£earn €arn and $hare

Mute conversation on Flickr.

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:13:37 -0400

Light (LED) Painting , a set on Flickr.Air - LED painting (done...

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 07:42:27 -0400

Air - LED painting
(done on last weekend)
Via Flickr:
Trying my hands on light painting - inspiration Picasso - generated the image via LED www.thecoolist.com/light-graffiti-10-masters-of-light-pai…

Looking for my tumblog?

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:31:40 -0400

Here it is - http://boomshake.tumblr.com/

"You feel unhappiness from your own limitations. So please dont blame others. Switch to silent mode..."

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:12:00 -0500

“You feel unhappiness from your own limitations.
So please dont blame others. Switch to silent mode for a while and then restart and reboot”

- Anonymous

User experience at ‘World Usability Day 2009, Gurgaon’ from an end user

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:46:00 -0500

I am going to pen down my feelings about the event. Please excuse if things do not resonate.

This post is sort of Diary entry.

Date: Friday, 27^th November

Time: 11 O’clock.

Event: World Usability Day

We (@gauravmishr, @sudhirporwal and @kamalpreetkaur ) arrived at Make my Trip’s (MMT) office at the specific time. After a few minutes wait, a well-dressed young man came up and introduced himself as Paurush Pandit. He provided us with a file folder carrying necessary documents about the event accompanied by a writing pad and a pencil, and a neatly packed gift.

Reaching the conference room, we saw a very senior lady giving an excellent presentation on design usability. We took our seats and referring to our event program list, I comprehended that the lady giving presentation was Mrs. Apala. She seemed like Jeffrey Zeldman to me. I particularly liked her conveying power and the control she had on the audience with her magnetic personality.

Her presentation focused on design usability. And the crux was working for the ecosystem and design products to minimize the greed in people. ‘You can satisfy your needs but not someone’s greed so please don’t add to more it as a design creature. So it’s the responsibility of the designers to take firm steps in this direction.’ She shared this reasoning with various examples with the targeted message– Create More (value, meaning) with less (resources, energy) by changing current business models. This social service message for the Mother Earth gave me a real high because I also believe in the same and keep a check on my carbon footprint.

Next was Sunali Agarwal, Co-Founder of Mobikwik.com who talked on Systemic Saving.

She started with the introduction to Smart Systems and its attributes such as:

Saving time
Reducing unnecessary interactions
Reliability factor
Usability
Improving the product knowledge

Followed by a diagram depiction of Smart Systems

Purpose (Business perspective)
Usability (Ease to use)
Engagement (add emotional, psychological value)
Innovation (e.g. Radio cabs)

There was also showcasing of Make my trip.com portal features:

Extensive product information
Product search made easy
Booking/Cancellation simplified
Unique PNR key
Book flight any time from any where
24 x 7 Technical support

Systematic effect

Taking care of the whole user cycle responsibly and effectively
Notifying/Reminder by SMS to customers adds to Feel Good Factor
PNR key helps in easy information retrieval of customers and less headache to hold loads of information.

After that the flow changed to new features of JustDial.com

They first ask the customer requirement and later about their details
No news paper ad burden – cause everything is online
Localization

And at last ‘Mobikwik.com’:

Recharge with one click
Micro payments made easy
Cheaper recharge
Recharge for family and friends

Next talk was Social [S]quared Products by Upasana Taku

She gave the mantra “For the People, of the People and by the People” to make web products. She pointed out some very interesting links in this area. I had heard of a few social causes websites such as change.org and TATA Tea’s Jago Re campaign as part of the home work for the upcoming Halabol.com which hopefully we should be rolling out in a couple of months.

Links shown were:

Khan Academy
Together.com
Health for youth : Hope Lab (idea by ebay owner’s wife)
Communication front line : SMS ( empowering NGO’s around the world)
Crowd Sourcing: Vote report India
Microfinance Zopa: Money Lending [ approximate 1 million pound lent so far]
World of Good: eco commerce
Civic advocacy: Change.org
donorschoose.com
together.com
zopa.com

LUNCH TIME »

Food was light, fresh and yummy. And probably tasted better because I was starving after the sessions. This break gave us a chance to interact with experienced people in our field. We met Mukesh Marwah,Irshad Ahmed and an old pal (previous company) lost and found in MMT.

We talked to Abhay Rautela and had some knowledge sharing regarding; use of open source and some of the design techniques. He also talked about http://season.openusability.org/ and http://groups.drupal.org/season-usability.

After Lunch

Dushyant Arora, Sr. Manager – Usability practice, Makemytrip.com gave an introductory talk on USID foundation and also pointed out to the posters on the wall. Soon we were going to break those walls… as MMT rock band were supposed to be starting their performance after some time. It was supposedly the first of its kind in NCR.

Next was V. Nachiket, a student from IIT kanpur (though he was professionally experienced). His topic was Data Visualization for Urbanization. This boy simply stole the show. The urban data collection and its representation by smart figures with a clever mix of sketching was the ultimate blend in his presentation. When asked about his source of data, he replied it was from different websites.

