical part of the Map based products are the Map itself. One very basic difference between a printed and the interactive web map is the ‘zoom’. Zoom adds simplicity to the user but significantly adds complexity for the designer.
Design the Maps involves a lot of ground works in terms of what is or can be shown to at various zooms. There is practically no mathematical trick that can define what information will come at each zoom level. All this has to be hard coded with a thorough understanding of the local geography and popularity of places.

Golden rules –

What is popular should be available at higher zoom
There should not be clutter in the page; thus proximity of places is an important aspect.
Area with higher population should be on available at higher zoom
Area with higher area should be at higher zoom.

Skelton (the Data) and Visual (the skin) : Map deals with primarily two aspect one is the data – should the National Highway be shown at Zoom 10 or 11 etc? The other aspect is how to show the National Highways (what color? what font? etc). They both are side of the same Coin. They TOGETHER allow you to keep your map in FOCUS. What I mean is that with data and visuals you can play around with what information you what to highlight at what zoom level. Also the visual can help you creating the ‘sense of zooming in or out”.

Effect of Zoom without information overload: The most complex part is that each zoom level should have a connection with the next higher and lower zoom; it should appear to the user that he is zooming in; at the same time each zoom level should not clutter the map with too much information. I can tell you there is no short cut to getting this right it’s PURELY iterative; but if you are smart you can reduce the levels of iteration significantly.

Golden rule – define a purpose for every zoom – what have you established in the previous zoom what you want to establish in this level.

Elephant don’t fit in a Rat’s pit

Maps can not solve every problem. The biggest problem is the space that is available. One might argue that this can be increased; yes but it can make the product complex. This might kill the whole purpose of Maps and also the simplicity. Treat Maps as a gateway to finding information- this does not mean that every information has to be provided in the Map itself ;)

There is lot to write…but you have to wait.

Output versus effort trend: When to stop design

2006-12-17T16:23:00.000-12:00

I have been involved in two products and both have been pretty extensive in terms of design. One of the important things I have been noticing about the way it is shaping up is the way I have been working. The trend is that at a point the enhancement or improvement in the design ceases to slow down and the effort involved in bringing those enhancements is much more.

What happens is that in the initial phases the output to effort is less as most of the effort goes in getting a hang on the problem. Once the problem is somewhat understood the output shoots up. That’s because the designer understands what are issues or problems that need to be addresses. As the progress goes on there reaches a point when all the problems at a basic level is fixed. Now it’s the turn for enhancement or small improvements. At this level the output that comes is much less that the input required as this deals more at a detail level.

That’s the critical moment; if you ask me there is no end to improvement - it can go for ages. But as a professional we have to decide what is “just good enough”. At a certain level it becomes very difficult for an untrained eye to find a difference between enhancements. So why do we need such an effort which can not be noticed by our user. Now the “golden question” here is WHEN TO STOP. That’s a critical question. A bad decision on this can lead to a poorly finished product. While if you don't stop at a point the product enhancement may not be so much while you might be wasting a significant about of energy and resources. This may sound trivial, but is also one of the critical design decisions – one that can make the difference between a good and a bad product.

Why should I break my design???

2006-11-26T23:07:00.000-12:00

I have been repeatedly asked not to provide or think about visual designs for the Products that I’m handling and follow the process. These processes break the design into multiple steps as if it’s a manufacturing unit – like an assembly line. I’ll fix one screw; the next person one will fix the other one without knowing why I fixed the first one.

Design is a complete thing. It’s a complete solution to a problem. I don’t think one can segregate it in a process. Working in a team which works together to solve a problem is a different thing; but I don’t understand how can someone who hasn’t worked on the problem before can jump midway and design a solution; without know the whole problem.

Visual design is a critical aspect. On one hand it adds visual pleasure to the page ‘simultaneously’ is also dictates the presentation of the information on the page. One bad visual balance can totally screw up the objective of the page – communication. These are so intricately woven that I don’t think it can be segregated. One needs to understand the importance of visual design – it’s just not about experience. Its power is much beyond it…one should not think about interactions, information and visual separately. They all come together to make sense…

Understanding design decisions: Testing begins where the Logic ends…

2006-11-26T16:59:00.000-12:00

One the most complex part of design is its subjectivity. For every step or parameter there lies multiple solutions. Starting from the deciding essential features to layout to the last pixel there lies so many options that it becomes really complicated. Every step calls for a design decision and these decisions are the one that decide the outcome of a design. I often used the term ‘parameters’; what I mean by these parameters is the list of priorities that a designer builds while designing the product and which directly influences the design decisions s/he take. If the product objective says that the product has to be easy to use then the kind of priorities that will be built will be different for the objective that says the product is meant to give a nice experience.

One of the biggest problems that I have seen is that most designers loose their objective while designing. It’s so easy to get lost in making design decision and sway from the path because of the multiple solutions available to him. Designing is not only about exploring and coming up with ideas. Its also about managing your design – you have to manage your self to stay on track. All good designer that I have seen or read about were very clear till the end what they where trying to do.

Coming back to my discussion on the design decisions – there are decisions that can be taken by using Logic. From a communication point of view we can take some decisions – will this make sense to user? Will he understand the context? What is it that will tell him that this button will take him to another page? What will make him click? Etc etc…

But even after using the most refined logic (which has to be aligned to the logic that the user will use in understanding the page) you will often come up with 2-3 solutions. Every solution will have some advantages and disadvantages. That’s the most critical moment; if you keep using logic you will land up going round and round with decisions without any result. That’s the moment when you have to go to the user to test your assumptions and take the right decisions. Logic alone ‘can not’ complete a design; one has to go to the user to refine and complete it…in an architectural term I guess we can say that logic is the core foundation while testing is the upper superstructure. Foundation dictates how the superstructure will shape up - Sometimes the superstructure also refines and defines the foundation. But essentially the foundation has to be strong for the building to stand the test of time.

Looking at Google product this can be clearly seen. Their designs are smart because their Logic is solid; and to make it stronger they heavily rely on testing.

So if you are stuck up in design take the refuge with the user…he’s the one who can bail you out… :)

Passing on ‘Passion’ to the team

2006-11-12T20:16:00.000-12:00

I’m the product owner of user experience designs for 2 upcoming products for Y! India. How we work here is that mostly the interaction designer owns a product (equivalent to UI Lead). The ID works closely with the Product Manager to build the concepts, features (from user point of view) and UI wireframes. This is then passed on the Visual Designers for the visual design part.

I have been owning 2 products & have to constantly pass on visual design aspects to the visual designers. This is very critical aspects of design. People who have worked in a team would realize how difficult it is to pass on the ‘information’.

One thing that I have figured out is that if you don’t just pass on the information but pass it along with your PASSION and COMMITMENT there is a drastic improvement in designs from the team. Showing your passion and commitment for your product really motivates the team to put their passion to the designs. Design is not about ‘data’ and ‘observation’ alone it’s also about ‘emotions’. If the designer himself is not excited and passionate about the designs how will the users be?

Task based to Communication based approach

2006-09-15T00:31:00.000-12:00

We have all been trained to design for Task. Most UI books talk about Task analysis and Task based designs. This might be useful for enterprise software or admin tool software. But at any or every level there is a communication that is happening. Why not look at the UI design from Communication point of view rather that from the view of tasks.

Communication approach will break a problem based on what is to be communicated and what needs to be established before moving on. For products like Yahoo! I guess this methodology is very useful. The product should be broken down into step of information. How should be communicate with the user? This is to be broken down into logical steps – like;

Step 1 : establish the purpose of the product.
Step 2 : what can a user do with it
Step 3 : What is the extent of information that is available to him.
Step 4 : How all can a user access it
And so on…

Once the communication is established then comes the tasks, operations and screens. This communication then has to be distributed into screen. One screen can be enough for all communication or it be distributed into steps based on the needs. To be on track it’s good to define an objective to every screen so that you know what is to be achieved in terms of communication (what has been established and what should come next).

There may not be anything new. Most of the people have already said all these things. This is all common sense; Isn’t it? But if you are a designer ask yourself how much you understand design and how much of it do you actually follow.

