Trek to Vasota..... Experience to share

Before this I did hike/trekked to small forts like Tikona and Sinhagad near pune. To be frank any hiking to me is tough, but that's fun part of hiking/trekking, you will get exhausted and tired like hell but more you hike more your gain energy and stamina. Now then as I was catching up with speed of hiking at least marginally matching to our trek group, I had to officially take break for some months and then one followed other GAP increased by 9 to 10 months.

When I returned to Pune, my trek group asked me if I am available for Vasota trek near Satara, well without any hesitation I just jumped and said OK because last time I went near Vasota it was raining and we were not allowed to go inside, but the scenes were amazing, dense forest and awesome back water.

Picture this to start with (This is from the Top of HIKE/TREK)

Back to trip experience, we were 8 of them and started from Pune at around 5 pm in the evening. Pune-Saswad-Bangalore Highway-Satara-Kas plateau and reached "Bamnoli". Please note that you need a guide (from Bamnoli) or prior appointment to reach Vasota as this comes under forest department. We reached "Bamnoli" village at 9:30 pm so it took 4-5 hours from pune, but good thing roads were fantastic, thanks to Kas plateu (named as world heritage), road leading to it was way better than what I had experienced 4 years ago.

We spend one night in a guest house (pretty basic one) but such places you don't expect star hotels. We had traditional marathi bhakri and dal. These guest houses are very clean and nice to stay as area is with zero pollution and air is absolutely clean. The whole place is covered with dense forest and we cant venture out after 10 pm, not for animal scare but for darkness.

Trek Starts at MORNING  9 am
We had breakfast - Poha, apple and tea at Bamnoli and moved towards Boat area (there was a group of 50 people from other trek waiting). 5 boats were ready to go to Vasota with some amazing view of Back water and green forest.

It took 1 1/2 hours to reach Vasota base area, where everyone came together in a group. Unfortunately one boat faced some problems so our trek was delayed and started only at 11:30 (we waited from 10:30 am), but finally we started.

When I started moving in, though it was a jungle, route was good and clear path with some natural springs in between. I wished the route would be like this till the end :)

By now looking at the above picture anyone will be excited, simple lovely.....

Now as we moved on trek started to get tougher and tougher, some cliff heights came by then some down slide came so it was like ups and down, nothing much.

True trek started after 35-45 minutes of  walking and it turned to be a never ending climb. If you are non trekker like me, its like passing major hurdle one cliff at a time, but then you wonder Man when will this end. By the time you climb for 1 hour, you will pray to reach top and destination looks near still far. People around you, especially try to motivate you - its nearby just few more climbs.

There was a point when I said to myself, "that's it" I cant make it. Then I thought why not, move it you can make it. Just one thing was in my mind (few experiences from sinhgad) that never sit down and rest, you can never make it,. just stand and rest for sometime and move. then last few strides were like KILLING, it became steeper and steeper. That's the thing about climbing a mountain, final few strides are very much tough to climb and you body says please stop but your mind says No move ahead.

FINALLY reached and feeling was "Oh man have I made it"

It took 2 1/2 hours to reach the top (maybe 1 hour more than regular trekkers). View from top was just amazing, weather was fantastic, no pollution, just fresh air. We started at 11:30 am and reached at 2 pm (I mean few reached well before us, yes there were people like me also)

So we just spent 1 hour or so as we were told to get back before 4:30 pm as animals in the forest become very much active at night. When we reached bottom camp, we were given some Chapathis, sabji and dal with some buttermilk. Also throughout the trek, maybe because of awesome view and challenge to reach no one felt hungry till we reached down. After seeing food we felt hungry.

Time was to leave the spot in the amazing boat again and say good bye, saying to myself, will I get a chance to come here again?

But then again never say goodbye, will surely come again here and trek again this time lot quicker :)

Picture this TAJ

We went at December 2013

Why I love Chipotle when in US

I was first introduced by one of my fellow colleague Jeevan, saying Chipotle is a treat to all Indians when in US. Not that it has some indian flavors but because of its freshness and tummy filling (in our words paisa wasool)

But Why?

• First you can choose what you want and move on with some yummy topings
• Secondly Rice with some gravy beans, green veggies, corn, some chillies also you can sum it up with Flour tortilla (Rotis like thing)
• Lastly its so quick that you dont have to wait, take your serving, grab it and pay
• Probably this is one of few chains in US where Veg and Meat are clearly differentiated 

    

Net Meeting and Working Session works

5-10 years ago, I was just wondering how we bridge the gap of communication without the phone or to an extent through emails. Today if you see almost everything happens via new meeting, skype, Lync file sharing, Join me.com, so many things and also people have become flexible both India or US to have call early morning in US and little late evenings in India, and this works.

