Usability/UX in India : A blog on Usability, UX, HCI by Muthu.

World Usability Day in Bangalore 2007

2007-10-31T11:25:00.000+05:30

On Nov 5, 2007, World Usability Day Bangalore will be hosted at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Go to the Event Wiki :

World Usability Day was founded to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. WUD focuses on raising awareness and visibility of usability and user-centered design and is organized every year by volunteers and local event coordinators from around the world. Whether usability professionals or just enthusiastic (or frustrated) users, each participant makes a contribution to making life easy.

User Research Firms in India

2007-10-30T14:28:00.000+05:30

Avenue A | Razorfish , a US based
interactive services firm, is looking to contract with an Indian user
research firm
(preferably in Delhi/Mumbai) for local research in India.

Interested firms may approach Shiv Singh for details at Shiv dot Singh
at avenuea-razorfish dot .com

Usability gurus speak on emerging trends and the Indian usability landscape!

2007-10-29T10:58:00.000+05:30

Four Usability practitioners from Bangalore India talk about usability and discuss emerging trends.
An interview by Shazeeye Kirmani , Usability Practitioner at Infosys.

1. Sridhar Marri, is Vice President and Head – Communication Design Group in Infosys Technologies Ltd. He has 17 years of experience with 8 years exclusively in designing. His other interests include Film making, writing and business leadership.
2. R. Muthukumar, an UX Architect in Sun Microsystems has spent 8 years as a usability practitioner. Muthukumar also likes to blog, participate in unconferences, and do yoga.
3. Parameswaran Venkataraman (Param) is the Founder-CEO of Onward Research + Consulting and has 10 years experience in usability. His special interests include Photography, Entrepreneurship and Blogging.
4. Amit Pande is Manager, User Experience at ORACLE. He spent 6 years as a usability practitioner with professional interests spanning the intersection of design-driven innovation, product development, education & learning and new disruptive business models. His personal interests include cultures, cognition, travel, music, non-fiction, and interacting with interesting people. He also occasionally writes at http://amitpande.com.

What according to you is the biggest challenge for usability professionals in India?

Sridhar Marri:
Great user experiences are yet to emerge from India. The key to address this is to showcase the business value of usability and create a culture of innovation.

R. Muthukumar:
Usability practices not being integrated with SDLC owing to a lack of usability awareness in private and government sectors.

Parameswaran Venkataraman (Param):
Most usability professionals in India work on projects where the end-users are located elsewhere, in other parts of the world. To get a clear understanding of users’ needs it is important to be physically present at user locations to gather explicit and implicit cues of their needs to drive the ultimate user experience.

Amit Pande:
One of the biggest challenges for UX professionals in India is creating a consistent, visible and strong identity for themselves as a unified professional group. The absence of a strong identity has caused several different perceptions and understandings to emerge in industry on what role UX professionals play and what value they add to business. Unlike professionals with MBA, Engineering or Accountancy backgrounds, designers do not have a fair say in their role definition, their compensations, or their career growth paths.
Most UX professionals in India are not privy to key management and product decisions and as a result, many choose to do job-hopping while others choose to leave the profession altogether.

How have you addressed this challenge in your area of work?

Sridhar Marri:
We at Infosys have set up an Innovation Lab to address this concern. The Lab exclusively focuses on innovative and emerging technology and business solutions.

R. Muthukumar:

* Persistently evangelized usability both within the organization (to Management, Engineering & Marketing teams and specifically to all new employees) and outside the organization, through periodic presentations.
* Involved usability professionals during the early stages of SDLC , so that “Quality gets “built-in” instead of being “Tested-in”
* Adopted “Predictive Design” methodology based on prior experience and design patterns
* Practiced ‘Participatory Design methodology’ by involving Stakeholders, Users, Developers and Management in the design process
* Improved Web Development and related technical skills to establish a collaborative rapport with the Engineering teams to smoothly conduct “UI Assurance” and achieve “Ease of Development” as a goal

Param:
Traveled to the geographies where the users are, worked with counterparts in those geographies to define users’ needs.

Amit Pande:
One of the ways I have addressed this challenge internally is to have an open management style and involve our UX professionals in key decisions. I have also looked out for or created projects in which UX professionals have to step up and solve fundamental business and consumer problems, not simply UI ones.

What is your favorite Indian website from a usability perspective? What aspect of it do you like?

Sridhar Marri:
I am yet to see a great Indian website on the Internet. However in the Intranet space, our Sparsh – the Infosys Intranet is my favorite. Its telescopic information architecture and flexible design for growth are two aspects that I like most. And it is full of life!

R. Muthukumar:
http://www.cleartrip.com/
I like it because the overall ticketing process is easy to use, defect free and fast.

Param:
www.cleartrip.com
It is not cluttered. The user interface is simple. Implementation is slick and consistent (like immediate page refreshes, etc.).

Amit Pande:
The last one I liked was http://www.cleartrip.com – it made bookings easier by providing a lot of relevant information upfront, making trip price calculations easy, and keeping the credit card payment process straightforward. I also like some of the UI components used in the site, including the collapsible panes.

How has the usability landscape changed in India over the past few years?

Sridhar Marri:
From the time we began our journey as the first generation usability professionals, we have seen the field rise from being just another cosmetic feature to an important driver in software development. Today, maturity levels of clients, software organizations, users, designers and technologists have risen dramatically. In the first phase of evolution, we have had to resort to guerrilla techniques, under-the-radar methods, and several entrepreneurial approaches to make usability a respected and much sought-after profession today. Now the time has come to build on this foundation to make India a source for leading edge user experience strategies.

R. Muthukumar:
Over the past few years, usability practices are more established in private product-companies than in service companies. Usability representation is seen in top management through formation of Usability SBUs. Usability professionals are involved right from the early stages of SDLC, involved in user research etc., No marked improvements are seen in G2C (Government to Citizens) applications.

Param:
There are 3 main changes.

Firstly, the kind of skills applied and requested for are specialized like information architects, visual designers, etc. Previously usability was a one-man team with the designer applying all the skills.

Secondly, with the introduction of blogs knowledge sharing has become easier for the regular practitioner thus raising the bar for learning and applying immediately.

Lastly, career growth was limited to a managerial role a few years back now practitioners have the opportunity to be individual contributors and still grow.

Amit Pande:
The usability market in India has slowly but irreversibly changed in the past several years. The ecosystem continues to evolve into several layers and niches –a sign of a maturing market. While the multinational companies (Infosys, SAP, Yahoo, Oracle, Cap Gemini, Accenture) make up a large part of the ecosystem, several smaller global companies (such as SupportSoft or ThoughtWorks or Yodlee) and Indian consumer web companies (such as Minglebox, Naukri.com or guruji.com) have increased their UX footprint so increase the overall ecosystem. Adding to this the presence of user and design research companies (such as www.designforuse.net or www.onwardresearch.com or www.cks.in) and the scattered groups of freelancers and UX consultants has increased the usability ecosystem significantly to make it one of the larger ones in Asia.

At another level, there are many more C-level executives and product development owners who are now aware of the critical role of User Experience and Usability and are willing to invest in UX staff and UX infrastructure. This has meant more budgetary and corporate support for UX hiring, UX customer initiatives, and investments in training and coaching of product development stakeholders on how to work with UX groups.

At a third level, the Indian consumer has certainly become more vocal and demanding about the quality and usability of their experiences – whether in retail, telecom, banking or software – and the emergence of a more usability-focused Indian consumer means that India based product and service organizations (including and outside of software) will have to make significant investments to make their offerings usable. Indian consumers are not willing to put up with anything less than the best.

Overall, usability in India has certainly found its early voice and is now slowly trying to figure out what to do with it and how to carve a unique professional identity for itself.

What emerging trends do you foresee for usability in India?

Sridhar Marri:
Usability will become a stronger business value driver. We will be required to benchmark our user experiences globally. We will have to demystify and de-skill the profession and adopt a metrics driven approach.

R. Muthukumar:
Usability in India will get to be more mainstream. Loads of educational institutions will start offering exclusive programs on usability. The ratio of usability professionals in organizations will steadily increase.
We will continue to play catch-up with western countries, in G2C applications. Collaborative effort between private sectors and govt. could improve usability of G2C applications.

Param:
More individual contributors will play key roles in the organization. Usability practitioners will be accepted and aligned within the overall organization structure with direct accountability to senior management, emphasizing the impact of the user in the overall lifecycle.
The bar will continue to rise, in terms of the kind of skills & expertise in this field, both via formal & informal education. Clients will expect practitioners to have greater technical skills in this area.

Amit Pande:
I see more peer to peer usability focused organizations and working groups emerge from within the UX community. While formal organizations such as the ACM SIGCHI have done significant work to expand the awareness of usability and provide discussion and learning spaces for the UX community, they have not moved or grown (yet) as fast as the community has. As a result, there is a clear opportunity for doing peer to peer events, un-conferences, and online networking and learning (through blogs and Wikis).