Can Creativity be illogical?

2006-09-03T16:48:00.000-12:00

I was recently sent by Yahoo! to attend the stakeholders meeting for structuring a new course for National Institute of Design. All the bigwigs were present there from the industry. Some one in the open session made a statement that “…engineers are less creative because they are more logical...”. This implies that designers are creative because they don’t think logically. I have strong disagreement with this myth. How can something which is USEFUL & USABLE be illogical?

Creativity is an out come of knowledge. It’s a different ‘point of view’ of looking at problems. But we can’t call it illogical. To make sense the users uses ‘logic’. The logic of the ‘design’ should be in line with that of the user. If both logics don’t match the communicability of design is compromised. So the design is built on logic but what solution that it presents can create a ‘surprise’ in user. Presenting a solution which doesn’t use a ‘Standard and Expected’ logic is what we know as ‘creative solution’. Creative solution can be ‘consistently’ created by one’s ability to understand users, by using some logic which creates a surprise and accurately solving a problem. But definitely creativity in design is not illogical. Every element (or pixel) has a reason to be there – either for communication or experience.

On the contrary ‘ART’ can be illogical because art is about ‘expression’ and ‘feeling’ more than communication. Expression itself is communication in Art but not in design; because design is meant for others unlike art.

Another point that I would like to mention is that there was a lot of emphasis to add “Design Processes” to the course. It seems that there is mindset which thinks that creativity comes by following a Process. Does following UCD ensure a creative solution?? Creative solution comes from individuals or a groups’ understanding (of problems, user, business etc… broadly ‘the complete environment’) and their ability ‘explore’ different points of views.

Creativity comes from knowledge (about user, problem, art, drama,….any thing and everything under the sun or beyond). Design uses logic of anything that can be used and understood (by others) to make sense to others. It’s convergence. It’s the highest forms of logic; but logic ‘without boundaries’. Not only can Design use existing logic but also can ‘create’ new ones by convergence.

Creativity doesn’t come from an alien planet its here amongst us – one just needs to see it. Creative people have an eye to see it unlike the rest who ignore it.

Concluding...(Design- Part 1)

2006-08-22T18:32:00.000-12:00

My last articles (Moving from Needs to Problems & Design: Simultaneous Processing) had some interesting comments from friends. Most of the time I have been told to break the design to disciplines and processes. But that’s totally contradicts to what I’m saying. These disciplines have been existing for sometime now and most of you “might” agree that though they have been able to make a ‘workable’ solution any ‘innovation’ hasn’t happened from it. Innovations don’t happen by Process or Methodology or by distributing design; it happens by understanding problems and convergence.

These Processes have been there for sometime now I’m also aware of it (to make myself clear). For implementation, Process or Methodology 'is' needed; even I’m a firm believer in that (In Praise of Methodology). What I have been recently writing is about ‘approach’ or ‘attitude’ to design. Most of us at the first instance want to break the ‘Design’ into processes. The whole point is not to break the ‘Design’ but break the ‘Problem’ (why is the design needed? What is the problem it is going to solve?). Any big enterprise/complicated UI Design can be broken into smaller but ‘related’ problems. What we design should take into account all the parameters that influences or shapes up the design. The more knowledge we have about them the better design we can make. The best approach is to think of ALL the parameters that affect a design and if it becomes unmanageable then start Priorities them and then remove. Removing it consciously is a better approach than skipping it altogether.

Afert the understanding is developed on the problem, break the design solving into ‘Processes’. Processed don’t give solutions they just keeps you on track. Breaking the design in Disciplines comes at the ‘implementation level’ - once you know 'what to solve'. It’s the last leg of DESIGN.

What I have been advocating is to THINK and ANALYSE before starting to ‘sketch’/ ‘draw’ / ‘solve’ (I won’t say Design because its the analysis phase that shapes up the end product; its as much design as the rest of it). What I’m saying is not fundamentally different from what other Design Gurus have said. My approach to solving design is to understand the very core of WHY? WHAT? and then to HOW? And to look at the Problem ‘holistically’ first than fragmenting design into steps and disciplines. I hope this ‘CAN’ help me innovate or look at designs a little differently (hopefully rightly).

I do accept the fact that I may be wrong...but what the harm in trying. Failing is another form of learning...

Moving from finding NEEDS to PROBLEMS

2006-08-18T23:56:00.000-12:00

I recently went to see a presentation. The presentation was about an overview of a Research Group of a company. The presenter stated an interesting point “…look for NEEDS and design for it”.

This is quite interesting. I’ll just take a philosophical route (if you want to say its philosophy) and talk about NEEDS and PROBLEMS. We designers are “generally” trained to design for “needs” and researcher are trained t solve “problems”. How these words change the approach is interesting.

There will be people who will argue that NEED may not be existing and an introduction of a new gadget might create it – say like – iPOD or SMS in mobiles or Miss Calls or Mobile phones itself so on and so forth. When we look for need we bias our self to a solution; when you look for ‘need’ you have an idea about the solution. Let’s say to argue – “There is a need for a gadget that could allow people to listen to music while they are mobile”. We already have defined the need; so at psychological term we jump to finding solutions.

What PROBLEM does it; it opens up the issue for investigation. Lets say “People get bored while they are mobile for a long time”. The problem may have multiple solutions. The statement asks to investigate deeper into the problem. This means that the designer would have more scope to understand the problem thus may come up with a more appropriate design solution (or even multiple solutions) to the problem. To be better designers the approach should be…to look for PROBLEMS than NEEDS.

Though one may argue and say that both are just a play of words. It may be a play of word but they definitely change the approach and attitude towards design. The “problem statement” defines the route you would take to solve it…

The design doesn’t start at the drawing board but it ends at the drawing board. It had started with the time the designer was (actually) born. Because what he understands about people, their needs, his observation of the behavior or environment, his experience of handling the previous projects etc is all that basic data that he will use to design it. The more rich it is the better design can one make.

So if you are observant and can see the problems from you day to day life (or related to your) the better designer you can be. So pick out problems and keep your database building – you never know what may come handy in your next project. If you are a designer – you works 24x7; this world if your Labs (the best you can ever have).

Beyond Observation...

2006-08-11T23:53:00.000-12:00

In my earlier blog “ BIG IDEAS come from small thing around us…” I had written about need and importance of observation. Continuing on that I want to add few more aspects to it. No doubt that the eye for observation is needed; but there is a need to go beyond and understand the reasons for that behaviors/situation. Observation is just the introduction of a problem; its analysis is the thing that leads to solution…

I saw a demo of an experiment by taking the Table Desktop as an example BumpTop 3D Desktop Prototype . They observed how people manage their Desktop and tried to come up with a software that replicates it. Now the question here are 2 – why replicate the real life into another medium (Learnings from History of Architecture ) and secondly it does not try to understand why do people manage their work like that.

This to my understanding its just an observation. We need to understand why people do that. This is not the problem; it’s an outcome of some need/problem. If we know what is it that people want we might be able to solve it for the ‘Screen Interface’ (a different medium) and hopefully the solution would be very different from the one tried here.

(Say) People generally don’t go shopping alone. This is an observation; but the reason why people this way may be that they want someone to assure or help them in decision making…or it may be a psychological need…If we know the reason the solution we try to achieve would me more appropriate…

I’m not sure if I’m able to express clearly here…hope you understood :)

Design - Simultaneous Processing

2006-08-04T20:42:00.000-12:00

Though the title might look technical the subject I want to talk is not. Though what I write may be a bizarrely philosophical; that it means may not be so absurd. They are all a reflections of my thinking both about UIs and Design in general. Design - I’m sure you will agree - is a continuous learning. Every project/product thrown up different challenges; so every new project is built on the experience and learning of the previous one. So one should keep their ears, eyes and more important the mindopen to learning. Writing is my way of learning.

Let’s come to the point. Why do I say ‘Design as Simultaneous Process’?? any thoughts?

