Deals2Buy simply amazing - Why can't we have something like this

http://www.deals2buy.com/
Simply awesome site if you are in USA, I wish somebody creates such in India,if not online at least where stores give discounts

Usability vs User Experience

There was a forum in HCI discussion which talked about Usability vs User Experience, and debate ppl had was fantastic. I was too excited to read all those comments, one of which said "Usability methodology is to make the product approachable, interactive and something where users can complete their task without having to learn much and most importantly taking control over the system and User Experience is something which is related to how users are delighted to perform the task and say WOW I am so very happy and go ga ga over the usage of the same". Like the statement, yes people do say that if we follow usability principles, user experience automatically is excellent, but is it true? to an extent yes but there needs to be a out of the box thinking and pushing towards high user experience without compromising on usability is what the need of hour, example Ipad, All touch phones people are so addicted to the same, user experience is the key factor to this......

Problem is many people still think visual appeal is what making humans say WOW, but fail to understand to generate WOW factor there needs an change in process first, then identify what people really want what excites them and work on them rather than just toiling your time in debating what crap design refer this that..... Excellent example is one of my earlier companies intranet ppl were so frustrated that they just stopped using it and spent hours on that and when Company decided to change the look and feel and added big banners and graphics, people just said WOW initially without even using it and felt as a relief, but it was just short lived glory, slowly we stared hating it and everybody were praying to get back the old intranet back. Company then decided not to change their intranet and stuck with OLD UI. I am sure this is a story to all at least Indian companies

windows.... hate those regular updates

Windows vista.... now windows 7, what I hate is updates which they ask users to do regularly, almost twice a week at the top of it sometimes it automatically starts and if you are away from your PC, it even restarts. Hate this really hate this attitude of microsoft.

Samsung Galaxy Ace.... sigh

I was just loving this Gadget..... had few issues when I first brought but after using it for a while, just getting hooked to it.

Unfortunately someone in the bus (bangalore) just flipped it from my pocket. I was so embarrassed by myself, this is the second time in 2 years that something has happened and believe me or not both times at Bangalore bus stand, near marathahalli. I was so devastated that I said to myself that I will never buy smart phone for more than 10k from now onwards. So had to settle with DELL XCD35 with lots of compromises to get a feeling of Smart touch phone, but Dell one is no where near to Samsung Galaxy Ace.

Sigh....

Cry for a better user experience (coil)

I have been experiencing this since my childhood, tortoise coils packet, look at this pic....

It is absolutely tough task to remove these 2 pieces jammed withing each other, it is so delicate that almost all the time coil breaks, I was always wondering why these guys can't make a single piece coil pack. I am sure many of you people would be asking this question.

Totally Unusable AC Remote

We are still not able to figure out what the heck is all those buttons for ? Till today nobody from my family knows how to operate this remote..... I must say totally unusable remote. It has temperature control (OK that's easy) but what about fan, economy mode, timer setting, Low Cool, high Cool mode.

Though the AC has all wonderful features but what is the use of keeping these things when people are unable to memorize it. Even now if I do not use the AC for some months I keep forgetting on how to set time?

Gosh these AC people desperately need hire some User Experience guys ASAP, especially Voltas...

Concept of ODC..... it sucks

Why in the hell ODC’s in India ask for a stringent background check, why they allow people to work only in that ODC. This is rubbish philosophy whoever has started this, all crap. ODCs are making Indians real slave, tech slaves. Why can't these ODC's work collaboratively, meaning if there are people in 2 different cities, why cannot a project happen via phone and webx.

Difficult to work with manipulators

It becomes tough ask to work with people who manipulate almost with everything and everyone, sometimes they also do not spare your personal life..... this is work place I am talking about.

Retail Mall - Why 2 lines

Whenever I go to any retail mall in Pune or Bangalore, I am always question eager to know simple question, why is there 2 lines one for billing and one for weighing the vegetables, why can't they do in in billing section itself.

Amount of retail malls that we see in India atleast, time has come for these retail shops to look into difficulties that consumer face, they cannot just dump their products in their shop like BIG BAZAAR do and ask consumer to pick, give them reason to choose other than discounts, arrange products properly, start to think more about your users rather than just giving them discounts

Bye Bye IE6

IE 6 seems to be phasing out slowly as people just hate this, for the matter IE itself, main reason because of the crashing. I just hate when IE crashes...... but why can't Firefox be like IE :)

Figuring best way to do Usability Testing

I was just figuring best way to do a usability testing. I mean we have many methods, best way that we all know is to go directly to users in their desk and ask them open ended questions and you get exactly what user is looking for. Just googling and asking many of our people and gathering documents of sample questionnaires and process they follow. What I got is very much different way of representing same type of process in such a different fashion. Truly people have so much refreshing way of conducting UT.

Now what would you do if place constraints come your way for UT, I mean if you want to speak to users sitting various locations, WebX is one such tool, but it becomes that difficult to track user movements, but yes we did couple of projects using WebX and was quite successful. That’s where offshore model can make big business out of this Usability testing remotely and what I had seen is the UX shops in UK (especially) charge like a bomb to conduct all these also in US, why can’t we have it done in offshore. That’s what my agenda for UT.