Another trend I see is the consolidation of design, UX, user research, usability and other professional areas (such as Architecture, or Print Design) – and the creation of forums and discussion spaces where professionals from these highly related disciplines can learn from each other.

A third trend I see is the emergence of usability and UX knowledge relevant to the Indian consumer market, using research and field methods that are both indigenous to India and also adapted from the West, where this field began.

I also see a lot more cross flow among the roles of Product Management, Product Strategy, Marketing, User Experience – where people skilled in one or more of these roles grow in their organizations and bring forth ‘design thinking’ to the decision making process.

Usability/ Interaction Design jobs at Google Bangalore

2007-04-11T11:12:00.000+05:30

Google Bangalore is looking at Interaction Designers with atleast 3 years experience.
Interested designers can mail their resumes to jobs-bangalore@google.com with " Interaction Designer" as the subject.javascript:void(0)
Publish

CHI Bangalore Mar 07 Event

2007-03-29T17:24:00.000+05:30

Joseph Kaye (Jofish)from Cornell University and Dr. Eric Schaffer , CEO, Human Factors International spoke at the CHI Bangalore March 2007 event held at St.Marks hotel.

About 30-35 usability folks landed-up, not to mention all those familiar faces like Sarit, Auro, Ankur, Suresh, Naz, Yatin, Navneet etc.

As usual, Eric's presentation was cool, full of theatrics and humour. He talked about PET scan ( Persuasion, Emotion and Trust scan) which supposedly provides deep insight into the users decision-making processes to create positive relationships with consumers and impact conversion.

Jofish talked about experience-focused HCI rather than task-focused.

Design Dinner with Bill Buxton in Bangalore

2007-01-26T09:48:00.000+05:30

Met up with Bill Buxton and loadsa cool design folks from Bangalore last nite at Cosmo Village.

Bill works as a Principal Researcher at Microsoft and is almost done with his design book called "Sketching the User Experience"

It was yet another interesting evening in Bangalore, filled with great mujik, conversations, food and drink. Caught up with the usual suspects likeAmit from Oracle, Param from GE, Parag from Honeywell, Navneet from Google and Archana, Indrani from Microsoft, Auro and Mukta from SAP, Varshesh from Infy and others. And it was a pleasure talking to Dr. Ghosal (Director, Research Wing, NID Blore).

Meet-up post Easy 7 in Bangalore

2007-01-09T20:00:00.000+05:30

It was nice meeting-up Nishant Jain, David, Amit Pande, Paran, Surya Vanka, Bill Scott, Suresh, Geeta and others last week. However, I didnt attend Easy 7. Will post pictures soon. Bill Scott's preso on Ajax can be accessed here.

Easy 7 Conference in Bangalore

2007-01-03T17:20:00.000+05:30

CHI South India is organizing their annual Easy 7 conference in Bangalore on Jan 5th Fri at The Leela Hotel.

As for me, I am more into organizing and participating in "unconferences" :)
More on Easy 7

Usability Jobs in Chennai with Hurix

2006-12-28T16:11:00.000+05:30

Hurix Systems Pvt. Ltd is looking at hiring a Usability Architect .

This position involves travel and will be based out of Chennai.

Interested candidates can mail their resumes to krishnaprathab.rv at hurix [dot] com

PURPOSE:

The Usability Architect will apply user-centered research and design skills to organize information in ways that are meaningful and useful to end-users of the system. The Usability Architect owns the creation of the “blue prints” for user interface designs for existing and new product/services concepts. Duties include managing the process of developing information architecture from research and conceptual design to planning and production for assigned site areas. The Usability Architect will also conduct usability tests through the pre-testing, testing, and analysis phase.

ESSENTIAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Understand target audiences’ needs and other motivating factors and translate them into concepts for compelling interactions and experiences.

Develop a usability offering for pretest guidelines, conducting the tests, and performing the final analysis in order to feed a report back for product improvements and enhancements.

Develop and document detailed information architectures, taxonomies and interaction designs for highly interactive interfaces and web based applications to support marketing strategy, brand strategy, and desired user behaviors.

Create and maintain process flows, site maps, navigation systems, user personas, screen prototypes, and conceptual models to clarify and refine new product solutions.

Ability to produce and maintain highly accurate wireframe documentation and other specification required to implement design and interface concepts.

Collaboratively develop and maintain scenarios, navigation models, interaction designs and prototypes for demonstration of concepts to clients.

Develop and maintain user interface standards across all of HPI systems.

Lead and/or participate in immersive user research, concept testing, and usability testing.

Ability to research and prioritize user requirements and functional requirements.

Work collaboratively with Product Management and IT to define scope.

Conduct and participate in concept generation activities including the development of: user profiles, user scenarios, organizational models, task models, and feature lists.

Visually communicate product/service innovations and improvements to Product Management and Development teams.

Work closely with interaction designers and developers to implement the look and feel of systems

Collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data to make design recommendations based on test results, usability standards and best practices.

Act as user advocate throughout user experience design process.

OTHER REQUIRED ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Willingness to take risks, accept criticism and move on to the next idea.

Ability to understand the importance of flexibility and the balance of speed and quality.

Have excellent visualization skills with the ability to articulate concepts and ideas.

Possess strong orientation toward conceptual modeling with the ability to innovate on process tools and conventions.

Have knowledge and expertise in a variety of research methods.

Has the ability to work collaboratively on cross-functional teams.

Possess excellent communication skills.

.

RECOMMENDED KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

Bachelor’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, information design, industrial design, or related area

5+ years experience developing interactive products

2-3 years experience as an information architect, interaction designer, or experience designer.

2+ years experience working with Morae software package for usability testing.

Demonstrated expertise in consumer facing software application interfaces and/or interactive applications – must include creating transaction-oriented interfaces.

Demonstrated ability to work with templates and content management systems, document designs in scenarios, workflows, site architectures, and page template/wireframe formats, use case and functional requirements development preferred.

Experience leading and/or observing user research and usability testing and translating results into design decisions.

An outstanding portfolio of detailed page schematics, functional specifications, interaction flows, site maps, navigation systems, and wireframes

Experience in client services and negotiating business and technical decisions

Excellent oral, written communication, and presentation skills

Past Interactive Design/Graphic Design experience in a studio or agency a plus

Honeywell Bangalore is hiring Usability Engineers

2006-12-15T12:28:00.000+05:30

Interested candidates should forward their resume to rahul.arora [at] honeywell.com

Honeywell Technology Solutions Labs is the regional engineering and technology center of excellence, providing value to Honeywell's businesses through world-class software product development and support, research and technology development, digital works and consultation. The lab is rapidly expanding to include hardware engineering including mechanical and electronics engineering analysis and product design.

The User Centered Design Team at Honeywell Bangalore is responsible to support product groups and development teams to conceptualize the product offerings. This team also work towards improving the user experience of existing product portfolio.

We are looking for 'Practitioner' level resources for User Centered Design Team in Bangalore

Education: Formal Training / Education in Human-Computer Interaction
Design, Visual Communication, New Media Design

Experience: 2 to 5 years, preferably in a software product based
environment (Web, Client Server, Smart Clients, Mobile)

Core Skills & Responsibility:
1. Must have demonstrated skills in User Research, Scenario Building, Concept Generation, Prototyping, Heuristic Analysis, Usability Testing etc
2. Create task flow diagrams, define navigation and interaction pattern, Create UI prototype, storyboards and guidelines for UI development
3. Manage the user experience and interface design effort, including the visual design
4. Inclination to understand and solve complex technical issues pertaining to human computer interaction
5. Obtain stakeholder buy-in for the proposed designs and mentoring of internal teams on usability and user centered design
6. Conduct quality evaluations to ensure the user experience vision, design and standards are being fulfilled in the applications
7. Must be proficient in leading/facilitating in requirement gathering and design sessions.

Other skills:
1. Creative and Proactive
2. Excellent Visualization Skills
3. Excellent Communication Skills: Should have the ability to talk and discuss with internal and overseas partners directly.
4. Expertise in software like Flash, Photoshop and good understanding of prototyping tools

Interested candidates should forward their resume to rahul.arora [at] honeywell.com

World Usability Day in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad

2006-11-13T12:56:00.000+05:30

Looks like this is THAT TIME OF THE YEAR, when one gets to mingle and share ideas with the rest of the techies, designers and the suits. Here are a list of events that could turn-on your brains.

World Usability Day, 2006 falls on 14th Nov this year!

The BANGALORE event will be hosted by Oracle.

Venue: Oracle India, Oracle Technology Park, #3, Bannerghata Road, (Near Dairy Circle), Bangalore, KA - 560 02
Time : 4pm - 8pm onwards.

World Usability Day in CHENNAI will be hosted by Satyam Computers.