Taking UI Design as an example; lets try to see what builds it – there are two primary aspects Communication and Experience. The main aim of UI is to help human operator to communicate with the machine; but at the same time this communication should be interesting and engaging for the human operator. This helps him in doing his work efficiently and effectively. Now the big challenge is both communication and experience should be in sync. What do I mean? What I mean is if either of the two are lacking in their role; the over all communication and experience is not achieved. Which means a FAILURE OF DESIGN. So as a designer one needs to do parallel or simultaneous processing – taking care that 'both' not only individually are efficient but when they combine together also create a greater impact. Communication is supported by experience and vice versa. Which one will dominate or if they be equal will depend on the ‘Context of usage’ of the application. If design is good in experience but bad in communication it fails and vice versa

Its here that my earlier thought about Research and Design fits in; communication is one which is driven more by research while experience is what is more driven by creativity. Now you would ask where will I place Interaction design or Visual design or even elements like navigation etc; what category are they – Communication or Experience? Well; they lie in both; every element has both communication value and experience value.

Isn’t it complex? Yes it is. That’s where the knowledge of a designer comes into picture. The more and more parameters a designer can process the better and more complete design he can make. If I can think of 1000 parameters at one time; means that I am taking all those 1000 criteria for designing and that I’m designing for those 1000 parameters. This should ensure that the design has taken care of those 1000 criteria. These criteras are nothing by parameters; mentions in my earlier post.

Pheew. That’s why I call it Simultaneous Processing.

Looking at in a very detailed level – the UIs is a set of elements. Not only do the individual elements have to be good but when they combine with other elements in the UI - the whole UI also should look good. Same is the case with products – if the packaging is not good; even if the item inside is good; people wont like to buy it; is the packaging is good but the item is not good them; they might buy it once; but they wont buy it later.

Thus design is complete system; to work effectively it has to take care of each and every element – Simultaneous Processing.

There are Processes which break all this into disciplines - Interaction, Visual etc. But what I talk is not UCD Process but an 'Approach' to design. Approach should be to design for all the parameters available rather that dividing it into sub part. No doubt with division we can make the design process simpler; but it compromises the completeness. Individual design disciplines can care for their own part but even in UCD Process there could be people who should think about the connections - the over all design.

Design Portfolio

2006-08-03T16:06:00.000-12:00

My old NID portfolio now goes online. You can see it by clicking on this link PORTFOLIO.

Academic - Research & Reports

2006-08-02T20:47:00.000-12:00

Now that i have completed my Post Graduation from National Institute of Design; I'm sharing my Academic works with others. All these works were done in NID and were done solely my me.

Research
User Testing of Adobe InDesign CS: using a Cognitive Walkthrough approach
by Abhishek Kumar;
Course : 'Cognitive Ergonomics'

Comparitive study of cultural impact on websites: A case study on banking websites of Saudi Arabia and United States of America; Government websites of France and Germany
by Abhishek Kumar;
Course : 'Cross Cultural Studies'

Usability
Task analysis of 'Meeting Request feature of Outlook Express
by Abhishek Kumar

Usability Evaluation of My Yahoo!
by Abhishek Kumar

Project Reports
La planete de memoirs
by Abhishek Kumar

CTZ : Citizen News
by Abhishek Kumar

Patterns in Data Visualization*
by Abhishek Kumar, Awinash Raj, Kumara Manikandan, Medha Yadav, Raina Saboo, Sonal Nigam

Systems Design: Office Management System for Architects
by Abhishek Kumar

All these reports are available; in case some one wants to read them kindly contact me.
* it was a group project report can be published if all of the group members agree upon.

La planète de mémoires

2006-08-02T18:25:00.000-12:00

The best part of ‘New Media’ is that…it gives you enormous power to express your self. ‘ART’ as they call is all about expressing yourself and generate ‘feelings’…or make you look at things ‘differently’…
This is my ‘small effort’ to look at things ‘just a little’ differently. This is part of my academic project…which I want to share with you… IDEA
The genesis of ‘La planète de mémoires’ came from my previous idea of exploring the possibility of projecting images on trees. The idea was to explore the possibilities of projecting images or video in a VOLUME of space rather than on a flat SCREEN. Initially the plan was to project only one projection on the foliage of a tree, but then came the question that as this is a volume space why not project multiple images and create a moving (real time) 3D collage on a volume of space. But due to some reasons the implementation could not take place. But this idea lied latent before I stuck up with another idea – ‘Why not recreate a 3D surface and in case of projection we can have backlit screen.”
This idea is just an exploration of looking at pictures in a different way - spread into 'space'. With digital cameras, we are all flooded with images. The number of images in our lives is mounting so high that we rarely take out time to see them. It display is a Globe (sphere) with small cubes all aligned together inside them. Each side displays a portion of an image so that the combination makes a substantial part of that image. But to be able to see the image one has to conciously stand in position to make sense of it. Else we only see them in parts- as collage of memories (images) in our life. With a projector on the top it also allows you to project an image on any surface…
- from my project report.

© Abhishek Kumar, 2005

Learning from History of Architecture

2006-07-08T16:58:00.000-12:00

Architectural history shows us some similar trends across regions and periods. Whenever there has been an introduction of a new ‘material’ in building construction; artisans and architects have tried to use them in a way they used the older materials. We humans try to impose previous knowledge on anything ‘new’ we encounter. If you look back at history lanes in architectural development you will find how much influence an old style has on anything new. When stone was introduced in construction along with wood the type of carvings done on stone was a clear reflection of the carvings done on wood before. Not even that; the kinds of shapes in wooden architecture also influenced the shapes of stone architecture buildings. Another great example we can find in Buddhist rock cut cave architecture – Not only the carvings but also the use of pillars was influenced by previous styles. As we know that rock is monolith and one doesn’t need pillars to make it stand. With only time do we understand the true potential of any new medium/material.

To some extent it has been true to even UI design. With this a new medium (UI) we tried to impose different known understandings to build our designs – metaphors, 3D environments etc. But sometime we forget the fact that we are dealing with a different medium altogether. They have their advantages but also create that much more problem for us. We need to understand that it a new medium, which has its own qualities. Rather than looking and forcible molding different medium for it we should understand the uniqueness of this medium and design for it. I know these are noble thoughts and easy to say and write but difficult to do. But the only thing I’m trying to do it to mold my attitude towards this thought. Cautioning myself to judge the need and utility of leveraging other older knowledge to suite UI design. Previous understandings of other fields do help in some situations but it should not be overdone. The attitude and approach should be to design for UI (new medium) and not to look for metaphors in architecture, fine art etc. every time.

The subjectivity of Design

2006-07-05T03:58:00.000-12:00

One of the things that make “Design” so complex is its “subjectivity”. By subjectivity I mean that any given problem can have numerous solution each having some unique quality. It solely depends on the ‘design decisions’ that are made during the course of designing. Design decisions are primarily governed by its designer’s understanding of the problem, people, technology etc. That’s why any a single design problem could have multiple solutions if designed by different designers or design teams.

The ‘kind’ and the ‘amount’ of parameters (or priorities) that a designer considers while designing shapes the outcome. The more aware and sensitive a designer is about the problem the better design s/he makes. So when we say “this is a good design that takes care of even the minor details” means that the designer have built the design not only with the ‘right parameters’ but also have worked with a ‘large amount’ of parameters during designing. If the parameters or design decisions are realistic and as per users expectations there is a good possibility of it being a good design. This means that a designer should have a very rich knowledge about all the aspects of users, their interactions with the product and the technology. The more aware a designer is, the more parameters s/he can work with and thus more is the probability that the design s/he makes is useful and thus successful. One crucial skill a designer should have is a hunger to grasp knowledge though all sources – observations, reading, research etc. Another skill is the ability to see a problem with different Points of Views; thus bringing in more and more parameters to work with to build a rich design.

Possessing - Space in Time

2006-07-05T03:52:00.000-12:00

I remember the time when I was about to leave my College - IIT Roorkee (where I did my graduation). I had cleared my ‘no dues’ and handed my ID card in the administrative office of my college. I came out and was passing from the library when suddenly realized that this place no longer belongs to me. I’ve no right to go to the library I had used for the last 5 years. I can still recall in detail how upset I was and how dejected I felt. This memory was fresh when I left my postgraduate institute (NID); so I prepared myself to accept this emotion.

