Interesting to read. Found in one of the IxDA discussion threads...
The topic discusses a more precise and new explanation of User Experience. Read the PDF to understand it much better.
http://mauvyrusset.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/theessentialcharacteristicsofux1.pdf
- Rajesh
Monday, July 6, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Firefox 3.5 - Insanely fast rendering!!
Just updated Firefox 3.5 and checked the usual website. One big difference noted is the rendering.. insanely FAST! Whewww!! thats cool.
- Rajesh Sundaram
- Rajesh Sundaram
Thursday, June 18, 2009
UI Flow for a no-nonsense Online Meeting UI - Part 1
Online Meeting is a buzzword today. Why? it saves a lot of money and time. And it helps to deliver support instantly. Here is a no-nonsense UI flow which is simple and intuitive to schedule an online meeting quickly between the Presenter and the Participant.
To explain in layman's terms imagine this scenario. John is a support engineer and works for a software company. Kathy is their customer and one day, she finds some issues with the software. She sends an email explaining the problem and John attends it. John finds it is a simple problem that arise out improper settings in their software. So he decides to instruct Kathy via Online Meeting. John opens the Online Meeting page and selects the "Instant Meeting" option. Instant Meeting is where you schedule a meeting for immediate participation.
1. In that page, John (Conductor) enters Kathy's (Participant) name and Email ID.
2. The system sends an Email to Kathy along with a URL and Key to participate in the meeting.
3. Kathy receives the email, and clicks the URL.
4. The URL opens the Instant Meeting page.
5. A smart Javascript searches for necessary plugins. Every Online Meeting requires a small software to be installed in the client Machine. This software will enable the desktop sharing so that the Participant's (Kathy) desktop is viewed in the Conductor's (John) monitor.
6. If the plugin is found, the browser will automatically start sharing the desktop to John.
7. If not, the page will instruct Kathy to download a small plugin in order to start the Online Meeting. Once the plugin is installed, the meeting will be initiated.
The flow diagram is shown below:
In the next part, we will see how the highlevel mocks of the UI...
- Rajesh Sundaram
To explain in layman's terms imagine this scenario. John is a support engineer and works for a software company. Kathy is their customer and one day, she finds some issues with the software. She sends an email explaining the problem and John attends it. John finds it is a simple problem that arise out improper settings in their software. So he decides to instruct Kathy via Online Meeting. John opens the Online Meeting page and selects the "Instant Meeting" option. Instant Meeting is where you schedule a meeting for immediate participation.
1. In that page, John (Conductor) enters Kathy's (Participant) name and Email ID.
2. The system sends an Email to Kathy along with a URL and Key to participate in the meeting.
3. Kathy receives the email, and clicks the URL.
4. The URL opens the Instant Meeting page.
5. A smart Javascript searches for necessary plugins. Every Online Meeting requires a small software to be installed in the client Machine. This software will enable the desktop sharing so that the Participant's (Kathy) desktop is viewed in the Conductor's (John) monitor.
6. If the plugin is found, the browser will automatically start sharing the desktop to John.
7. If not, the page will instruct Kathy to download a small plugin in order to start the Online Meeting. Once the plugin is installed, the meeting will be initiated.
The flow diagram is shown below:
In the next part, we will see how the highlevel mocks of the UI...
- Rajesh Sundaram
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Zoho Writer 2.0 - User Interface idea - for Collaboration support
I was talking to Bharath on the other day, we discussed how simplistic UI's make a big impact for targeted users, and also about software that offers user-focused UIs . IOW - Software that changes or offers different types of UI that are suited for various types of usage. For example, who's usage revolves around collaboration, they may expect immediately accessible tools / links like "List of other users to whom this document is shared to", A status box showing who are viewing this document, who edits this document etc. . For people, who rely mostly on document writing, they expect tools/links like "Export to", "Spell Check", "Indexing", "Email to" etc
Thinking on the same line, I re-designed (actually part re-design, part fine-tuning) the new UI of our Zoho Writer 2.0, which is immensely popular among Zoho Enthusiasts. Here is the first cut I arrived at.
I re-done the tool-bar with new color and rounded corners. My idea is to offer simplistic UI, and maximum UI area to the EDITOR and remove the not-so-used left side document bar. IMO, Opening a file is a less-used action. So, I wanted to get rid of the left-side document bar. I then shifted the editor towards left, and added a list of boxes to the right. For the first iteration, I fixed upon "SHARED TO", a list of user names along with status icons to their right, showing whether they can edit or not. And link to add another user etc. I also included a box to Add Task/Event pertaining this document. Finally, it is the TAGS which many users always look for.
The UI shown below is a quick sketch, removing all unwanted tool-bar icons. I wanted to keep the toolbar minimum with only the MOST USED, & HIGHLY NECESSARY tools. Thus a pack of 6 + 2 icons are shown. Next I just copied the MenuTab style categorization as it is. The Create new Document, Open etc are moved under the "Zoho Writer" yellow button.which is actually a drop down that contains "Create New, Open, Exit etc" - much similar to a typical binary software model.
Click to enlarge
The drop-down in the document name tab, can be used to show additional links/tools / shortcuts that pertains to document properties like Header, footer, page size etc.
I still feel there is a lot of room to improve this UI. Being the first iteration, it lacks some fine details and has its own issues too. May be the second iteration should yeild a much better User interface for Zoho Writer 2.0
- Rajesh
Thinking on the same line, I re-designed (actually part re-design, part fine-tuning) the new UI of our Zoho Writer 2.0, which is immensely popular among Zoho Enthusiasts. Here is the first cut I arrived at.
