Nokia S40 Music Player - Usability Issue

Just bought a Nokia 3110 Classic phone for my sister. It has got all the features like Camera, Bluetooth, Music Player, Memory card and a good battery. After spending some time with the mobile phone, I found the music player's button controls to be confusing. The controls dont follow the standard convention and one has to get used to . Unlike the standard navigation pattern found in all MP3 players, the left and right keys represent Fast forward and Rewind skip functions. The Up and Down arrow keys represent Previous track and Next track.

Nokia's engineers should have considered the standard practice and 99 out of 100 people never use forward-skip or rewind-skip nowadays. That practice has gone since the cassette tapes are abandoned.




The image above shows the existing control-pattern (the first image) and suggested control-pattern (the second image). The suggestion pattern follows the standard conventions and implementing this pattern will help the users to enjoy the music experience.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Vodafone - Happy to Help you - Plagued by technical glitches

Vodafone is running a campaign of some sort... promoting their customer service with the motto "Happy to help you". Some 6 digit-salary-drawing brilliant MBA's idea! I do like their advertisements that emphasizes the "we are here to help".

Even today I received an email from Vodafone promoting the same thing. Nothing new but just a mail that showcases all their services, with an extra tagline "Happy to Help you". Vodafone is not a mobile telephony company, but a marketing agency. Let me tell you why...

Recently I was unable to make any phone calls to my home town (Erode). When dialed from other services like Airtel / Aircel, the call goes through. But from Vodafone, my home is not reachable. I do not know if that is BSNL's (which provides telephony to my home) fault or Vodafone's fault.. but the call is not going through. Having my wedding in the next two months... I feel like I am screwed badly! One way communication.

Then I dialled 111, the Hutch/Vodafone care number, the call checked my patience.

Dialling 111

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ZzZZzzZZZz..
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Hai. Welcome to Vodafone. We are happy to help you...
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ZZzzzZZZZzzzzZZZZz
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Tamilil ariya yen ondrai dial seyyavum
For information in english press two.

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[2]
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Welcome to Vodafone. I am *****. How may I help you?

bla bla blaaa....
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bla
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blaab
blaaaaa
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I am sorry to interrupt sir. But is Prepaid helpline. Kindly dial 98840 98840 to access the post-paid helpline.

Thats what I was trying to do the past 20 mins boss. The IVR is dead slow and every time I dial the number 111 it brings me here to the pre-paid helpline. I dont know what to do . Can you transfer my call to Post-paid helpline?

I am sorry sir. But you have to dial 98840 98840

Boss thats what I did .. but still the number's IVR is totally helpless.

Please try one more time sir. We are facing some technical difficulties in the call managment system. But this time it should go through. I request you to try one more time sir.

ok bye.

Thank you.. CLICK!

Vodafone sucks! So many technical glitches... so many nuisances... man! wats happening to them? And they campaign "Happy to help you".. It should be "Happy to screw you"...

- Rajesh Sundaram

IA and UI Redesign of WebHealthCentre.com

WebHealthCentre.com is one of the highly visited medical information portal in India. The site is rich in information, but lacks a proper navigation and Information Architecture. Here is my attempt to update the UI (visually) and incorporate a better navigation.

For your reference, here is the screen shot of existing site :




Updated UI and IA

Home Page:
The modules from existing home page moves into tabs. The home page now acts as a at-a-glance view of dynamic contents (Bulletin and News).

Second/Subsequent Page Model: The subsequent pages will follow the classic 3 column layout as most of the modules in WebHealthCentre are information-centric.



Information Architecture - Categorization of existing modules into new tabs. The interactive modules get into Health Centre tab and information-centric modules gets into Health and Lifestyle tab. Refer the following image for the complete grouping info.



Wish to see some updates of this sort to happen in WebHealthCentre.com. :-)

- Rajesh Sundaram