Venue : Chennai Tidel Park Auditorium, No. 4, Canal Bank Road, Taramani, Chennai 600 113.
Time : 4 - 8 pm. Also check-out2005 World Usability Day celebrations in Chennai,

The HYDERABAD event will be organized by www.UsabilityMatters.org

Here are other interesting events.

Global Voices Summit in Delhi '06

BarCamp Bangalore is all set to rock this year! Its scheduled to be held on Dec 2nd and 3rd. Checkout last year's event.

Free & Open Source Software : FOSS.in 2006 is happening in Bangalore from November 24th to 26th
Venue : National Science Symposium Center, IISc, Bangalore.
Sun Microsystems is planning to showcase OpenSolaris, Glassfish, Derby, Netbeans, OpenOffice, Grid Engine, BeleniX and Portal.

Usability & Interaction Designer jobs at Oracle Bangalore

2006-07-05T13:23:00.000+05:30

Oracle Application User Experience group in Bangalore is hiring...

Senior Interaction Designers : 3-5 years interaction design experience + Bachelor's or Masters in Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Human-Computer Interaction

Usability Engineers : 1-3 years usability experience + Masters or Ph.D. in Human Factors, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Ethnography or Psychology with specialization in HCI, statistical methods and experimental design.

Detailed job description, specific job responsibilities, eligibility criteria are given below.

Interested candidates can mail their resumes and portfolios to: Amit.Pande@Oracle.com

1 : Senior Interaction Designer, Oracle Apps User Experience, Bangalore

The Senior Interaction Designer will be responsible for all aspects of product design. This position will take a design leadership role in making Oracle’s enterprise application products the best possible for the Oracle end user community, in coordination with other Usability, Product Strategy, and Development stakeholders.

Successful candidates will implement the User Centered Design process across the product development lifecycle, while instilling it in Development and Strategy processes, to deliver world class enterprise product releases. This position is based out of Oracle’s Whitefield facility in Bangalore, India and involves close collaboration with Oracle’s worldwide User Experience teams.

Specific job responsibilities

Drive the interaction design strategy and design delivery for key Oracle application products

Plan, prioritize, coordinate, and conduct all necessary UCD activities throughout the product’s lifecycle including needs analysis, task analysis, conceptual modeling, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic evaluations and other interaction design activities

Work closely with product managers to identify and clarify customer requirements developing rich and realistic user scenarios to support product definition and design

Design and specify the user interaction with the product using cooperative and iterative design techniques, including a reliance on usability engineering activities

Produce, communicate and iterate on storyboards, scenarios, wireframes, HTML prototypes, and user interface design specifications with development teams

Present and promote the results of user research, user interface designs, and usability evaluations to product management and development in a way that advances the user-centered design process in the company

Work within a multidisciplinary development team, championing customer interests, and contributing product interface designs during product definition, design, and development

Drive a consistent design direction, as well as resolving trade-offs between your design and implementation issues. Work closely with usability engineers to define front-end research and identify on-going usability efforts throughout the product development cycle. Additionally work closely with visual designers to achieve a world class product appearance.

Mentor junior staff members and design interns

Eligibility

Must have portfolio available for review

Three to five years of industry experience in interaction design for products that will be shipped. Design experience across the project lifecycle for several key products.

Bachelor’s or Master's degree in Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Product Design, Visual Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related discipline

Strong conceptual and analytical skills and demonstrated ability to prototype and design elegant UI solutions to user problems

Proven track record in applying user-centered design processes and methods to product development

Strong communication skills in working in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment

Strong written communication skills, proven ability to a consultative capacity, build rapport and forge strong working relationships

Extensive experience with both web and desktop technologies

Expertise in DHTML, XML, Director, Flash or interactive prototyping tools a plus

Experience in the interaction design of enterprise business applications (financials, human resources management, supply chain and/or customer relationship management) a plus

Experience in different software development methodologies and system architectures a plus

2 : Usability Engineer, Oracle Applications User Experience

The Usability Engineer will be responsible for all aspects of product usability. This position will take a leadership role in making Oracle’s enterprise application products the best possible, in coordination with other Interaction Design, Product Strategy, and Development stake-holders. Successful candidates will implement the User Centered Design process across the product development lifecycle, while instilling it in the Development and Strategy worlds, to deliver world class enterprise product releases. This position is based out of Oracle’s Whitefield facility in Bangalore and involves close collaboration with Oracle’s worldwide User Experience teams in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and India.

Specific job responsibilities

Work closely with stake-holders to outline overall usability research and test plans and coordinate usability efforts with the rest of the UE team. Identify and apply appropriate usability methods at different stages for different types of enterprise products

Conduct high level task and work-flow analyses, usability evaluations, prototype reviews, comparative product analyzes, cognitive walkthroughs, and overall user research

Prepare research materials for data collection, site visits, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and other contextual inquiry techniques

Contribute towards user requirements gathering for new product releases through scenarios and storyboards, user profiles and personas, use cases and other methods

Develop test plans and materials for formative (early stage) and summative (pre-release) usability testing. Recruit and coordinate with test participants, setup usability lab, and plan testing logistics for one or more application product domains. Conduct lab based and remote usability tests, analyze test data and deliver recommendations

Work with other usability engineers to log usability issues and usability metrics, conduct audio/video recordings and report on test findings

Work with practice manager and UE staff members on usability methods and processes, interface with lab administrative staff to run and maintain usability labs, maintain project reports and plan for key usability projects

Contribute to Oracle’s knowledge base of tools, methods, and best practices through new research on Usability, HCI and Design

Eligibility

1-3 years of usability and user experience activities in the enterprise software/web development industry. Successful application of usability engineering as part of key product launches

Masters or Ph.D. in Human Factors, Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Ethnography or Psychology with specialization in HCI, statistical methods and experimental design. Experienced candidates with equivalent experience and a Bachelors degrees should also apply

Experience in maintaining and using usability lab setups for data collection with test participants. Skilled in designing and implementing reliable and repeatable experiments

Experience in applying the User Centered Design process for end to end product development cycles

Familiarity with current usability and HCI research and methods, especially for web and enterprise software products. Familiarity with industry standards such as ISO, CIF, and Section 508 guidelines is a plus

Foundational coursework or relevant experience in different fieldwork methods, including ethnography, usability studies, focus groups, telephonic interviews, user surveys and related approaches, and in statistics and fundamental research techniques

Familiarity with basic prototyping tools is a plus

All candidates must have

Strong conceptual, creative, and analytical abilities

Ability to collaborate and drive design with multiple stakeholders in product teams

Hands on experience with web and desktop technologies

Passion for bringing the users’ perspective into the design of new technology products

Ability to effectively document, articulate and communicate usability value

Excellent oral, written communication and interpersonal skills

Proven ability to work with others in a consultative capacity, quickly build rapport and forge strong working relationships

Hands on experience with User Centered Design methods and practices

Good understanding of contemporary research literature in the usability field

Functional knowledge of enterprise software products, including CRM, Manufacturing, Financials or related areas is a plus

Applied knowledge of different development tools and system architectures is a plus

Application Process

Send your resumes and portfolios to: Amit.Pande@Oracle.com

Amit S. Pande

Manager | EnterpriseOne User Experience

Oracle India | Whitefield, Bangalore

Phone: +91-80-41835703

About Oracle Applications User Experience

The Applications User Experience group at Oracle is a centralized team that provides comprehensive interface design, usability engineering, and user interface research for Oracle’s enterprise applications. Team members have experience in a wide variety of disciplines, including cognitive psychology, graphic design, interaction design, usability engineering, and computer science with a specialization in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The group is spread across Redwood Shores and Pleasanton in California, Denver, Boston, Canada, Australia, the UK, and Bangalore and Hyderabad in India.

The group follows a user-centered design methodology that includes activities such as user research, heuristic evaluations, prototyping, competitive evaluations of products, and formal usability testing. In addition, we manage extensive laboratories for usability evaluations and research projects in areas such as information visualization, mobile computing, universal access, and distance learning. Advanced projects are also carried out in collaboration with university partner labs. These labs are located across US and international locations and are equipped with high end equipment to cater the needs of local and remote usability testing, collaborative design and user research.

Visit http://ui.us.oracle.com to more about the global Oracle Applications User Experience Group

About Oracle User Experience, Bangalore

Oracle has a User Experience practice in Bangalore that works closely with the Denver team, performing UCD activities to support the Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne product line and other Oracle application products.

More information on the Oracle EnterpriseOne mid-market product line.

Usability Jobs at Honeywell Bangalore

2006-06-08T16:58:00.001+05:30

Honeywell Labs is a great place to work!

Interested candidates should can e-mailtheir resumes to
rahul.arora at honeywell dot com

Honeywell Technology Solutions Labs is the regional engineering and
technology center of excellence, providing value to Honeywell's
businesses through world-class software product development and
support, research and technology development, digital works and
consultation. The lab is rapidly expanding to include hardware
engineering including mechanical and electronics engineering analysis
and product design. (http://www.honeywell.com)

The User Centered Design Team at Honeywell Bangalore is responsible to
support product groups and development teams to conceptualize the
product offerings. This team also work towards improving the user
experience of existing product portfolio.