I recently visited NID and I saw one of my juniors sitting quietly on the bench. The new batch has joined in and they were roaming all over the campus. I went and asked her why she was so quite. She told me a strange thing – She said that she was not able to adjust and accept that now she has to share her institute with strangers - her juniors. She was not able to accept that her institute belongs to her juniors as much as it belongs to her.

After that I came back to my home where my father had just retired after about 45 years of service – he was a Professor. I saw him sitting quietly and trying to adjust to the terms that he doesn’t have much right left in his University.

Then I sat quietly wondering how we humans start to feel emotionally attached with a SPACE. We want possess it for our lives; but we most often forget that the possession is there for a moment in TIME. That space is ours for a moment then it starts to belong to others. This relationship of time and space is quite intriguing; people return back to their old institutes/homes to re-live their gone-by era. But we forget that thought the SPACE is there but the TIME has changed. Now it’s someone else who own and possess it. That’s why when we come back to live our older moments we feel disappointed. It’s a normal human emotion and we as designer need to know it. We (designers) need to know others and ourselves a little better to make our and their life a little more pleasant. I was wondering - ‘can’ or ‘how can’ this emotions be generated for the web?

So when ever you want to re-live your moment in a ‘space’ think about the it and enjoy it in its ‘present form’…

I don’t know, but I feel that a dying man might also feel the same emotions on losing the possession of Space in Time…

In praise of Methodology

2006-06-25T21:03:00.000-12:00

As designers we often face with the argument about a need for a Design or Research Methodology. There are people who believe that design is intuitive and has to do with creativity; and thus a methodology would not be needed. Some would argue that they usually don’t follow any methodology and still can make a good product.

To some degree this approach (of not follwing a Methodology) to design is adequate. But the real problem arises when a designer faces a "complex problem". It’s then that a methodology comes for a rescue. Methodology can never make a person or a design creative. But what it insures is a step by step process in solving it. Breaking up the problem into smaller part with an understanding of their connections is very critical step in solving a complex problem. Design is all about trying to solve a problem taking into all the practical constraints possible. With proper constraints even the smallest of details are taken care of - and thats what makes some design stand out from other. Beause they take all built with the right constraints.

Most of the time, the design problem is not so complex. That one needs a methodology to be followed. But designers who have a good understanding of it can really take up challenging problem; I call them “Technically” strong designer, they are “Technical Designers”. It’s methodology which gives a lot of flexibility to a designer.

So if a designer says that he never follows a methodology – that’s because either he doesn’t know one or s/he doesn’t understands it.

Beaten by Google...

2006-05-16T16:25:00.000-12:00

Google came up with Notebook. My Hack Day product concept was very close to this idea. I was beaten by Google. The idea itself is not so unique; but the way a product is thought make it so poweful.

Now I really respect Google. The indeed are innovative and people there definitely have a good eye for observation. Notebook requirement was already there to be recognized, they just made it before I can.

The worst part is that Notebook not only does similar things but does it in a similar fashion to my idea. So the only consolidation I have is to say...if Google with their most innovative team can come up with a product which is so close to my concept (which was done just in a day)...then I'm on the right side of the FENCE. But still my idea goes a little far than Google’s. There is still so much they can do with it...which I’m sure they will. They indeed took my glory :(

But with all respect to innovators of Google...I really take this challenge to beat Google next time. I don’t know if I'll ever accomplish it...but this is my motivation and the driver. The best way to beat them is by "thinking ahead of Time". 'Time' it seems is the most crucial aspect. I have just started my career (I'm doing my final project to complete by Masters in Design)...so I have a long way to go.

Some day...I will be ahead of time...

Unfolding the Layers…

2006-05-15T23:35:00.000-12:00

The more and more I work on research the more feeling I get that problems have a LAYERS.

There is a ‘covering layer’…a layer which can be easily seen by most people. Problem in this layer could be found very easily. The best way to judge is to give the problem statement to others and ask them to figure out the problems. If you have not found any unique problem that the other could you are very well on the ‘covering layer’.

Behind this layer lies another layer. Let’s call it the “Middle Layer”. With very good “understanding of the problem”, “Vision”, “Intention & motivation”, “Knowledge about the topic”, “EYE for Observation” and “Very good Methodology” you can uncover the middle layer. This layer would lead to lots of other issues which the covering layer missed out. And possibly this will let you related the 'source' or 'problems' together. Most Research which get published work in this layer…

But there is more…I have never reached there but I very strongly feel there is another layer beneath the Middle Layer – the “Core”. The core should uncover the real problem; a design solution here would really solve most issues and take design to the next biggest level – “close to a perfect solution”- though ideally there can not be a 100% accurate solution in design. To uncover this I think you need wisdom, loads of experience and knowledge.

This may sound a little philosophical, its just what I feel. But this is my driving force - 'find the core'.

Hack Day Prize

2006-05-04T17:59:00.000-12:00

I won 2nd Prize for my Hack in Yahoo! Hack Day Competition.

The awards were given by Terry (CEO of Yahoo!) and the founder Jerry Yang.

Have alook at the Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlZvXMgoJhA

Music & Design - WOOW

2006-05-02T20:57:00.000-12:00

While being associated with Design for about 7 years now; I’m slowly getting to know a very small part of it. Recently I was going through the Larry Tesler’s presentation on ‘WOW’.

Who is Larry and what is WOW? Good question. Well Larry is currently the VP of Design at Yahoo! One of the founders of Interaction Design.

And ‘WOW’ is the feeling one gets one we see something and says “WOW” :)

Anyways reflecting on the WOWness in design yesterday. One of the most successful designs – both in my architecture and new media design – I have made (which had a ‘some’ WOW) had been made by a lot of PASSION. These are Projects in which I have given my heart out- I have ‘lived’ them.

I have been playing flute for about 10 years for now. And with what ever little experience I have of music; I know when is my music touching others heart. It’s when I’m playing through my ‘heart’. If you can’t play through your heart you will never be able to reach the heart of the audience. If I can't feel my music how will the audience?

I guess the same rule applies to Design. No matter what process you follow; if you are not Passionate about your project. You can NEVER create the WOW. Like music you have to feel it through your heart first and only then can you even ‘think’ of generating the WOW in others.

The reason why Apple iPods or Macs generates WOW is because it’s made with passion (at least I feel the WOW in them). It touches the heart and imagination because it’s made with ‘Heart’.

Reflections on Yahoo!’s Hack Day

2006-04-23T18:51:00.000-12:00

Yahoo! Bangalore recently had a Hack Day – A day where one can Innovate and present Ideas. It’s a competition where people have to work the whole day –make a prototype and present it in the evening.

There were amazingly 92 presentations at the end of the day. Being from a non-coding background does add some handicaps but it thankfully gives a broader spectrum for thinking. I’m saying this after watching most of the ideas done by coders/engineers.

One think that I figured out was that “Engineers design systems for themselves or for other Engineers”… “Geeks designing for Geeks”.

Though they must be very good in what they do; but they forget the basic Principle of Design – Design is for “others”.

Making a process simpler from messaging from Windows to Linux is cool. But there are bigger issues that need to be solved for common people. That’s I guess the basic difference in the Point of View of Engineers and Designers.

Engineering Education should include the aspects of design. The day Engineers change their perception about design…we designers won’t be needed.

And yes my idea also made it through the top 10 :)

Be hungry and be foolish

2006-04-23T18:22:00.000-12:00

I wanted to write this blog for so many months. But finally I’m writing it today.

I read a very motivating speech by Steve Jobs (he indeed has lot of VISION as far as design is concern). The thing that caught my eye was a phase in his speech “Be hungry and be foolish”. Reading this and I said “…woow this is so cool…”

Why is it so important…

Firstly, some great ideas are lost because we believe they are foolish.

Secondly, you need guts to be foolish

Thirdly, no one can be intelligent all the time.

Lastly, even if you can manage to be intelligent; it’s so boring to be intelligent all the time.

The hunger to innovate or thing is FUEL that charges a person to create. When you are hungry you are willing to take risk and think out of the box. If you are satisfied you are DEAD.

