For a very long time since I decided upon UX as the theme for this blog (apart from things happening in my life), I vied for some original content. I tried to put some reviews and my interpretations. I also borrowed heavily from existing blog posts. I wanted to start a series of posts where I discuss some of the existing products and put open questions to you all on how to improve these products.
Once I have some clarity on what product design I want to work on, I will take up one at a time and start executing the concept.Towards that end this is my first post, where I will discuss some of the short comings of the present day white board marker.
All of us are familiar with a white board marker. How many of you had issues using it? You might say what issues in using a white board marker? 
Let me list it down for you and I request you to observe the next time you come across one.
i) I would never know if the marker has ink in it or not.
ii) The writing tip is invariably flattened after a few uses.
iii) It is difficult to find out why the marker is not functional. The ink is over or the writing tip is bad.
iv) The cap that is used to cover the tip does not fit properly at the back. Most of the times it falls down.
v) The shape of the marker is round. It rolls on most surfaces.
vi) Almost all the markers I used have a plastic cover around it. It peels of and distracts/interferes with the free flow of writing.
Now, I don't see any reason why the design cannot be improved. What do you think? What are your suggestions.
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Redesign the Marker
Usability Review of Kindle
I found this excellent review of the Kindle, Amazon's new Wireless reading device. No point going in talking about it as it is one of the best reviews I have seen in the recent past.
A small snippet here. Check out the full review at "Well".
There's a little styling going on here.
While the overall shape seems to be well proportioned and balanced (considering the plain volume alone), I don't get the reason of being of these angled cuts. Does it add comfort when holding the device or interacting with it ? Does it help to frame the text better ? Does it relate to some cultural meaning ? As from today, I'd like to get a clue. To me this is just a subjective decision, style for the sake of it, and it hangs in there as a hair on the soup. Same feeling about the progressively slanted keys of the keyboard. Style is good, but it needs to be backed up with purpose.
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Does Google solve the Indic Keyboard?
Ability to key in the Indian languages using the qwerty keyboard or any kind of other online keyboards is a big pain. Many people are trying to solve this issue for long time now. Though there are many solution in existence, none of them is simple enough or intuitive enough. Now Google has come up with a way to key in the vernacular text into the browser and search the web.
Most of the vernacular keyboards are not very useful in terms of usability. Many of them rely on phonetics, while those that have a visual keyboard are too cumbersome to use. I came across this post on the Google blog which introduces a Google gadget Indic on Screen Keyboards. This was developed at the Google Labs India.
On the Plate
Loop Holes
Wish List
Rendering in Firefox is not legible and has some glaring mistakes. It was perfect on IE7.
I see this as the first step in a great direction. Watch out for more developments in this area.
I am excited about this development. What do you folks feel on this new design approach?
Do drop by your thoughts.
Source
Go to India Web 2.0: Search Google in 11 Indian Languages
You Might Like
Humanized Design: Charmr
Registration and Usability
Design Philosophy
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Business Card on Mobile
I was at Proto.in then was at BCB4 last month. One problem I and most of the people I met, have at such events is that, they are exhausted of the business cards long before the event comes to an end. Another issue with Business Cards is, the details change pretty fast, either your designation changes, the company address changes, the phone number or host of other things. Also business cards are a difficult to maintain on the recipients part. So do we have a solution to this? Though not a complete solution at this point, an Indian Startup Zakly tries to address this problem. Read on for a review of their offering.
The Product
Zakly calls the product "your electronic calling card". The concept is simple, register yourself with the requested details. Enter the details like name, company, designation phone number and you are done. Now you can access your card from any mobile with GPRS using the following link http://zakly.mobi/
Apart from the idea, it is also very easy to use. One just needs to register and enter the details asked for. A don't make me think implementation makes it simple to use. It also helps that there is nothing much more one needs to do. Same while accessing the calling card from the mobile. Just type in the url and viola you are there.
Now coming to some hiccups. The low contrast between the text and the background of the main body make it a bit difficult to read. Considering there is ample space, the design could have been better. The forms look cluttered and screaming for space.
I was pleasantly surprised when I came to know that this company is based out of Goa. Is it a sign that the startup bug is spreading wide across India? You have to tell.
I haven't talked to any one from Zakly but the reply to the feed back given was very prompt. Also I am not sure I can call Zakly a startup in true sense as it is a venture of Dogears Print Media Pvt. Ltd. Will post more information once I have it.
My Take
The concept is simple and sounds pretty good. However, it is a long way before they go anywhere. They have done a good job by releasing the basic feature early. However, in its current form, it can be copied in a couple of days by any one. There is a fundamental pain point it addresses, but has a long way to go before i would use it.