We are looking for a 'Practitioner' level resources for User Centered
Design Team.

Number of Positions: 2

Location: Bangalore

Education: Formal Training / Education in Human-Computer Interaction
Design, Visual Communication, New Media Design

Experience: 2 to 5 years, preferably in a software product based
environment (Web, Client Server, Smart Clients, Mobile)

Core Skills & Responsibility:
1. Must have demonstrated skills in User Research, Scenario Building,
Concept Generation, Prototyping, Heuristic Analysis, Usability Testing
etc
2. Create task flow diagrams, define navigation and interaction pattern,
Create UI prototype, storyboards and guidelines for UI development
3. Manage the user experience and interface design effort, including the
visual design
4. Inclination to understand and solve complex technical issues
pertaining to human computer interaction
5. Obtain stakeholder buy-in for the proposed designs and mentoring of
internal teams on usability and user centered design
6. Conduct quality evaluations to ensure the user experience vision,
design and standards are being fulfilled in the applications
7. Work on multiple projects within the Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC) in a faced paced environment.

Other skills:
1. Creative and Proactive
2. Excellent Visualization Skills
3. Excellent Communication Skills: Should have the ability to talk and
discuss with internal and overseas partners directly.
4. Expertise in software like flash, Photoshop, CorelDraw and good
understanding of prototyping tools

Usabilty Jobs at Honeywell Bangalore

2006-06-08T16:58:00.000+05:30

Screenless Talking Phones for the Blind

2006-06-06T19:07:00.000+05:30

Talking Caller ID is one of the cool features of this Screenless Phone designed for the blind.

ACM SIGCHI Bangalore Chapter Meet

2006-05-25T20:42:00.000+05:30

The 3rd ACM SIGCHI Bangalore Chapter meet was hosted by Honeywell Labs, Bangalore. The meet was well attended ( about 100?) & organized by the UCD blokes. Great show guys :) It was fun meeting old colleagues, friends and some new faces too.

Durga Prasad (Chair SIGCHI) gave an intro about SIGCHI Bangalore Chapter .

Jeremy Ashley (Head User Experience Oracle) gave a cool talk about the User Experience activities at Oracle. Oracle will complete setting up their Usability Test Lab by 2007 in Bangalore and are HIRING experienced Usability Engineers and Interaction Designers.

Bhushan Patil (Yahoo India) talked about Web 2.0. Pallavi from SAP Labs talked about stuff like how to effectively network ( use personal contacts) to get access to SAP users in Bangalore and how to store and retrieve the gathered data. Some of the visuals used in this presentation were cool.

And then, Niteesh facilitated a design discussion on "How do we measure design".

Wholistically, the Bangalore CHI crowd is gettin bigger & mature. But, think its high time that we stop beating about the same bush, that too, too often. "User Centered Design" process and activities can evangelized to other teams. I am looking forward to better and different topics next time. Something in the lines of what the BayCHI folks are upto?

Incidentally, and for some shameless self promotion, i got a mention in ACM SIGCHI Interactions Magazine (March 2006) along with Amit Pande from Oracle, Amit Chaudhry from Microsoft etc.,

Usability jobs at Infosys Bangalore

2006-05-17T14:55:00.000+05:30

Infosys's SETLabs - an R&D setup is looking for experience UI/UX designers

What this group does is create a few tools (sort of like products), essentially for in-house and client consumption. The tools are aimed broadly at improving our delivery effectiveness across the SDLC stages. One challenge we have here is creating a better user experience and also improving its adoption within teams (by making it more relevant).

In this connection, we are looking for experienced designers, who also love technology to the extent that they can contribute to the architecture of the product/tool, be involved with the tool across its life cycle including perhaps training, or preparing training material, etc. Ofcourse, the designer is not expected to be a programmer or know how to write code. If he/she do have that ability, it is their advantage. The idea is for these individuals to embed themselves in the tools teams as an integral member and contribute to its design and development.

Interested designers can mail their resumes to muthuonline at (gmail)

Jobs : Training Head : User Experience Design Mangement in Chennai

2006-03-27T12:41:00.000+05:30

"A global player in software services wants a Training Head for its User Experience Management division. If selected you will report to the Group’s competency head. You need to have ten years of experience in various aspects of training." Download doc (25Kb) for more details - http://ouchmytoe.com/advertisements/Training_Head_Profile.doc

For further details about the position please contact jv.rajan@gmail.com
-----------------------

EXCELLENT LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY IN TRAINING

One of the leading global players in software services is looking for a Training Head for its User Experience Management division

POSITION: Training Head

Reporting Structure: Reporting to the group’s competency head

Job Description:

The User Experience Management group is amongst the largest such specialized competency practices in Asia-Pacific. With clients and business presence across several countries and regions, the group is looking for a suitable candidate to spearhead its global training initiatives. These initiatives include internal training as well as training as a service offering to clients.

The Training Head will:

Have expertise in various traditional as well as contemporary training methods and approaches
Be responsible for setting up the training division with a business unit approach
Design and implement training programmes and ensure smooth working of training as a function
Need to evolve a skill gaps and training needs matrix
Work out a training calendar
Be required to independently design, develop and implement various training programs through in-house and external resources
Maintain and develop a repository of training materials; and a network of resources and trainers
And… (profile can be increased if the candidate is interested in some specific job content)

Candidate Profile:
Around 10 years of experience in various aspects of training (preferably with formal qualification in training)
Experience in building and running successful training units
Self-motivated, ready to take challenges and work in an unstructured environment
Prior experience in the IT industry is desirable but not mandatory

Your candidature would be kept strictly confidential.

For further details about the position please contact jv.rajan@gmail.com

UI Designer Jobs in Bangalore

2006-03-20T13:37:00.000+05:30

Ojos (http://www.riya.com) is looking out at hiring UI Designers at Bangalore, India

4+yrs of experience, HTML, JavaScript, PhotoShop, Dreamweaver, CSS, etc.)

Interested candidates can mail their resumes with portfolio to vani @ wengerwatson.com

or call Vani at 99454 00830
Wenger & Watson Inc.

Here's more info about Riya

Riya photo search site open to public February

Service identifies and tags people and text in digital photos The service on the company's site http://www.riya.com is currently available only to a few users who are testing the service, Munjal Shah, chief executive officer and cofounder of Riya, told reporters in Bangalore Thursday.

Using face recognition and text recognition technology, the photo search service, also called
Riya, identifies people and text in digital photos and tags them accordingly, Shah said.
Google Image Search from Google (Profile, Products, Articles) searches images by looking for
text around the photo, while Riya's technology searches using information in the photo, Shah
added.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Users will have to download a software client from the Riya site to a computer running the
Windows operating system, and thereafter the software will index the images on the user's hard
disk, and upload it to Riya's servers, according to Azhar Khan, Riya's vice president for
engineering and a co-founder of the company.

Users then train the face recognition software on the site by identifying or tagging individuals in their photos. "The more examples of an individual that you provide the software, the higher the
accuracy when the software does auto-tagging," Khan said.

Photos uploaded to the free service for tagging can be made private or public, or selectively public, according to rules set by the user, Khan added.

Riya, a start-up in Redwood City, California, expects its revenue to come primarily from
contextual advertising on the site, Shah said. The technology for face recognition and text
recognition in photos developed by the company is also likely to be of interest for other
applications such as dating sites, and the company may consider licensing its technology to these
sites, he added.

Down the line technology will also be made available on http://www.riya.com for searching photos
on the web. "You will be able to do a similarity search by dropping a photo in the search bar,"
Shah said. However, the photos on the web are usually of a poor quality and resolution, and so
accuracy may not be very high, he added

The Rise of the Web Browser

2006-03-02T15:19:00.000+05:30

Web Browsers are slowly posing a serious threat to other Desktop applications! Features that were only possible on Desktop Applications are now, not only possible on Web Based Applications but also provide better User Experience. (Atleast in the Communications domain, says Prasant)

Gmail’s new Chat feature runs on the Browser & is integrated with Gmail contacts, address book etc. Users dont really have to launch a separate Desktop Application ( viz Yahoo Messenger) to Chat with friends. Great thinking there Google. Hope they’ve patented this innovation.

Yahoo Mail Beta seems to threaten the very existence of Microsoft Outlook. Thanks to their aquisition of Oddpost. While the Calendar intergration is yet to happen on Yahoo, think its just around the corner.

New Features in Yahoo Mail Beta

- MDI : Multiple Document Interface (Tabs)
- Table row item data is fetched only when the particular set of rows gets visibility.
This reduces the data load on the server but increases the no or requests on the AJAX engine
- On Mail Select, Yahoo Mail usese panes to display the entire mail content.
This is currently not possible on Gmail. Gmail only displays the first few words of the mail
- Contextual Display of System Status
- Reduced Latency
- Table Header Sorting without Page Refresh
- Back button takes you back to the previous tab :
- Right Click Menus
- Drag n Drop and so on and so forth

Suggestions for Improvement

- Consider introducing UNDO/REDO. May be in multiples
- Auto Save
- Right Click on an attachement to “Print” and E-mail (?)