BIG IDEAS come from small thing around us…

2006-02-22T18:47:00.000-12:00

Some thing nice just happened…

As I had mentioned earlier…field study resulted in an interesting ‘observation’ on people's behavior which gave a small idea and which finally resulted in a BIG CHANGE in our approach to our ‘Product’ :)

There is some thing new that I realized recently…one need a good EYE to do an OBSERVATION…its very easy to loose out small subtle things which appear so obvious and are taken for granted…but these are the things that can really change the way you look at things/behaviors…

I guess that’s the most precious aspect of design…be sensitive and open…be observant… allow and accept results/ideas… KEEP THINKING….and creativity will fill you up…

Designing + Managing a Software Product Design

2006-02-08T16:39:00.000-12:00

At Yahoo! I’m designing a product (something that I love doing :) ). What Yahoo! had was a new technology & what I’m doing here is that I’m using that technology to make a new product for Yahoo. This is great opportunity for me because not only that I am trained into designing products (and not only UIs) but also that I’m really passionate about ‘designing'. I have been quite lucky that I have been given full liberty and great amount of “charge” of this project.

There have been quite a number of learnings as this project is moving. What I have realized and what I’m learning is that designer needs to be good manager. As a designer what I need is to innovate, be creative and bring new ideas to the table; and as a manager I have to break up the designing process into phases, where each phase leading to some conclusion/learning and the next phase building on the learning of the previous one, constantly evaluate results, build and modify timeframes (based on conclusions from the previous phase which might sometimes be surprising - It very often happens when your tying to do something new. Where the conclusions can not be very definitively predicted.) And then to make sure the project is completed “satisfactorily” with in time frame. It’s one learning that one can not get in an academic environment and one that is very vital for a designer.

I’m not a management guru and this is not from any book. It a reflection of what I’m doing or have done. It’s sometimes good to sit back and ‘reflect’ on what you are doing or what you are learning…so here it goes… with my experience this is what one needs:

VISION – a vision to see the not only the results but also in between milestones.

ANALYSIS – to be able to break that vision into reasonable milestones and to analyze the problem statement.

FOCUS and CLEAR – it very easy to get carried away as a designer and lose track of the original problem statement. A clear focus brings a better design.

FLEXIBILTY – both to accommodate new ideas and to respond to it (by modifying the project plan to accommodate the findings). With whatever little experience I have most often a good Field Study results in some surprises to designer/user study researchers; and it’s very easy to keep a blind eye to them if we are too biased or in love with our designs. We generally tend to see thing the way we want to, things that support our assumptions and ignore the real learning.

What I have been missing out is ‘People’s Skill’. That’s because till now I had a good experience from people. I have been a little lucky. So I would include all that one I face it or get a LEARNING from it ;)

It’s an important aspect though…

Data Viz...

2006-02-08T16:38:00.001-12:00

Infographics is very interesting area. It’s very powerful tool, which help us to present a complex data in a meaningful graphics. And guess what it’s not as simple as it looks like…

The first phase of deasig is to research on the data…what has to be conveyed??? What is the point of view??? Which relationship of the data is important for the graphics to be effective???

Now my research started with the data given to me…(it was an academic exercise)

If you look closely this data has numerous relationship between each other…
1) Comparative relationship of each data between India and China
2) Comparative relationship of data of ‘one countries’ between years 2001 to 2003
3) Comparative relationship of data across India-China between years 2001 to 2003
4) Comparative relationship of sectors…
5) Comparative relationship between ROI and ROE

Now my objective of this graphics was to bring out the above comparative data is a way such that it highlights the comparisons and thus to bring clarity.

The Design Method

To show various comparisons I used various methods:

The color code to differentiate between India and China (India in blue and China in Red)
The change in Typography to differentiate between years…
A light colored dotted line to guide the ‘eye’ to bring out the comparison in data across year.
A straight line to help in comparing the data between the two counties in the same year.
The gird on the back help in finding an approximate values…change in grid line color and width marks the threshold, which help in judging the values.
Increase in the typography and position of values to ease in perception of the grid thresholds.
Positioning ROE and ROI across in order to see the relative value. I came to know that the relationship of ROE and ROI may not be very relevant or important.
Use of graphics (icons) for sectors in order to speed up the perception.

Patterns in ‘Data Visualization’

2006-02-08T16:38:00.000-12:00

As apart of our course in ‘Data Visualization’, we were asked to categories different Data visualization techniques. We took a little path to solving this problem…we took the challenge to solve the mystery and create a formula for ourselves…

The process started by collecting about 900 images of various examples of data visualizations. Next came and extensive session of “Brain Storming”…

Brainstorming threw quite interesting view to data visualization…things when categorized gave an interesting picture…

There are various facets to data visualization…
1. Tools
2. Methods
3. Ways of representation
4. Purpose
5. Content

Where Tools were graphical techniques primarily used to distinguish one data from the other…

Methods were various factors like choosing axis, degree of abstraction…etc…its various decision a designer takes before deciding the graphics.

Ways of representation were know “outputs” like pie chart, bar chart, illustration, maps etc…

Purpose is the purpose of making data visualization like instructional, comparison…etc

Content defines the kind of data…like quantitative, descriptive…etc

The next part was little interesting…we realized that Content Purpose and ways of representation were closely connected.

Not only that we sorted the 900 samples into a 2 way matrix to figure out how closely are they connected.

This was an early exploration of the assignment…

Hitchhikers Guide to the Earth

2006-02-08T16:36:00.000-12:00

We generally associate places or cities based on what we hear or experience from them…and we tag them as ‘Historical’, ‘Religious’, ‘Peaceful’, ‘Beaches’, ‘Mystical’ ‘fun’ etc…

So why not have a web-based application running on GIS (like google map) where we allow people to ‘tag’ places with their terms…not only that allow them to “Refer” or post in their experiences related to that place or city. Also if we can store user’s choices we can do a ‘Tag match’ or ‘profile match’ (with other users) and throw in suggestions to the user…like as per your liking these are the places you would like…a travel planner should also be a part of the system. People can suggest places to stay or travel also…which can make the system more comprehensive…

Powered by CBIR (content based image retrieval) we can also “find/search” places based on the uploaded image ‘query by example’…with a descriptive search also I hope we can also sort our and suggest places to visit.

As far as business model is concerned there can be a huge scope for advertisements for travel agencies, hotels etc.

Visit my other blog

2006-01-24T00:01:00.000-12:00

Hi...
im no longer posting on this blog...plese do visit my other blogs...especially

http://abikr03.blogspot.com/

where i post my thoughts. As I'm currently working with Yahoo! Software Development, Bangalore. I'm not posting on works and ideas...

Thanks

Split the blog

2005-12-24T05:15:00.000-12:00

I have split this blog into 3 sections
one where I' posting my 'Ideas' http://abikr01.blogspot.com/
the other my Academic works done in NID http://abikr02.blogspot.com/
the last one is for thoughts / Articles / Reflections (what ever you want to call it) http://abikr03.blogspot.com/

Please do visit them...
thanks

People’s “map” powered by Folksonomy and Web 2.0

2005-12-21T20:39:00.000-12:00

I recently went to Bangalore and I boarded an auto rickshaw as asked the driver to take me to ‘IISc’ (Indian Institute of Sciences); to my amazement he didn’t know the place…Strange?? I thought. Later I boarded another auto with the same result. But (with God’s wishes) I got a gentleman who know the place and told the auto driver to take me to “Tata Institute”…ooooh why didn’t you tell me so replied the auto driver…I know that place…

Well I’m sure this was not the first and the last time I have face this problem and I’m sure neither have you…the local and popular NAMES in a city are sometimes quite different from the OFFICIAL one and some times create a communication problem especially to a new tourist/visitor.

That’s the genesis of the idea… “Why not to build a comprehensive People’s Map”

If we can have…Flickr & Delicious why not a Map where people Tag in place with their popular name. The names can be presented as a Tag cloud…or in hierarchy of popularity…may be presented in a drop down on a right click on the official names presented on an online map like Google Map, MSN Map or Yahoo Map…it can be an application that works on top of these applications…or can be integrated with them.

