30 Boxes decides how long my last name should be

Oh well. That means a good chunk of Indians can't use 30 Boxes. Big deal!

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Sixth Sense

This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

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The Future of Touch

Made of foam and force sensors, Impress works with both touch and the intensity of pressure. This computing technology lets the user squeeze out information or put objects in motion by deforming the surface of the computer.

Read more @ Read Write Web

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The Personable Manual

Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don�t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the hallowed precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school, is the culprit. Our merit was based on how verbose we were. They judged our style based on how �formal� we were. Take for example, the leave letter. I am sure you have written a few in school or college. Rewind and replay one of those leave letters. Right from the salutation (�Respected sir/madam�) to the signature (�Faithfully/Obediently yours�) it reeks of colonialism. And, we have yet to learn our lessons. In this age of globalization (or globalisation, to my stiff-upper-lip comrades), it is important to pay attention to the three Cs: Consistency, Context, and Culture. The You I have read manuals that say �you can perform this task�� and in the next chapter add, �Users should back up data regularly�. Who is the �you� and who is the �user�? Quite a few of my esteemed friends that are Technical Writers shy away from using �you� in their manuals. Again, it is that skeleton in our cupboards (or closets, if you will, my American friend) called Colonial Composition that proves to be the stumbling block. I do not wish to debate on the aesthetic merit of using (or not using) �you� in our manuals. The goal of your manual is to help users be productive. So let us stick to that story for now. Let us look at an example: 1) If the system displays a blue screen, the OS should re-installed. 2) If your system displays a blue screen, re-install the OS. Let us not discuss active and passive voice. Let us focus on the word �your� that replaces �the�. Both statements offer the same instruction. If you took a poll with your users on which one they liked. I am quite sure they�d pick the one with �your�. Why? Because it is personable. The statement is talking to the user and thus telling the user �there�s something in it for you� and urges action. There is no ambiguity (�OS should be installed? By who?�). And, the �your� statement costs less to Localize. Also, it is important that your product offers a favorable emotional experience to your users. That is where the Colonial Composition fails. Ask any Interaction Designer and she�ll tell you how important Subjective Satisfaction is to the success of any design. Personable Manual Personable writing pays. What would you prefer to read?

"It is recommended that you upgrade your software."

Or

"We recommend that you upgrade your software."

The latter engages you. It makes a convincing statement. It doesn�t hide behind the facade of passive voice, and it puts an arm around you and requests, like a friend, to do the needful. There again, some of you might say �well, if we screw up, then because we used �we� we may get into a soup.� Let me reassure you here: 1) you don�t write for a contingency called screw-up. 2) You write to ensure your user increases her productivity. And 3) Whether you write in passive voice or active voice, if it is in the manual, you are liable. Finally, being formal is overrated. Just because you are in business does not meant you have to be business-like in your manual. That is a sad misconception. You got to connect. You have to converse with your user. You need to engage and offer a positive emotional experience to your user. Else, the user will pick that phone and call Support. Now, that, in my book, completely obviates the need for publishing a manual. And, having a writer on board.

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Idea Cellular Web Site

Ideacellular.com What's with yellow boys. Don't you know?

Yellow, pure bright lemon yellow is the most fatiguing color. Why? The answer comes from the physics of light and optics. More light is reflected by bright colors, resulting in excessive stimulation of the eyes. Therefore, yellow is an eye irritant. Babies cry more in yellow rooms, husbands and wives fight more in yellow kitchens, and opera singers throw more tantrums in yellow dressing rooms. [read more @ colormatters.com]

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Gestalt principles of form perception

The law of proximity posits that when we perceive a collection of objects, we will see objects close to each other as forming a group.

Read more.
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Working Through Screens

100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work.
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Finnish e-voting fiasco

The good old 'human error or bad design' debate resurfaces.

Today, the Ministry of Justice revealed that due to a usability issue, voting was prematurely aborted for 232 voters. The pilot system was in use in three municipalities; this amounts to about 2 per cent of the electoral roll. Seats in the municipal assemblies are often determined by margins of only a couple of votes. It seems that the system required the voter to insert a smart card to identify the voter, type in their selected candidate number, then press "ok", check the candidate details on the screen, and then press "ok" again. Some voters did not press "ok" for the second time, but instead removed their smart card from the voting terminal prematurely, causing their ballots not to be cast. [Link1] [Link2]

The argument here is not 'it worked for 98% of the people'. The deal here is that seats in Finnish municipal assemblies are determined by margins of only a couple of votes. So 2% is huge and whoever designed the system should have taken that into account.
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Chrome Issues and Defects

You must have read enough about Google Chrome so I am not going to humor you with the basics.