- On Mouse Over URLs can display site preview
- On Mouse Over, date & time can display current appointments and also display a link to add new appointment

Microsoft Office Tools are their Cash Cows!
But for how long? Will there be a solid web-based alternative to Office Tools? May be these tools could be integrated with Internet Explorer.

Google Earth > "You are here"

2006-01-05T10:56:00.000+05:30

Earth: One observes a “You are here” text along with a red colored arrow/pin, indicating the location of a visitor on Maps at entrances, in Zoos, Campuses, Software Technology Parks, etc.,

Google Earth: The landing page of Google Earth can similarly indicate the current physical location of the User, based on his IP address, instead of merely displaying NA map.

Usability

UI Designer / Usability Engineer Jobs

2005-12-22T10:13:00.000+05:30

Usability Engineer/Architect opening at Ilinois

The UI Designer will be working within the Protection Architecture Group on the Next-Gen Release 2.0. This project is a large claims restructuring initiative. They are looking for a Usability expert with experience doing user tests, user studies, and UI inspections. This person will be attending project reviews. In addition, he/she should have experience developing and documenting Visual Style Guides.

Crucial: Must understand Usability processes and be able to identify user challenges and implement enhancements.

Usability Architect

* Design Paper Prototypes.
* Synchronized design matching User Interface Standards
* Interact with clients to incorporate the changes & update requests.
* Designed interface and navigational system for intranet application
* Coordinated client prototype change requests & incorporated changes into prototype
* Conduct "Usability Testing" with the real users of the system.
* Created Usability Test Results, Feedback

* Conduct Heuristic review
* Prepare User Specification Documents

Usability resumes and UI Design portfolios can be e-mailed to :

Erin Levin
Professional Recruiter
Direct: 847-632-9239
Cell: 630-272-7225
Toll Free: 888-891-8454
elevin [at] teksystems dot com

Office Hours: Monday - Thursday 8am - 3pm
Accessible Friday via Cell Phone and email

TEKsystems, Inc.
3501 Algonquin Rd. Suite 200
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Usability Jobs Resumes

CHI Bangalore Meet at SAP Labs

2005-12-07T14:08:00.000+05:30

A talk by Mr Daniel Rosenberg, Senior Vice President User Experience, SAP AG.

Time : 1730 - 1900
Venue : SAP Labs Campus, 138 EPIP, Whitefield, Bangalore 560066

Speaker Bio : Dan Rosenberg, Senior vice president, User Experience, Product and Technology Group. Responsible for the user experience in all SAP products
Before joining SAP, Daniel Rosenberg help similar position at Oracle. He personally led the transformation of Oracle user interfaces first into the GUI world and then through two generations of Internet-hosted releases.
Before joining Oracle he held the user interface architect positions at Borland International and Ashton-Tate.

Mr. Rosenberg’s book, Human Factors in Product Design (Elsevier, 1991), co-authored with William Cushman, was the first book published to formally address the ergonomics of consumer products.
His many publications include chapters in the Handbook of Human Computer Interaction (Elsevier, 1988),Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency with Jakob Nielsen (Academic Press, 1989), and Usability in Practice (Academic Press, 1994), as well as numerous journal and magazine articles.

Rosenberg served as one of the founding editors of ACM’s NetWorker magazine along with Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman.

Posted in in Bangalore!, User Centered Design

World Usability Day in Chennai

2005-11-09T21:28:00.000+05:30

Update : Well, the turn-out exceeded expectations! There were
72 usability enthusiasts. One of the main highlights of the evening was the presentation
made by Shivaram ( a visually challenged Professor) who beautifully voiced out
his accessibility requirements. A quiz competition was organized by the Satyam
blokes too. The man behind the event was Rajesh, without his efforts, this event
would not have been possible. Moving forward, a Chennai Usability e-group is already
formed. Plans include offline monthly meetings. As for me, am shuttling between
the cities.
World Usability Day – 2005 "Making it easy"Chennai - India •
Mini conference inviting different type of business• Highlighting the importance
of usability• Learn the overview of methodology, process & testing• Sharing experiences
on usability & accessibility.• Usability in day-to-day living• Usability across
other areas• Usability Case study• Dinner Speakers:• Muthukumar, Honeywell• Sumankumar,
Dell• Arvind Ramakrishnan, Pershing Sponsors: Inautix

Event Timing: 5:00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.
Venue:Anna University,Hall of Guines 68Department of Manufacturing EngineeringSardar Vallabhai Patel RoadChennai 600 025,India

Chennai URL: http://www.worldusabilityday.org/taxonomy/term/82
WUD URL: http://www.worldusabilityday.org

Bangalore ACM SIGCHI Launch at SAP Labs

2005-10-24T19:08:00.000+05:30

Event DetailsDate: 25th October 2005
Venue: SAP Labs Campus, Whitefield
Time: 5:00 - 7:30 pm

ACM SIGCHI, the ACM’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction, brings together people working on the design, evaluation, implementation, and study of interactive computing systems for human use. ACM SIGCHI provides an international, interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas about the field of human-computer interaction (HCI).

5:00 - 5:45 pm
Rapid Prototyping and Demo of Prototyping Tools
By Jonathan Arnowitz

Prior work: Arnowitz Studios (Award-winning Interactive Multimedia), Informaat (leading HCI Consultancy in the Netherlands), Cambridge Technology Partners - Benelux, PeopleSoft
Achievements: Co-Editor-In-Chief of Interactions Magazine, Founder DUX Conference andConference Chair 2003, Design Expo Chair CHI2001-2005, Member ACM/SIGCHI Executive Committee 2000 to Present, Organizer of CHI2000 Dutch Design Day, Inventor of Task Layer Maps, Guest Lecturer for the Hogeschool voor Kunst Utrecht (HKU) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, numerous HCI publications and presentations, including co-author of an upcoming book from Morgan-Kaufmann.

6:00-6:45 pm
Moving from a engineering centered to a user centered organization
Michael Arent

Prior work: PeopleSoft, Adobe Systems, MetaDesign, Sun Microsystems, Pacific Telesis/Tele-TV, Apple Computer
Education: Design - U. of Cincinnati (BSc) and Schule für Gestaltung Basel (post-graduate)
Achievements: five patents, contributor to three books, numerous lectures/presentations

7:00 - 7:30 pm
Q & A
High tea
Seek volunteers
Plan next steps

World Usability Day celebration at Chennai

2005-10-23T12:06:00.000+05:30

A great oppportunity for Usability Engineers & UI Designers in Chennai to link up.

Rajesh from ( Satyam Computers, Chennai) and me along with volunteers like Ravi are co-ordinating World Usability Day: WUD activities to be held in Chennai on Nov 3rd.Venue : To be announced soon.

I will be making a short presentation (topic not finalized as yet). Suman from Dell will there to add value.

Students, Developers, UI Designers, Tech Writers, Business Analysts from leading IT companies like Infosys, Satyam Computers, Cognizant CTS, Wipro, TCS, Ramco, Sify, Element K, DSM, Inautix, Polaris, Honeywell, Accenture, Office Tiger, Lion Bridge, Dell are expected to participate.

So, mark your calendars and to participate or to know more
Visit Chennai World Usability Day Blog
Call Rajesh at 98840 69320
Mail Rajesh at rajesh.anandakrishnan[@]gmail.com

Watch out for a special Podcast too!and listen to people say ” Happy Usability Day! … ; )

Contextual Enquiry / User Observation

2005-10-20T14:53:00.000+05:30

Just got back from an enriching 'Site Visit'. This plant in Mangalore falls under the Automation & Control Systems domain.

I was lucky to be given an opportunity to observe users (Operators) contextually, in one of the biggest plants in India. Its an awesome experience getting inputs directly from the Horse's mouth and observing Users at their workstation. Also met some SMEs (Subject Matter Experts- guess we will have to live with these jargons). I also experimented with my User-interviewing skills. Did manage to PROBE too.

These Operators use software tools (touch screen interfaces) to monitor and control plant operations 24/7. At any point of time, any hiccup in the plant's operations can result in the loss of crores of rupees. Now, imagine doing a software migration in this scenario! : ) The flip side of this kinda Contextual Enquiry is that the User's get distracted by getting calls etc.,

Digital Petrol Level Indicator in all Indian cars?

2005-09-27T14:50:00.000+05:30

User Need: Users have a clear need to KNOW if petrol bunks are pumping the right amount of petrol into one's car/ 2 wheeler/ bus/van/whateva

So instead of an analog level indicator, a precise digital level indicator would be most welcome. While this feature is available in most of the cars in certain countries and in some top line cars in India, think it would of great use if it’s available in all the cars in India.