I guess it would be interesting to know and learn about local or popular names of places in a city…or even city…..bangaluru??or bangalore?

CTZ : Design Process

2005-11-27T16:28:00.000-12:00

CTZ News
Open News portal for Citizen Journalists...from my class room project...

La planète de mémoires

2005-11-22T19:50:00.000-12:00

This is my ‘small effort’ to look at things ‘just a little’ differently. This is part of my academic project…which I want to share with you…

IDEA
The genesis of ‘La planète de mémoires’ came from my previous idea of exploring the possibility of projecting images on trees. The idea was to explore the possibilities of projecting images or video in a VOLUME of space rather than on a flat SCREEN. Initially the plan was to project only one projection on the foliage of a tree, but then came the question that as this is a volume space why not project multiple images and create a moving (real time) 3D collage on a volume of space. But due to some reasons the implementation could not take place. But this idea lied latent before I stuck up with another idea – ‘Why not recreate a 3D surface and in case of projection we can have backlit screen.”
This idea is just an exploration of looking at pictures in a different way - spread into 'space'. With digital cameras, we are all flooded with images. The number of images in our lives is mounting so high that we rarely take out time to see them. It display is a Globe (sphere) with small cubes all aligned together inside them. Each side displays a portion of an image so that the combination makes a substantial part of that image. But to be able to see the image one has to conciously stand in position to make sense of it. Else we only see them in parts- as collage of memories (images) in our life. With a projector on the top it also allows you to project an image on any surface…from my project report

Asset (RFID) Tags for Intelligent Buildings

2005-11-20T21:27:00.000-12:00

The concept of intelligent buildings has been here for quite some time. So I’m not sure where what I’m thinking has been already implemented or not. I was trying to find a project using ‘RFID’ tags, when stumbled upon the idea that “…if I can get a real time data of people inside a building, I can very well build an Intelligent building…”

I searched the MIGHTY ‘internet’ (which is still controlled by the US)…to find if I can find the range, properties and current extent of RFID technology. Then ‘bingo’…I came to know about asset tags…but yes they are active tags (with battery life of 10 years)…

I came across the web site http://www.aeroscout.com ...its a company which produces Wi-Fi enabled active tags that can be read from a distance of 60 mts inside a building and to about 100 mts outside.

With this kind of technology if I can get a real time data of how many people and where they are inside, then this is what can be done:

Energy Conservation

Lighting

Lighting controlled by number of inhabitants and their movement.
Switch on light where ever needed.
Control the Lux of light needed based on work and people.
Switch off lights where not needed.
Not only lights but other equipments can also be switched off/on based on the need.

Air conditioning/Heating

Switch off or on system depending on people.
A personal cabin can be automatically controlled by his/her preference.
The blowers and vents can be controlled depending on where the people are.
Auto start by entry into a building. When an employee parks his/her car his/her cabin’s A/C can start so that by the time he/she comes in its cool enough with his/her preference.

Backup

Backup system for electricity can be provided to specific area , again based on the requirement and number of people.

Security

Building access

Building access can be provided by authenticating by RFID tag.

Public Address System

In case of emergency/fire portions which have inhabitants can be specifically/effectively addressed.

Fire fighting / Rescue

During rescue operation RFID tags can track the number of people traped up in the building.

Monitor Assets

Assets like machines or equipments can be tagged and monitored.

Track personal cars in building parking lots.
Even track individuals in huge building premises (though privacy issues are there but there could be a design solution to tackle the problem)
Even the tag can be used as a digital key to secure computers, almirahs, shelves, storages, intra-payments etc.

The RFID tag ‘holder’ itself can be designed to perform multiple tasks like it can work like a ‘pen drive’.

But no doubt there will be privacy issues…but I hope we can find a solution to that...

You can ignore...because its just 'an idea'...

cheers :)

the User Experience...(part II)

2005-11-18T15:57:00.000-12:00

I blog just to share my ideas…that to in a very generic way...

But I thought I should write more into details about my previous post…as one anonymous reader has pointed out…

I guess the idea quoted in the previous posting is not unique…it’s just that I realize a system exists…it will be a huge topic to debate and research…but if I have understood correctly Jesse James Garrett “Elements of User Experience” also in a way states these factors…though he believes its in layers while I believe they are equal and effect each other more strongly…

But someone in the field of UI may (I hope) accept my argument that these are related and I explain this with an example…

Suppose we need to add a new toolbar to the existing ‘MS Word’ software…

Let’s look at various perspectives…

Suppose we start with finding the commands required…and arrange in a logical sequence (information Design)…how many commands are required…which ones are more important >> how many commands we need to add will define the interaction…can all commands be presented to user… >> UI elements are decided by what function each command performs…where it is placed…either all buttons or drop down or mixed >> also the visuals…whether all are in one row or in multiple rows…what icons are required…how many and how to make them different from already existing ones but yet should look like a part of the family…does it starts to dominate the other commands >> Usability consideration would be…are all the icons understood by user…is the terminology of the command correct…are the buttons spaces correct…is the interaction or UI elements fit into the metaphor of existing tools/commands…

So the ‘Experience’ of using that tool bar would come as combined effort of all these factors and not one…if the icon is not properly understood then…even if it is beautifully designed will spoil the experience…or if it is usable but doesn’t look good then also the Experience will suffer…again if the information architecture is not perfect usability will suffer and even a good icon wouldn’t bring the experience…

If we find that there is not enough space for 8 commands, only 5 can be presented…then we have to either think of new interaction model or UI elements or change the information architecture…may be break the tool bar into 2…if they change the visual design would also change and hence the Usability experts again have to evaluate the new design…

This is huge topic to write…but I strongly believe a good design is one which takes care of if not all then MOST parameters…and that’s the key to USER EXPERIENCE…

I would appreciate if readers could mention their names while posting comments…

Thanks & cheers…

the User Experience...

2005-11-17T18:38:00.000-12:00

Adding to my earlier thought on User Experience…lets try getting some understanding on User Experience…

Why do we enjoy a good ‘food’??? becoz it has a perfect blend of spices and ingredients. A good cook will tell you that it’s all out ‘just perfect’ mix of ingredients…so its all about knowing and realizing this perfect mix of things for GOOD USER EXPERIENCE in products…

The ingredients involve…

Usability
Graphic
Interaction
Information
UI Elements

So as a cook (designer) your main aim is to mix them together to make a good dish (product) out of them…skipping one or not mixing one in proper proportions would spoil the taste (experience).

The complex part of design is that these are all interlinked…

You try changing one and the others get affected. So as a sensitive designer one need to consider every aspect (ingredients) while designing…

So a good UI would have a good composition…where neither of the above factors dominate but work in harmony with each other…

The graphics should not dominate the information, the UI elements should compliment interaction, the graphic changes with change in UI elements or Interaction, and usability results can changes with change in any of the parameters…so it’s all connected and it’s all a SYSTEM…

Confused state of mind

2005-11-17T17:07:00.001-12:00

Aaaah, free time again…and time to post some ideas…

I just gave an interview and to my horror I was asked…’what I want to be??’....the most difficult question to answer…what can I be??

A Usability Expert
An Information Architect
A User Interface Designer
A Graphic Designer
An Interaction Designer
A User Experience Designer

It’s such a tricky question…either I don’t know the exact meaning or the whole world is confused about it…becoz I never got a clear definition of any of them…

So I though of defining it for myself…

Usability: I believe it’s a field which tries to identify problems in using a product. Also it covers the testing and user research areas.

Information Architecture: Information Architecture is a sub set of Information Design…and what it does is that it tries to simplify and present the information (or commands) in a more understandable and easily perceivable way to the user.

User Interface Designer: UI design basically concentrates on UI elements, their placement on the screen and the composition of the screen.

Graphic Designer: Graphic designer is concerned for the look and feel of the UI. The color schemes ad the icons.

Interaction Designer: Interaction Designer basically handles the interaction of the product. To be an interaction designer one need to have some basic understanding of Graphics, Usability and Information design.