Past 2 years I am doing it and now I am so used to it that if there are no working sessions in the evening I feel something is missing from my days work. Also sometimes net meeting helps a lot to interact between customers and us.  

Something’s I learnt when you interact through net meetings

•  Since in India we have some un-avoidable background noises, so it’s always better to be on mute whenever you are not speaking
• Keep the momentum going, don’t always be on a mute mode and let others speak, many a times I noticed people just expect others to speak so call becomes silent for and it’s like who will break the ice kind of situation
• Always be alert and be a good listener as people cannot judge you since you are remote. But asking queries and clarifying thing may keep the people glued and also call becomes active
• Always try to make the call productive by noting down points and at the end of the meeting sending MOM ASAP as this will make everyone know what was the outcome

Most importantly what I learnt was don’t assume thing as the other person may think you got the point but in reality you did not.

In my recent projects I learnt these things and I am still learning the art of proper listening, communicating properly and most importantly getting productive outcome from the meeting 

My New York Trip Jan 13

New York Trip Jab-Feb13

Windows 8 short cuts

People like me who wonder what happened to traditional Shut down, how to get back to desktop from start screen and how to close an app. Here is the quick keyboard shortcuts

• To shut down your PC - ALT + F4 
• To close App in your start screeen - 2 ways, either ALT +F4 or move your mouse to top of the screen wherein hand symbol appears and then click + drag it to bottom left to close the app
• To exit from Start screen and come back to Desktop : Windows symbol + M

These are some of key shortcuts which we are so used to while using windows machine earlier, probably it is not made obvious. Even I found after reading some blogs, but never the less, once you come to know these, its huge relief for all.

Keep enjoying Windows 8

Killer Combination – Business Usability Analyst

“We need business analyst to define the process, at the same time we need usability person to help him out in smooth user experience”, so why can’t we have both in one? What is the problem with that apart from big human ego coming to picture, UX guys saying “why take the headache of getting into business”, BA’s saying “Boss not my expertise”.

Strange but if you analyze this both have many similarities in their tasks which they are doing and there is just a thin line of difference which both can forgo and come ahead. Being an UX person myself, I have interacted with many product teams and decision makers to understand the in-depth requirement of the product/app, and many a times I do interact with BA’s and mostly I get fully equipped with domain and the entire process, which is essential for usability person to have. Now comes to documentation and process flow definition which is also one of the step in UCD and we do that. So point has come wherein Usability Analysts or consultants can take up or can say automatically converted to Business Analyst, is this overstatement?  Some may feel debatable, probably for larger programs, it may be a tough ask for UX to fit in the role of BA, but for medium size programs, they can surely put on the shoes of BA.

Now the point is can a BA do a vise versa. Hmmm difficult to answer that but over a period of time I think it is better for business analyst to have knowledge of usability jargons, its methodologies, processes, even though they know all these, but sometimes ignorance or tight schedule keeps them away from usability.

I am keen to explore on my role as Business analyst as well as excel in UX as I always try to do.     

Windows phone scores 10 on 10 on User Experience

Lumia which I have is absolutely treat for me. I am just bowled by its performance and it has exactly what I need from a smart phone, right from configuring my office mails to Gmail to social network FB. Now almost all smart phones has this, what make it a different is :

1.       The main screen has all updates like a synopsis with a touch

2.       Choose what you want in the first screen, rally innovative design

3.       Market place is cool and not that busy as of Android

4.       Lastly installing/uninstalling application or game is made so simple

5.       Photo gallery is appealing and easy to use with lots of inbuilt features of enhancing the photo

Now the cons, it comes with inbuilt memory slot, cannot increase it further, contacts transfer happens only through Nokia to Nokia mobiles or from Windows LIVE contacts.

But overall I am very happy with the same, I think statement like better than iPhone would be appropriate here (at least for me), but have to wait and watch for some more time.

Setting up Usability process

So how does one start the exercise of setting up usability as practice in a IT company. That's very tough job sensing that IT companies drive mainly on tech focus, and on top of it customers demand where is UX? many are forced to hire external agency, but have to shell out hell a lot of money for that.

Some assumptions that ppl have about usability is and very common statement they pass

Usability process is too costly

We don't need usability as we always listen to what our customers say?

and commonest of all...... You guys are techy people how come you guys will solve users problem.

So all these assumptions and keeping all these considerations, I decided to take it and started the exercise of building a strong UX practice and educating management team, sales team and our delivery teams with series of presentations explaining what UCD is all about and how is it beneficial for the client and also for our company. To make it possible I have gathered all the templates, practical examples, case studies, ROI facts and geared up for the same.

Absolutely Loving it.......

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.