Am not sure how much additional money it’s going to cost, but think it’s surely a “nice to have” feature. Additionally, it can also predict the distance one can do, given the current speed or an average speed of 40Kms/hour. Is Ford/Hyundai / Maruti listening?

Category : Voice of the User

HFI's Usability Workshop in Bangalore

2005-07-25T10:41:00.000+05:30

I happened to attend Human Factors International’s > User-Centered Analysis and Conceptual Design Course <>

The seminar covered the following topics

Creating a design strategy
Creating user and environmental profiles
Data gathering techniques such as:
User Interviews
User observation
Surveys
Questionnaires
Scenarios and task analysis
Information architecture

Think its an excellent course for BEGINNERS who are keen on understanding HCI basics. The course material is well organized, easy to learn and looks professional. Amit Sathe, the trainer, holds a Masters with HCI specialization from Clemson.edu. The last time it was Sarit Arora.

Met lotsa aspiring Usability Engineers, User Interface Designers, CUAs ( Certified Usability Analysts!) from HCL Chennai, Wipro Bangalore, HP Bangalore, Oracle Bangalore, Iflexsolutions, Polaris, Kenexa, Mcafee Bangalore, Prism Networks etc.,

And the other great thing about HFI training programs is that they serve some really awesome JUICE Promise to upload the group snap by the weekend.

Question : How does the HCI industry perceive certifications?Yawn… Can you cut through the flab?

Usability Defects in Windows XP Movie Maker

2005-06-21T12:19:00.000+05:30

I was watching and analyzing the video of a Usability Lab Test. My goal was to select certain "user comments" and use 'em for a test report. Since we were testing a Hand Held / Wall Mounted Touch Screen Application, we couldn’t use our traditional screen capturing software.
While using Windows XP Movie Maker, i ended up making some errors owing to inappropriate placement of buttons. My task was to Mark-In and Mark-Out certain parts of the Video. The way i go about doing it is to begin by playing the video and as n when i identify a certain comment, i pause, go a few frames back and then Mark-In. Then i start playing it again and then pause and Mark-Out. I usually Mark-In / Out some extra frames and then finally chop off the unwanted frames.
Button Placement:Stop and Pause are placed right adjacent to each other. “Stop" button takes one back to the first frame and the “Pause" button just pauses the movie. Instead of hitting the “Pause” button, I hit the”Stop” button and consequently I had to re-do my task right from the scratch. Since my focus is on the Video and Audio, its difficult for me to keep shifting my attention between the Video and the UI controls and also move the Mouse to hit the right control.

The same thing holds good for the “Next Frame” button and “Last Frame” Button”, and “Previous Frame” and “First Frame” buttons.
“Error Prevention” and “Ease of Error Recovery” weren’t built in to the User Interface.
Now, if you were asked to re-design the controls of windows xp movie maker, how will you go about doing it? Also, how will you set the keyboard short cuts for the same? ; ) Hope Microsoft will fix these Usability defects soon.

User Interface Designer Jobs in Chennai

2005-06-08T17:28:00.000+05:30

One of the largest diversified BPO Solutions Providers is looking at hiring talented Interface Designers & Production Artists. The placement will be in Chennai.

Interface Designers : Proven talent. Path-breaking interactive and web-based design and development work. Strong on ideating, as well as execution. Expert with Macromedia Flash and Director, as well as HTML web development. Capable of creating award-winning websites, interactives, webzines and web-banners.

Production Artists : Proven skills in layout and artworking. Thorough knowledge of photo-retouching, print pre-production, colour separation and related print-design issues. HTML knowledge and web-layout skills would be a distinct advantage.
Interested Designers ( with design/art education) with 2-3 years industry experience can mail their resumes to me. Remuneration : Commensurate with experience and talent, best in category!

Stylus & Finger operated Touch Screen Interfaces

2005-05-26T17:52:00.000+05:30

The touch screen interface is operated with either a Stylus or a Finger.It has a transparent touch sensitive panel just in front of the screen. The “touch” is recognized by a change in electrical voltage. Infra red is also used in certain devices to detect the “touch”

The interaction is very direct and easy to learn, unlike a mouse where the User is forced to learn to co-ordinate his hand movements with that of the cursor movement on the interface. Touch screen interfaces are best suited for information retrieval purposes.They also save costs (hardware, hardware upgrade costs etc,.Touch screens can be used in scenarios when “space” becomes a constraint. (No need to cables, keyboards etc.) They are used in Pocket PCS, Handhelds, PDAs, Smart & Mobile Phones, Interactive Kiosks, Car GPS systems, LCD Plasma Panels etc.,Handwriting recognition is also possible. "Tree structure" is not recommended to display complex hierarchies.
Touch screen interfaces have their own limitations in terms of button size & touch precision. This is a lot more pronounced Finger based interaction than Stylus based interaction.
• The input speeds are much slower than two/multi-finger keyboard operation.
• The absence of hand rest/support system leads to fatigue and hence this interaction is not suitable for large volumes of data entry and high usage frequency.
• Keyboard entry is itself a “learnt” habit. Therefore, QWERTY keyboards are not recommended for touch screens which have the above mentioned limitations.
• Its best to use a keypad which had alphabets arranged alphabetically in 3 rows. (9x8x9 )
• These virtual numeric keypads need to resemble the “telephone” keypad. It’s a lot easier for the user. The numeral 1 is placed on the top left corner on a “telephone” keypad.
• A stylus works more like a mouse. (Single Click, Double Click, Click & Drag etc.,)
• Conventional Windows GUI elements will work well for Stylus operations. (Scroll bars, Double clicks, Click and Drag etc.,) See the interaction in Nokia 7710. However for Finger operations, its better to use “Push Buttons” for “Page Up” & Page Down” functions instead of scroll bars. Dragging is not recommended for Finger operations.
The touch screens can be either Wall mounted, Floor Standing, Handheld, Docked, or Framed.

Touch

IHCI 2004 Conference in Bangalore!

2004-12-04T13:33:00.000+05:30

IHCI 2004 Conference in Bangalore!
Update : I ''ll be attending the IHCI 2004 conference!

India Human Computer Interaction ( IHCI ) 2004!
Indo-European Systems Usability Partnership ( IESUP ) is organising the first All India Human Computer Interaction Conference on 6th & 7th December 2004Venue : Hotel Gateway, 66, Residency Road, Bangalore, India.
IHCI2004 will have a number of strands including:(i) Keynotes from US / European / Indian speakers- Andy Smith, Thames Valley University,- Liam Bannon, University of Limerick, Ireland etc.,(ii) Research papers(iii) Industrial case studies(iv) Institutional reviews
The conference will cover HCI in the Indian industry, Culture, context and society, Institutionalizing HCI, Global products, local development, Interaction design, User centred design, HCI in Education, HCI application areas.

Usability Enginner/UI Designer Jobs in Bangalore, India

2004-12-04T13:15:00.001+05:30

A US based Financial Consulting MNC is looking at hiring UI Designers in Bangalore.For more details mail your resumes, ucd portfolios to Manoj Sivaramanmanoj at corporalsindia dot comwww.corporalsindia.com

Usability Engineer/UI Designer Jobs in Bangalore, India

2004-12-04T13:15:00.000+05:30

Attention : Cognitive Psychology

2004-11-08T16:53:00.000+05:30

Given any situation, there are "n" no of sensory inputs (stimuli), which impacts the human mind. To handle such humongous amount of data, the human brain acts as a pattern-processing machine and starts to group them to reduce the load. It focuses on stimulus, which are important for the User. This is called “Selective Attention”
Example: If you were to look at Yahoo Mail interface...
...your attention will be primarily on the ‘first mail’ in the inbox slot. (Short Term Memory)
Next, your attention will be on “the left nav” containing the folders list etc., and the “top nav” containing buttons like delete, reply etc. You might not be able to exactly recall the links in the exact order, but then, you do remember some of it. (Long Term Memory)
You also don’t remember “730x90 banner” which is right on top and blinking at you.You only think about it when you see it. (Working Memory) and forget all about it soon.And the next time you log it, you mentally block it. This is the basic concept behind “ Banner Blindness”.
These huge blinking banners do what is called an “Attention Shift”Attention shift can be Positive and Negative. When a stimulus shifts the user’s attention from what is important to him, disharmony in interaction happens. This affects performance. No wonder Google’s text only banners are so cool! In case of alarm systems, both the visual and auditory stimuli shifts the user’s attention to what is REALLY important to him.

Cognitive Psychology - Basics

2004-10-14T11:29:00.000+05:30

Cognitive Psychology
- is study of attention, memory, language, perception and thinking in humans
- is the systematic study of human mind and how it processes information
- also deals with pattern recognition, imagery, nueroscience, intelligence etc.,

The human mind has 3 kinds of processors
- Sensorial/ Perceptual : Ears & Eyes : These store visual and auditory data.
- Motor : Fingers & Hands
- Cognitive :

There are basically 3 kinds of memories:
Sensory memory, Working memory (short term) and Long term memoryand there is an additional one called " Haptic" ( touch)

The human mind moves data from sensory memory to working memory and then to long term memory.