User Experience Designer: User experience designer should come on top of every one. When we talk to ‘experience’, then we should understand that EXPERIENCE come when you have a perfect blend of all elements Graphics, Usability and Information Design. To generate an experience the product should be usable, should be good looking, should have interesting interactions to generate the WOOW effect and should be good in information design (again to make the product easy to use and to find information).

Any one reading this post is welcome to post comments…
I am waiting for some one who can clarify my doubts about these TERMS….

Cheers...

What you 'Get' is what you 'See'…

2005-10-17T01:18:00.000-12:00

There has been an interesting posting on Ok-Cancel…about the “end of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)??”…also you will find ‘Usability Gurus’ talking about this amazing idea used in ‘Outlook 12’...

“Ok…so?? This is same as ‘Previews’ we used to see…” so what the whole fuss about??? I have been using softwares like ‘Photoshop CS’ and ‘3D Studio Max’ and I’m not excited about this ‘WYGIWYS’ (what you get is what you see) because these software are doing this for quite some time…

It’s not a very substantial leap into the future…its just ‘intelligently’ using an existing style…I believe the hype is created by ‘some’ to scare engineers and management so that they would get a reason to ‘pay’ for courses conducted by ‘some’ on this so called ‘emerging new UI paradigm’…

The question is how far can this paradigm go…its easy to show commands like “Bold”, “italics” or (filters as in Photoshop)…what about “Save”, how about “Send Message”, how about “Inserting an Image”…command like “Break”…how to show a process??? It can show the end result??? How to use it when VISUALLY nothing changes – Export, Save, Print, Zoom…how will we show DELETE in preview??? So can we say WYSIWYG is OUT???? I don’t think so…

But a mix of BOTH…well I must admit…‘very interesting’… TO put it metaphorically design is like a game of ‘Quake’…there are lots of ‘guns’…where every gun has its own specialty…so when an enemy comes…one has to decide what gun is effective to tackle that enemy…it’s the same in UI…every design issue has a gun…you have to decide the right gun and shoot the problem…but saying a ‘Rocket launcher’ is better than a ‘Shot gun’ is not fair…as both solve different issues… :)

To add the great “Ribbon” tool bar…why can I have commands on my work space??? Why do I have to go on top header to click a tool…why can’t I have the tool bar a Right Click (right next to the place in am typing or working???)

You may find my ideas foolish or childish….but that’s ok… :)

Have a good day…

CTZ news for Citizen Journalists

2005-10-12T22:21:00.000-12:00

It seems that the field of technology is moving with the speed of light. When you get a GREAT idea and you ‘think’ it’s ahead of its time…and sudden you read some article on the same subject…and then you keep thinking…IS THE WORLD MOVING FAST or I’M TOO SLOW…

I am working on a project for the past one month on building a comprehensive system to support Citizen Journalism and Freelance Journalism… its more or less complete now… during all those one month, I kept telling my self ‘woow this should be ahead of its time…’

But then I read this News on BBC... (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4330690.stm)
...and I thought…oh my GOD…my idea won’t be new for a very long…

Before my so called ‘new idea’ gets OLD…I decided to publish it on my blog…so that I can sleep in peace…believing that it was ‘NEW’…though my project goes beyond what is mentioned in the article…but it’s no doubt a step towards my concept.

So here are some extracts from the Report of that project

A concept of an open NEWS portal for Citizen and Freelance Journalists

Abhishek Kumar,
National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad,
India

Introduction
With the evolution of web and mobile technology, citizens have now tremendous power to speak out their view points and be heard. The London bombing and Tsunami saw the citizen journalism coming to limelight. Again Web 2.0 technologies including social networking sites have opened up the web for public. Even though ‘Blogs’ have now slowly being recognized as good source of expression and reporting, but still the concept of it is more ‘private’ (to author) in nature. The concept of the portal is to build a platform where every one is free to express and a portal which is ‘by the people and for the people’. In relation to the changing trends in technology and society; this project was to create a medium for the society to report and discuss events that shape up peoples lives. It tries to converge the existing technologies to answer the changing scenario in journalism. The difference between this portal from existing ones are that it minimises the human interference in selecting, deciding and editing the content. This is an attempt to remove human biases from the reporting and to bring in multiple perspectives of events and happenings from local people.
It tries to holistically conceptualize a sustaining system which can assist people not only to access the News but also allows people to post articles in all forms and also provides them with facility to sell those articles. It uses newly evolving Information Architecture paradigms of tagging or popularly known as folksonomy. Folksonomy is an excellent tool for reference purpose; but in this project it is also used for controlling and to create a browsing experience. As the content of the pages would be dynamically (that too with very less control on content) changing the tagging becomes very important controlling factor. Also as the ‘NEWS’ is primarily a browsing experience it tries to build up a system which supports ‘browsing’ than search. The project is built up along with a business process which would support such sites, because such project would be difficult to sustain without a proper support.

Thanks
c ya
bye

New Method for Info Graphics...

2005-10-11T18:16:00.000-12:00

While working on an assignment on Data Visualization, we (me, Raina and Medha) came up with a Charles Minardish Graph for a Financial Data which show the flow of money in and out of an organization. You can see the assignment on Raina’s Blog.

It was just an overnight assignment and got finished the next day. But some how this idea of representing the financial data in a FLOW got stuck up in my head. The idea of representing the ‘INs’ (earning) and ‘OUTs’ (spending) in business seemed really sensible.

So I yesterday explored some ideas and came up with a design which can represent the ins, the outs and also the flow…in a holistic way.

I call it ‘Bar-fin charts’ for ‘Bar chart with fins or Bar chart for finance’ ;)

Components:
1) x-axis
2) y-axis
3) block – the rectangular block
4) fins – The arrows that represent Ins and Outs…
The Dimensions of data that can be represented:

1) Time Interval
2) Total Balance
3) Total Spending
4) Components of Total Spending
5) Total Earning
6) Components of Total Earning
7) Making of financial thresholds.

Time Interval

The time interval is represented by the x-axis of the Block. The financial information is chunked into time intervals (monthly; weekly, quarterly, annually, etc.) so that it becomes easier to notice the comparison.

Total Balance

Total balance is represented by the y-axis of the Block. The division has to be decided based on data.

Total Spending

Total Spending is marked by the LINE (fins) on the lower side and marked by Red color. The line is tilted to 15 degrees from vertical with an Arrow marking to show that amount is being removed from the block. The length of the line marks the value of total spending. The scale of the line should match with the scale by the y-axis of the block. The side which has the arrow will label the Total Spending.

Component of Total Spending

The component is represented by the breakage or makings on Total Spending Line (fin). The values would be marked by the length of the line.

Total Earning

Total Earning is market by the LINE (fin) on the upper side of the block and marked in Green color. The line is tilted to 15 degrees from vertical with an Arrow marking to show that amount is being added to the block. The length of the line marks the value of total spending. The scale of the line should match with the scale by the y-axis of the block. The side which has the arrow will label the Total Earning.

Component of Total Earnings

The component is represented by the breakage or makings on Total Earnings’ Line (fin). The values would be marked by the length of the line.

Making of financial thresholds

In order to make the graph more readable color in the Block can be used to mark the levels in finance. Like – Dark blue for above $300, Blue for $300 to $200, Light Blue for below $200. Grey scales of a color can used to make this parameter.

If any of you...ever use this graph...please do let me know...thanks

Gud Day :)

Understanding Infographics

2005-10-09T20:21:00.000-12:00

I was attending a Workshop on Information Graphics. While I was watching some path braking Info graphics I was...wondering what makes them so great...
Let see some great examples here...these graphics didn't just represented data but helped in understanding a problem...the representation lead to a solution which would have been impossible to achieve without them...

The 1854 London Cholera Epidemic by Dr. John Snow

This graphic maps the Epidemic data on a Location Map. The map marks the location of patients in London. This graph leads Dr. Snow to pin point the source of the epidemic – a Water Pump on Broad Street which had contaminated water.

The Periodic Table

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev studies the properties of elements and came up with a periodic table (the one above is a modern version). Table started making sense and gave way to discovery of new elements…

I kept thinking what is it which made them so powerful....