I noticed some defects with my Chrome installation (on Windows XP) and I am logging them here:

Blogger Backlink does not work, when your post has a backlink.

Upload Images feature does not work in Blogger. I tried twice but failed. I use a custom domain and not blogspot (that is obvious, I know).

Are the above really issues or is it just me? Let me know. P.S. No RSS auto-detection? I thought this was 2008!

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Dear Adobe

Product/Program managers come up with a million reasons why they could not go to users while building the product. I have heard some really stupid reasons from Project Managers: "We don't have the time. We want to ship on the so-and-so date!" is the classic refrain. Most product managers are still stuck in the stone age of software design: the 90s. They refuse to budge and the result is, well, predictable. Products that irritate users. Stupid products. And, and, and, your competition gets amazing publicity: One of the users of Dear Adobe site wrote:

Try to beat FoxIt Reader for size and load time. Go ahead and try.

Dear Adobe lists gripes against Adobe products. It makes for some fun reading but it also sends an ominous signal to Adobe. Listen to users or perish. Excerpts from Dear Adobe's Top 50 gripes:

• 1) Why does the Acrobat Reader take two minutes to launch, and require updates twice a month, just to display PDF pages?
• 6) Please create an installer that puts your software on my computer in less time than it takes to install an operating system.
• 15) Please update your Updater so that it won't take 110% of my CPU just to download some files.
• 20) I really don't want a 'My eBooks' folder. Please ask first.
• 21) Could you make Adobe Reader start up slower? I'd like to have enough time to go get a sandwich before I read a one page document.
• 22) Please stop forcing your PDF plug-ins into every orifice of OS X. Apple designed Preview for a reason. Fucking deal with it.
• 45) Why oh why is Updater.app such garbage? It's 2008 already - why do I need to close Safari so you can update InDesign, exactly?

You know the positive thing is that, Adobe Product Managers don't have invest time or effort to figure our what's wrong with their products. The users have spoken. The least they could do is listen to them. Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

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Mumbai Suburban Rail Ticket Vending Machines

A user writes about his experiences and makes some pretty smart recommendations too!

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Dell Vostro 1310 Screw-up

Looks normal, right? Look at your own keyboard... notice anything different? Okay, maybe you don't. But try actually typing on this and it all becomes far too apparent. The whole of the bottom row of letters (Z, X, C...) is one too far to the right. The Z should be below and between A and S, not S and D. You're looking at a brand new Dell Vostro 1310, ordered the day after its released, and delivered on 30th April 2008 in the UK. They keys are all there. Shift, \|, Z, X... its just that the left shift is too big, forcing everything over too far. The Z has to be between the A and S... look on ANY other keyboard and that's where it sits. This is not a US/UK layout issue, just a general monumental flaw. [read more]

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Ubuntu

Hey! I love this!

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101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

The guys at insidecrm.com claim:

These quick tweaks will help you keep visitors engaged.

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

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The Retail Chaos Theory

On a tour of one of his supermarkets, Kishore Biyani notes that shopping carts are getting stuck in the narrow aisles, wheat and lentils have spilled onto the floor, black spots cover the onions and it's difficult to hear above the constant in-store announcements. He grins and congratulates the store manager.Mr. Biyani, 45 years old, has built a large business and a family fortune on the simple premise that, in India, chaos sells.

(via Wall Street Journal Link may not work. Hat-tip: Madman) It is an interesting perspective of user-behavior all right but I think this is a transient phase. Indian retail market is in a state of metamorphosis, so probably after a few years, we will have to resort to the time-tested techniques that, say, a Wal-Mart uses. As far as user-behavior goes, I strongly believe that they will adapt after realizing the importance of an organized shopping experience. Did we ever dream that Maggi Noodles will become a fixture on the list of our 'must haves'? On the other hand, a silent revolution is happening in processed, packaged, ready-to-cook food items. MTR Upma, and packaged curd rice in Chennai are some examples. These are interesting times for Indian retail.

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