I re-done the tool-bar with new color and rounded corners. My idea is to offer simplistic UI, and maximum UI area to the EDITOR and remove the not-so-used left side document bar. IMO, Opening a file is a less-used action. So, I wanted to get rid of the left-side document bar. I then shifted the editor towards left, and added a list of boxes to the right. For the first iteration, I fixed upon "SHARED TO", a list of user names along with status icons to their right, showing whether they can edit or not. And link to add another user etc. I also included a box to Add Task/Event pertaining this document. Finally, it is the TAGS which many users always look for.
The UI shown below is a quick sketch, removing all unwanted tool-bar icons. I wanted to keep the toolbar minimum with only the MOST USED, & HIGHLY NECESSARY tools. Thus a pack of 6 + 2 icons are shown. Next I just copied the MenuTab style categorization as it is. The Create new Document, Open etc are moved under the "Zoho Writer" yellow button.which is actually a drop down that contains "Create New, Open, Exit etc" - much similar to a typical binary software model.
Click to enlargeI still feel there is a lot of room to improve this UI. Being the first iteration, it lacks some fine details and has its own issues too. May be the second iteration should yeild a much better User interface for Zoho Writer 2.0
- Rajesh
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Buy Intel Dot PC / Dot Station in India
For a long time, I was looking for a site / dealer who sells Intel DOT Station in India. Looks like ThinPC is a reseller for intel DOT Station. Here is there website link.
Intel DOT Station, apart from its outdated PIII based hardware, seems to be a right fit for the Internet tasks. It can be used as a complimentary internet browsing computer at home. Even as a dedicated download machine! :-D
Whats more, it is compact and even comes with network support and a standard CD Drive. :-D thats cool.
Oh btw... the Intel DOT Station costs Rs.6000 (or) USD 125 only.
For those who are interested in SPECS:
Processor : Intel PIII (appx 900 mhz)
RAM : 256
CRT : 14"
Optical Drive : CD
Hard Disk : 10 GB
Keyboard with integrated trackpad.
Speakers, Soundcard, USB and Ethernet built-in
- Rajesh
Intel DOT Station, apart from its outdated PIII based hardware, seems to be a right fit for the Internet tasks. It can be used as a complimentary internet browsing computer at home. Even as a dedicated download machine! :-D
Whats more, it is compact and even comes with network support and a standard CD Drive. :-D thats cool.
Oh btw... the Intel DOT Station costs Rs.6000 (or) USD 125 only.
For those who are interested in SPECS:
Processor : Intel PIII (appx 900 mhz)
RAM : 256
CRT : 14"
Optical Drive : CD
Hard Disk : 10 GB
Keyboard with integrated trackpad.
Speakers, Soundcard, USB and Ethernet built-in
- Rajesh
Monday, September 22, 2008
ISO 20282 - Measuring Usability of Everyday products
Userfocus.co.uk has published an article about the ISO 20282 - A ISO standards guide to measure usability of everyday products. It is published in 4 parts and David Travis discusses the guides here.
User focus link - http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ISO20282.html
Guuui.com link - http://www.guuui.com/posting.php?id=2174
- Rajesh Sundaram
User focus link - http://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/ISO20282.html
Guuui.com link - http://www.guuui.com/posting.php?id=2174
- Rajesh Sundaram
Monday, September 15, 2008
Interaction Design flaws - Tomshardware.com's language selection screen
One of the fundamentals in UI design is "Don't make the user think". The more he thinks, the more he gets confused. To explain this, let us take the Language selection screen in Tomshardware.com website.
Recently Toms Hardware, included an option to choose languages. And a new visitor will be greeted with a "Select a Language" screen. This happens only when the visitor visits the site for the first time. Once a language is selected, a permanent cookie will be set and the UI will not appear again.
The Interaction flaw : A new visitor may not know which one to click, whether to click the "Continue" button or any one of the links given below. The first line says "Toms Hardware English Website [Continue]". Also, the options "British" and "US English" appears again in the below given options making the user to think "which one should i click?"
So what could be the fix to this issue? The goal is to make the user select his language. So let us make it simple for him. Remove the "Continue" button and re-phrase the "Select another language" to "Select your language". This will reduce the amount of time taken spent at this screen.
Extension - Practical Issues : Many users has the habit of cleaning their browser cache once in a week or some specific period of time. So a "Select Language" screen popping up once in a week or some time later, is a real nuisance rather than a convenience. To fix this, the language selection screen should be removed. Let the user select his language on top of the web page. Track the IP address and locate the visitor's geography and open the relevant site. This is the optimal user experience.
Recently Toms Hardware, included an option to choose languages. And a new visitor will be greeted with a "Select a Language" screen. This happens only when the visitor visits the site for the first time. Once a language is selected, a permanent cookie will be set and the UI will not appear again.
The Interaction flaw : A new visitor may not know which one to click, whether to click the "Continue" button or any one of the links given below. The first line says "Toms Hardware English Website [Continue]". Also, the options "British" and "US English" appears again in the below given options making the user to think "which one should i click?"
So what could be the fix to this issue? The goal is to make the user select his language. So let us make it simple for him. Remove the "Continue" button and re-phrase the "Select another language" to "Select your language". This will reduce the amount of time taken spent at this screen.
Extension - Practical Issues : Many users has the habit of cleaning their browser cache once in a week or some specific period of time. So a "Select Language" screen popping up once in a week or some time later, is a real nuisance rather than a convenience. To fix this, the language selection screen should be removed. Let the user select his language on top of the web page. Track the IP address and locate the visitor's geography and open the relevant site. This is the optimal user experience.
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