He was highly artistic with sharp thoughts - 10/10. Nachiket already got so many fans after the presentation spell. He added one more to the list.

Nachiket left the stage for Raman Khanna whose presentation was on UX Trenches.

And the main points in his talk were:

Lead with the answer
Ask the right question (define the right problem is half the design)
Problem framing (Revolutionary and Evolutionary Solutions)
Fail fast (You can never get it right the first time. Several quick designs iterations are better than few longer one)
Ignore user (Real need is to understand them and don’t believe what the users are saying. To design an easy to use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say)
Beautiful is usable (Things that look better are perceived to be more usable. Easy to use+ useful + Beautiful = Great user experience)
Think beyond the product (Real innovation is in designing of businesses)
One size doesn’t fit all (Cultural differences matters. Power vs. Distance, Collectivism vs. individualism, Masculine vs. Feminine, Long term vs. short term )
Strive for better requirements (Things such as death, taxes and scope craps are unavoidable)
Give up control (Embed your design with the right DNA to allow evaluation. Past design is Autocratic design. Present is user centered design)
Design is about good hunches (The union of Logic and instinct is Good design)

Dushyant had already given us a hint of the rock band performance. So right after this presentation, the rock stars of MMT were ready to rock us.

They sang three Hindi and three English numbers. 3:3 balancing act. The songs included, ‘We don’t need no Sexducation’, slightly twisted version of Pink Floyd song ‘Another brick in the wall’… J

You can watch MMT’s Rock band videos on Youtube :

For more videos and photos check below :

After the performance, Saurabh Wadhwa covered few more topics, some of them he pointed in the beginning are going to be repetitive that gave us a chance to revise and review what we had learned during the seminar. His examples and slides were brilliant with practical examples from daily life.

This followed by a concluding speech and a thank you note to the audience, MMT’s and the organizing team for a highly interactive and business networking day at WUD.

Well done Folks and everyone involved in this, including the technician who was sleeping right in front of the audience.

Hey I forget my boss, we got an off for the day ;)

GOOD JOB EVERYONE!

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation,..."

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:20:18 -0500

““By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.””

- Confucius (via quote-book)

"No matter you want to learn or not Life will be teaching you always and you will be learning all..."

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:18:57 -0500

“No matter you want to learn or not
Life will be teaching you always
and you will be learning all that intentionally or unintentionally.”

- Anonymous

Soul is a Drop Drupal is also a Drop

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:22:44 -0500

Soul is like a divine drop in ocean
and am working with Drupal
which is also a drop (on finding resemblance between me and my work)

Drupal is an English rendering of the Dutch word “druppel”, which means “drop” (as in “a water droplet”).

"Always have a positive attitude in life. There is something positive in every person...."

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:44:07 -0500

“Always have a positive attitude in life. There is something positive in every person. Even a stopped watch is right twice a day”

- Anonymous

"We have lots of flaws and weakness and I’m working upon on them to make things fine and..."

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:17:10 -0500

“We have lots of flaws and weakness
and I’m working upon on them to make things fine and smooth
if i am so perfect then whats will be the point in living aimless as i’ll be missing all the excitement”

- Anonymous

"You can become popular even staying Anonymous."

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:10:13 -0500

“You can become popular even staying Anonymous.”

- Anonymous ;)

"Human being should be humble & sincere oh! this is so boring. we should be naughty and playful..."

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:59:00 -0500

“Human being should be humble & sincere oh! this is so boring.
we should be naughty and playful cause that will add a spice and salt to the life
otherwise it will be a boiled tasteless dish. Come on pour sugar on me ♫ ♬”

- Anonymous

Drupal 7 Sprint Pune 30th-31st Oct, Pune India Drupal 960.gs...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:33:11 -0500

Drupal 7 Sprint Pune 30th-31st Oct, Pune India

Drupal 960.gs theming session video - II

Drupal 7 Sprint Pune 30th-31st Oct, Pune India Drupal 960.gs...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:28:00 -0500

Drupal 7 Sprint Pune 30th-31st Oct, Pune India

Drupal 960.gs theming session video - I

Drupal 960 grid theming

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:23:00 -0500

Drupal 960 grid system based theming

Presented at Drupal 7 sprint, Pune India held on 30th -31st Oct 2009

Hoping to see more Drupal themers playing with grid systems more.

Will be uploading videos of some of sessions soon

"Life is all set to music depends which music you need to feel at the moment sometimes with your ear..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:03:00 -0500

“Life is all set to music depends which music you need to feel at the moment sometimes with your ear sometimes with your heart”

- Anonymous

"It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:46:02 -0500

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

- Paulo Coehlo — The Alchemist (via justojusto) (via quote-book)

"Information knowledge should be free need not to keep under locks or tight security i think it is..."

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:59:37 -0400

“Information knowledge should be free need not to keep under locks or tight security
i think it is the best way to gain immortality.”

- Anonymous

Travelling from IGI Domestic Airport to Pune

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:22:00 -0400

Travelling from IGI Domestic Airport to Pune

There we go baby !!! yipppeee

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:11:20 -0400

There we go baby !!! yipppeee