* Why do they restrict accessing the profile only to a mobile? I am surprised that I am not allowed to access it from my web browser.(check zook.in)
* If you see the way the information is displayed on the mobile, it is very rudimentary. Can't they spice up the look?
* Why do they call it a calling card? First thing that comes to my mind is the bsnl calling card or reliance calling card. Am sure need to change this branding immediately.
Improvements
* Allow me to access the information over SMS/Web browser.
* Give me a choice of customizable look, where I can choose the color, format in which the card will be displayed on the browsers(both mobile and web).
* I get to see that they have been in for more than two months. However, I guess they haven't done much improvements to the current offering. What they need to do is release more features on a periodic basis.
* Why limit the product to web access and mobiles? Small widgets which can help me put the information on blogs, websites etc.
* This is a bit futuristic but, they can integrate the information with maps, and provide call on click kind of feature (Integrate with Google Maps and Jajah)
* How are these guys going to monetize the stuff. I have a few ideas, but I guess they have to go a long way before they get to start doing that.
What do you think of Zakly? Will you use it? If you have used it, share your experiences!
Source
Webyantra
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Inasra Hotel Search in India
I love traveling and travel quite a few times in an year. The most important thing for me, and I guess for folks of my ilk is, finding a decent shelter without straining our purse. To find a place to stay in a big city or a relatively remote place is difficult and with the two constraints mentioned earlier it becomes a nightmare. Inasra a search engine from India promises to just address this issue.
[tHe pRoduct]
Inasra is a search engine for hotels in India. They cover pretty much all the major cities in all the Indian states. With over 3000 hotels across 300 cities there are not many places you would miss out. The best part about the listing is it lets you search the hotels based on various criteria like price,the rating, amenities(Business center, travel desk etc ), cuisines(continental,Chinese etc). You can get details like amenities, cuisines served, tariff structure and other information about all the hotels listed.
[tHe sIte]
It has got one of the most simple and user friendly home page design I have seen in recent times. A simple, to the point home page which concentrates more on the search feature without all the clutter that we get to see with many travel sites(read makemytrip, yatra etc). The basic navigation to hotels in a city and booking a room is pretty straight forward stuff. Intelligent use of Ajax gives it a rich neat look. Unfortunately the good things end here, the site lacks in some of the usability aspects. I will do a detailed review of the site design in a later post.
[tHe vErdict]
Inasra is one of the few, in fact the only search engine, specific to hotel search, in India. It's decent database of hotels and wide reach of cities within India, coupled with cool user interface and excellent search capabilities makes it an automatic choice for me and probably to you. You can read more about Inasra in this post at pluggd.in.
I found this interesting piece on the About Us page.
"Funding : We are a privately held company where all the investment in terms of money, time and effort has been made by the founders themselves (infact this is being written by us). For us, business (inasra) is personal and not just a profit making machine for shareholders (profit is a pertinent factor, but not at the cost of ethics). So we will be a privately held company in the near future too."
Mobile Webcam
Ok Folks, Hold on, I know I haven't been posting for almost a week. No excuses, I take all the blame.(Caught up with some personal work). Coming to some cool stuff, I came across this interesting stuff and am sure you will find it great.
[tHe sTory]
All of us have a mobile phone and most of us have a camera in it. It's a wonderful tool, take photos anytime anywhere and save it on to your system, upload to net and share it with friends and family. Now you have this nice idea of using camera in your mobile phone and do a video chat with your friend in the US of A.
You move to new house in Bangalore and want to show it to your parents.
That little kid of yours is never stable to pose before a webcam. So what is the answer for all this.
How do you do it? Read on...
[tHe pRoduct]
Let me present you wwigo (Webcam Where ever I Go), it's a new product from Motvik. The product idea is very cool. It makes your mobile phone with a camera into a webcam, using which you can video chat on some of your favorite clients (Skype, YM!, MSN etc). Currently it is available for most of the nokia series handsets. Hope they extend the support to other models too.
[tHe Buzz]
I just got to see this product today, haven't yet got to try it. (I don't use a Nokia!!). Any way I see a lot fo potential and usage and hacks too using this. Will post more details once I get to test it. If you have have had the chance to use it drop by a few words on your experience.
[tHe cOmpany]
Motvik is founded by Rajan about who is also the confounder of Momo Bangalore. I have talked about Momo Bangalore in an earlier post of mine here. I have interacted with Rajan over mail, he sounds like a pretty nice guy. More about Motvik and Rajan in the coming days.
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