Usability, HCI Jobs in Bangalore, India.

2004-09-29T19:50:00.000+05:30

As PeopleSoft IDC, Covansys is building a Usability and User Experience Innovation lab in Whitefield, Bangalore. We are hiring Usability Engineers, Interaction Designers, User researchers, and professionals/researchers in Human Computer Interaction.

Mail your resumes to Apande@covansys.com
Amit S. Pande, Manager,
Usability Practice,
PeopleSoft India Development Center,
Covansys (India),
4th Floor, Diamond DistrictAirport Road,
Bangalore - 560017 INDIA

Bloggin Demerits & Information Cascading

2004-09-23T16:54:00.000+05:30

So you blog? You think blogs are "awesome"?
Blogs are interactive! Blogs help you make friends world over.Blogs help in faster information disseminiation & retrieval.Blogs facilitate open communication. Blogs can be effectively used as an "online advertising tool" targetting specific communities/audiences.
Well, i do agree that blogs are beneficial in certain ways. My 'usability blog' even helped me get a new job!
But then, there could be bugs.....
Here's an example.
A choice has to be collectively made on a blog where the "comments" are kept open.Couple of recommendations are made by 2 different members of the online community.The third person recommends his choice, PURELY based on the recommendation made by the first person. Similary the fourth person recommends the option chosen by the third.If this continues, then there could be a possibility where a majority of 'em will end up making the wrong choice!
The results might work differently in blogs, where the user comments are seen only by the blog owner.
So the next time you read a blog, dont believe all the you read!

Accessibility : Disability Types

2004-07-22T17:40:00.000+05:30

Disability types :
#1 Visual : Blind, color blind, poor vision
- Use audio books and e books- Know/ Dont know Braille - Use JAWS, a screen reader which reads web sites aloud.- Use windows screen magnifiers to read text- Increase font sizes on their browsers- Use keyborad shorcuts often
#2 Hearing : Deafness
- Need visual equivalent of audio - Like subtitles for videos, captions,- SMIL (Synchronized Media Integration Language) lets you sync audio, video with text.
#3 Motor : inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
#4 Others :
- Epileptic users must avoid seeing screen flickering between 2 and 55 Hz - Users who use only keyboard to naviagte- Learning / cognitive disability

Rich Internet Applications, RIAs!??!

2004-07-21T17:22:00.000+05:30

Rich Internet Applications, RIAs, are "in"., says Marcomedia.

Web Architecture has its limitations and cannot cope with the rising expectation of Users, Designer/ Develeoper freedom/ flexibility, partner needs etc.,

Apparently using HMTL pages & browsers to connect with the servers has limitations in terms of flexibility and functionality!!!???). If one were to study the history of UI design in the growth from Mainframes to Web Browsers, Macromedia claims that Web Browsers have taken a step backwards, when it comes to flexibility and functionality!!!

Desktop application features like "Drag & Drop", "Undo?" are not present in HTML browers.

With Rich Internet Applications, one can deliver application front-ends that combine desktop software functionality with the broad reach and low cost deployment of the web! And there-by enchance " User Experience"!!!! RIAs offer the best of web & desk top application functionalities( dran n drop, advanced audio, video, chat interactivity, and so on & so forth)

View some RIA Case Studies >>

Read More about what Macromedia has to say RIAs >>
Read more about what Jon has to say about User Mental Models of Persistence in RIAs

Designing User Interfaces for Mobile / Wireless Devices

2004-07-07T13:01:00.000+05:30

Wireless Device Characteristics :

- Small screen sizes
- Difficult input mechanisms
- Variety of devices/ microsbrowsers/platforms /service providers
- Less Boot up time

- Restricted power supply/ battery life
- Less Memory
- Less powerful CPU
- Less Bandwidth
- Unreliable Connection

WAP Environment :

- Uses Micro Browsers to submit & request requests.
- Micro Browser uses WML & WML script interpreters.

UX Goals :

- Easy Information retrival, not browsing
- Organize data for easy access ( Card Decks, Access Keys etc.,)
- Optimise application to suit specific device models

WML Capabilities :

- Supports text & images
- Events & Tasks : do, postfield, go, prev
- User Input : input, select, option
- Card Deck info organisation
- Variables : set, refresh, onevent
- Anchor

Read More
Designing Effective User Interfaces for Wireless Devices>

Google Vs Yahoo

2004-07-05T17:11:00.000+05:30

'Single Window' Registration :
Google doesnt have a "Single Window" registration system like Yahoo. This might become a big trap for Google in the long run. Users are expected to register individually for Orkut, G-Mail, Blogger & other google services.

Yahoo's key strength is its "Single Window Registration" and its perfect integration of all its services.

Banner Ads :
Google's 'text only' contextual keyword specific advertising sounds more "user-friendly"
than Yahoo's graphic heavy banners ads. Development costs are low with text only banner advts.

Storage Space :
Yahoo:
Yahoo Mail : 100 MB
Yahoo Briefcase : 30 MB
Yahoo Photos : Unlimited
Yahoo Geocities : 15 MB
Yahoo Groups : 20 MB
plus n number of free services

G-Mail:
While 1GB Mail storage sounds cool,
the user wont be wont be able to classify and share his/her photos, briefcase etc.,

Privacy :
Google scans an user's mail and places test only banners based on the keywords available on the mail. Yahoo doesnt scan user's mail.

Search :
While Google seems to have taken the leadership, Yahoo's search results can include info from its groups, meta data of its members etc., to which Google doenst have access to.

What needs to done :
Yahoo needs to build up Blogs and social networking tools and continue to integrate 'em all with its other services. Google NEEDS to intergrate all its services. May be use an LDAP?

To be continued >>

Heuristic Evaluation

2004-06-15T16:56:00.000+05:30

a group of experts independently scrutinize the interface and evaluate each element of the interface against a list of commonly accepted standards/ usability principles--heuristics
- heuristic evaluation is used when there isnt any access to users.
- can be used to evaluate prototypes/ mockups in the early stages of product design lifecycle

- 3 to 5 experts will be able to detect more than 75% of the problems
- different experts will find different problems
- its inexpensive

- its crucial to recruit properly trained & qualified experts
- this technique is subjective and might raise false alarms

phases:
- prevaluation training : domain knowlegge inputs and scenarios can be given to the experts
- evaluation is done independently and findings are compared
- severity of every problem is assigned. problems are prioritised
- the evaluation report is discussed with the ui team members.

Prototyping

2004-06-02T12:31:00.000+05:30

A ui designer must be able to tranform and visualise vague ideas, incomplete briefs, unclear business inputs into tangile prototypes & interfaces. Its the interface designer's duty to seek clarity on all such inputs.

As for me, I use Dreamweaver to design HTML prototypes.
Its easier to give a tangible form to followin using HTML prototypes.
- site structure
- navigation flow
- information architecture

This format can be easily understood and discussed by the tech, ui design and business teams. This is merely an execution tool and not to be used for creative problem solving or visualizing ideas.

Advantages of HTML prototypes.

- Its is interactive.
- Its easy to create and modify. It can be created in no time.
- Dummy real time results can be simulated without writing any backend code.
- Its tangible enough for the teams to discuss about it.

See an example prototype:

Looks what Cooper's gotta say on prototyping.
The Perils of Prototyping by Alan Cooper, Chairman & Founder, Aug/Sep 1994
Originally Published in Visual Basic Programmer's Journal

I 've been hearing a lotta about VB (Visual Basic) and have decided to try it out to evaluate its pros and cons.

Beginners, Intermediates & Experts!

2004-05-20T09:46:00.000+05:30

How should the interface/product/sw design' cater to the needs of beginners, intermediates & experts?

Beginners
While its inevitable that everyone begins as beginners, nobody wants to be a beginner for long. Beginners must quicky become intermediates, or else...

At the same time, if the interaction design is way too complex, it might just scare the beginner off. Therefore, the elements of "discoverability" and " learnability " must greet the beginner.

While detailed "online help" wont work for beginners, "Intuitive Dialog boxes" listing down the different kinds of basic tasks which an user might perform could greet the user, as soon as the software is launched.

Eg: Dreamweaver MX & 2004 throws up a window contain a set of links, which an user is most likely to click on

Beginners will be focussed on learning the basic concepts & scope of the product.

The design also needs to be in sync with the beginner's mental model.

Experts

If the interaction design is way too easy, experts will quicky get bored. Experts would skip steps, look for faster ways of getting tasks accomplished, look for a lotta keyboard short cuts etc...

In many cases, customers who make 'software purchase decisions' rely on an expert's opinion. So, its important to get an expert recommend your product.