The Golden Question

How could they solve a complex problem of data structuring??? What I mean to say is that there are so many ways of arranging the same data for example…Dr Snow could have arranged the same data as per DATE, or by AGE or may be by Demographics or by Financial Status of patients…which would not have let him to the conclusion which he was looking for…

Just because he chose the ‘Locational’ facet of the data that he could arrive at the ‘result’. It could be a matter of debate as to whether he accidentally took this facet or he thought about it. But for now lets leave alone this for historians to figure out…

Let’s take the other example…of periodic table…had Mendelev taken some other facet of the data…he wouldn’t have arrived to such a perfect solution…though it may be unfaire to say it was accidental…but still getting the right facet to organize a data made the this thing a ‘HIT’…

So the conclusion is that for making an information graphics it’s VERY IMPORTANT to choose the right facet or axis to organize the data which eventually could give the PERFECT RESULT…

So, how to figure out that RIGHT facet????....hmmm good question…hope to find some solutions in future...

if you want to know more about History of Info-graphics you should visit the site
http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/

Have a Nice Day…

Thoughts on 'Customization'

2005-10-08T18:53:00.000-12:00

While working for a project during my internship I came across this difficult aspect of softwares...called the 'Customizability'...

So when we allow users to customize the UI...then...the design moves in difficult waters...'How to control the UI consistency?' ; nobody asks the user 'How much customization you need?' or 'Are you not lost in customizing the UI?' or the golden question 'Is it making your life simple???'

Some thoughts on customization...

The major problem in customization is that the designer looses control over UI. But still it’s a designers responsibility to ensure that user do not make their page un-user-friendly. Again just because it is customizable does not mean that the product (default design) should be badly designed. The default design should be a benchmark for user in usability readability and design. They should customize their page with reference from the default design.

Cultural Models & Interaction Design

2005-10-08T17:19:00.000-12:00

For my 'Cross Cultural Study' we had to analyse the Web sites for different cultures...the approach I took was to use the existing cultural model...the idea behind it was to get some patterns...which can be applied to other sites and thus in short building a kind of a formula which can be used in 'designing' for other cultures...here are some of extracts from the Report of that assignment...

Discussion
Hosftede model is good to give a broad perspective of what a culture is. The important point to
note here is that the parameters given by Hofstede are all relative values. So it is not correct to state that certain culture is “Feminine” or Power Driven. What Hofstede model states that one culture is more or less “Feminine” or what the case may be, than the other culture. One can broadly understand one culture with respect to the other. In my opinion that is the strength of that model.
When it comes to details of analysis, expectation or prediction; this model alone does not work.
And I don’t think this model was developed for that purpose. To do an analysis one has to experience the culture or the context to understand the people’s behavior and their liking or disliking. The situation becomes complicated when we try to analyze any artifact or a cultural opinion. The outcome of any artifact or opinion is simultaneously effected by all the 5 factors plus their oppositions- Power Distance, Individualism, Collectivism, Masculinity, Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation and Short Term Orientation. At it is still unpredictable as to what factor dominate and shape up the artifact or the opinion. Again one should not undermine the importance of Context in which that artifact or opinion is built.

After hours of trying to get a pattern or being able to use the Hofstede’s model unsuccessfully for
analysis of websites I have reached to a conclusion that his model can not be directly applied for analysis. With study of Halls and Hofstede’s model I came to a conclusion that these models can be clubbed and modified in order to make a model that can to an extent work in analyzing websites. This little formula is based on very few data and can be challenged. This formula seems to be working in my context and has been formulated after studying few patterns in the display of the page and information. This formula is based on the findings that High/Low Context, IDV, MAS, UAI and Religious Orientation can be primarily being identified as the influencing factors in a website...

this work is just a begining...to finally come to a concrete solution...i requires a lot of deep study and anlysis...but I was happy becoz this formula was working to some extent...

God bless you :)

p-Podcast for 'Picture Podcast'

2005-10-08T16:57:00.000-12:00

While working on one of my assignment (a system for a Citizen Journalism), I stumbled upon an idea… ‘Why can’t there be a picture podcast?’ a mix of still images changing over an audio…

As you might have read about the latest rumors about Apple launching a video-iPodcast…
(money.cnn.com/2005/10/05/technology/personaltech/apple.reut/index.htm)
... this picture podcast idea is pretty simple in a way…it’s composition of audio + still images…which change over time based on audio…and this roll over can be automatic or the user uploading this podcast can customize the time of roll over of every image...

The advantage here would that we don’t have to upload and download a video (which has a much larger file size) but upload images which are ‘time tagged’…so an audio is uploaded in audio format but images are uploaded with an addition on time tags…
While downloading images and audio are downloaded; and at the client side these are combined together to make up an Audio-Video file…which can run on windows or real players…

While playing the images rollover based on the time tags embedded along with the audio…so people will get a multimedia experience...i guess it would be interesting...

Imagine getting audio and images together for an event…may be like ‘London bombing’…viewing the horror by both audio and images…it would be a powerful medium to express and inform…

I'll be posting some of my other thoughts...

Good Day... :)

Introduction to Design

2005-10-07T19:25:00.000-12:00

Hmmm…such ‘Information Rich’ title… “Introduction to Design”
“Introduction to Design” as in ‘Introducing…iPOD’
“Introduction to Design” as in “London to New York”…

What I meant was the latter… ‘Introduction’ to ‘Design’…

Are you wondering what is ‘Information Rich’…well by ‘Information Theory by Shanon’…A statement which has ambiguity is information rich…means it may have multiple interpretations…hence Information Rich.

So first we start by introduction…one of my friends gave me this great idea…that I should ‘Introduce’ my self… (wooow why didn’t I think of it…)

I’m Abhishek, wanting to be an architect but turned into a New Media designer then struggles to understand New Media so drifted to Usability, Interaction Design and Information Architecture… = complete MESS (Hence proved)...I hope people now would have sympathy with me…

With all due respect to design gurus I’m unnecessarily trying to redefine DESIGN.
Design is not about drawing skills, graphics, color, interesting forms or aesthetics. It a was of life and way of looking at things…its as close to logic and reasoning as it is to aesthetics and a pleasing experience…

Design has always been popularly associated with creativity and innovation… but then creativity and innovation are as much a part of other fields as in design. Isn’t a person who designs an efficient motor engine a designer? Or person who designs a rocket is a designer? Or a person who designs an innovative way of serving coffee a designer??? They are all designers to me…Then isn’t design a very broad term to use??? Or are their layers or facets or levels of design??? And then what are we taught in design schools??? Which facet?? Which layer?? Or which level?? What is a role of a designer????? I don't have answers to most...but I hope i'll be able to answer them in future...

With all the little understand that I have…I believe…
DESIGN not only integrates elements needed to achieve a solution to a problem but also creates an ‘interface’ with its Human Consumers/Users…
And its success lies in its capacity to both solving a problem and the solution be correctly understood by users/consumers (and create need, interest or a lasting impression to survive)…and that is ‘CREATIVITY or INNOVATION’ in Design…

I’m leaving you with these thoughts…

HOW to start a BLOG???? some one please give some ideas...

2005-10-07T17:02:00.000-12:00

When the whole world seems to be writing about their lives. I thought “Why should I be left alone?”

So folk here I am writing my first blog - wooow, its amazing to see my Microsoft Word marking the word “Blog” for a spell check. Great!!!...So my Microsoft Word 2002 is as novice as I am :) …gr8 so it means I’m not too late in starting one for myself ;)

Why do I call my blog “THE DESIGN AGE”…you would be surprised to know that I’m a student of ‘Design’ in a ‘Design Institute’…so…‘Design Age’ makes sense…does it?

The reason I started this blog is…becoz I believe I have lots of ‘IDEAS’ in my head…and becoz no body around me is ready to listen to it…so I have left with no options except to write them down in my blog and HOPE…SOME DAY…SOME ONE would read it...(I hope so)…and get INSPIRED (don’t laugh)…

Meanwhile you keep waiting for my next posting as I’m desperately hunting for ideas to write in my next posting…hope I wouldn’t keep you all waiting for long…(God bless me)…

Have a nice day & God bless you…