Intermediates

Intermediates would look at learning and applying their learnings in different ways as possible. They would play around with the available features get see how fast they can get the job done.

Intermediates appreciate "Tool Tips " and reference materials .

While the learning curve is so steep for the beginners, its kind of stabilises for intermediates and dips for experts.

Intermediates quickly get a hang of the most important tasks, but very few of them graduate to the expert level. They are aware of other available features, but would take time to learn them

In terms of ratio - 20 : 60 : 20 can be assigned for Beginner, Intermediates and Experts.

Web designer jobs : Nagpur : Maharashtra : India

2004-03-12T17:58:00.000+05:30
Url :www.premiertechnologygroup.com | www.ez-data.com
Premier Technology Group Pvt. Ltd. India (PTG) provides eBusiness solutions for insurance and financial services companies. And they are hiring.

Interested web designers , rush in your resumes to "nazneen@premiertechnologygroup.com"

Nazneen Husain
Human Resource Manager
Premier Technology Group Pvt. Ltd.,
148, Thapar Enclave, Ramdaspeth,
Nagpur - 440010. M.S. India.

Voice: 91-712-2546179, 2546734
Fax: 91-712-2555820

www.premiertechnologygroup.com
www.ez-data.com

Title
Web Designer / Engineer

Job Description:

Looking for a web designer/engineer who can provide critical design, development and maintenance services to an organization for its external website and intranet portal.

The responsibilities of this position include:
Designing and constructing web pages/sites including incorporating graphic user interface (GUI) features and other techniques.
Maintaining and providing ongoing design services of various company organizational websites.
Consulting with clients and other project team members to design, build and manage web sites.
Developing, deploying and maintaining a content management solution for company websites (either purchased or in-house developed).
Designing, implementing, and maintaining security measures to support the information and data security needs of the company's Web presence.
Researching and evaluating new or improved web technologies and security measures.
Monitor site traffic and provide recommendations to scale site capacity to meet traffic performance & redundancy requirements.
Improve the organization’s efficiency and designs the look and feel for the site.

This position may require frequent overtime and occasional holiday work. The successful candidate must have demonstrated the ability to manage both people relationships and organizational business objectives. This position may require occasional travel to other locations

Job Requirements:
BE/BS degree in related discipline or commensurate experience
3 to 5+ years of experience in the field or related experience
Must be highly computer literate with the ability to learn new technologies quickly
Must have the ability to plan, design, implement and support complex, redundant, geographically dispersed web server systems and work effectively with clients and other technical staff
Must be able to coordinate multiple complex service and installation projects as well as provide support to ongoing operations
Ability to be on-call to respond to production system emergencies
Creative problem solving abilities
Ability to work independently
May negotiate contracts/agreements with software vendors and other Internet companies.
A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected.
MUST be able to work in an interrupt-driven environment

Additional Desirable Qualities:
Experience with web monitoring and diagnostic tools and practices
Experience with multiple content management solutions
Experience with Windows Media Services
Experience with Windows 2003 Server, Web Edition, and IIS
Experience troubleshooting/operating complex hardware and software environments using a combination of industry standard methodologies, tenacity, logic and common sense.
Ability to train and mentor junior level staff
Industry certifications

Technology Requirements
Strong experience with and knowledge of a variety of concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field ( SQL, HTML, CGI, JavaScript, JAVA, PHP, ASP, and LOTUS)
Current state of and trends in website design, development, security and content management technology
Experience with Microsoft Web server configuration, deployment and maintenance
Demonstrated knowledge of and experience with development and operations of Web technologies in a Microsoft environment.

Jobs in Chennai, India : Wanted Web Designers

2004-03-05T10:55:00.000+05:30
Arcan Infotech is looking for Web Graphic designers at Chennai office,
who will be responsible in assisting our branches requirements from India.
Company having a base at Saudi, Kuwait, Dubai, Baharin, Lebanon &
India(Chennai)
Web/ graphic designer - Job description
-Designs the commercial brochures (profile, news bulletin, etc.) of the
company.
-Designs the web page(s) of the company
-Designs work forms in general as required
-Designs logos, gobos, labels, decorations, etc. as required on uniforms,
helmets, etc.
-Participates in the presentations for pre-qualifying, bidding, reporting,
etc.
-Continuously develops and enhances the existing commercial brochures of the
company.
-Follows-up sites since early stages to get photos
-Builds-up and upgrades the photo database of the company in all required
formats and in a well organized manner.
-Modifies, mixes, enhances, and touch-ups photos as required.
-Generates synthesis photos.
-Contacts and gets quotes from copywriters for subcontracting text editing
of the company's brochures.
-Contacts and gets quotes from advertising companies when needed.
-Contacts and gets quotes from printing professionals.
-Contacts and gets quotes from Internet Service providers for Web-page

Graphic designer - Qualifications
-Graphic design diploma or Marketing diploma with graphic design skills
-5-10 years experience in marketing oriented graphic design
-Ability to use: Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Corel Photopaint, Adobe
Acrobat writer, Microsoft Office, Visio, Web-page design ( Page Maker)
software all mandatory.
-AutoCad and 3D studio knowledge is a must
-Very good written English is mandatory ( Vocabulary / Spelling Skills)
-Experience in Macs an advantage
-Experience in printing processes an advantage.
-Knowledge of cameras and office printers technology and use a must.

E-Mail your resumes to muthukumar_r@sifycorp.com

How to set up a usability lab?

2004-03-04T11:27:00.000+05:30
Lookin at settin up a usability lab? Take a dekho at these Urls

Microsoft's Usability Lab : http://www.microsoft.com/usability/tour.htm

Cognizant Technology Solutions' Usability Lab in India : http://www.cognizant.com/services/ecs/usability/lab.htm

Sun Microsystem's Usability Lab : http://www.sun.com/usability/

HCI Usability Lab: Indiana University : http://www.slis.indiana.edu/technology/usability_lab.html

Useit.com : Usability Labs Survey : ttp://www.useit.com/papers/uselabs.html

UIE.com : Article on Usability Labs : http://www.uie.com/articles/usability_labs/

Usability Systems : Usability Lab Rentals : http://www.usabilitysystems.com/labrentals/default.htm

Mobile Interactivity in India : "Invisible Mode" functionality

2004-03-01T17:32:00.000+05:30
Mobile users in India would really appreciate a "Invisible Mode" functionality, if it were be offered by the mobile service provider for their existing handsets!

Read the following user requirement statements :
- I want my privacy.
- I will choose & pick calls as per my wish. I want to avoid picking up certain calls.
- I dont want all the callers to know that i woulda/coulda seen their "missed calls"
- I dont want SMS delivery report sent to the sender, because they would expect a reply.
- I dont want to buy a new mobile just for this feature.
- I want the mobile service provider to provide this facility.

Once the mobile phone is switched to "Invisible mode", the following will happen:
- All callers will get a standard voice message " The mobile you are trying to reach is currently switched off"
- The caller can either send an SMS or leave a "Voice Mail"
- The caller wont expect the User to callback, because, according to him, his 'missed call' wouldn't have been recorded.
- Even when the User reads a particular SMS, "delivery confirmation message" will not be messaged to the Sender/Caller.
- The User, on his own volition can pick any incoming call or read any SMS.

What say? :)

Gyan : User Interface Design Basics

2004-02-27T10:59:00.000+05:30
Goals, Tasks & Context of Use :

While tasks are means with which, an user achieves his goals, the interface design must be primarily centered around on the user's goals.
The basic need for an novice user would be " learnability" or "ease of use". For an advanced user, "productivity" or " short cuts" would be his primary concern.

User friendly interfaces must recognise the context of use and offer different options for different users
Eg : Lets take a B2C e-commerce portal.
The shopping cart page must cater to the needs of the 'first time shopper' and also the 'returning user'.
The goal of a 'returning user' would be to quickly close the transaction. The interface must also provide a " express check out" button to facilitate the same. The user will get bored and his time will be wasted, if he is again and again asked to key-in shipping address, billing address and choose his payment option.

The one of the goals of the 'first time shopper' would be ... lets say .... "safety of credit card information"
The interface must display information guaranteeing safety & security.

User centered interfaces will make the users feel excited, confident, intelligent, successful and productive.
It will not make them feel dumb & bored. It will prevent them from making mistakes.

Product Development & Design Process :
Historically, softwares /interfaces were designed my programmers who visualised them as a set of functions & features. Suited management blokes walked in and supplied info about market fluctuations, competition etc., and they wanted more no. of features. Then came the quality control and usability testing folks. "Look and feel" came into the picture to make enrich the interfaces.

Design Process : Ideally, the design blokes must take the brief directly from the mngt blokes, gather user requirements from the users , brainstrom and get a sign off on the prototype and only then, the development blokes should start their work. Usability analyst/ designers need to do a User Acceptance test and then makes changes and finally launch the product.

"Measure twice & cut once"
For every $1 spent on making changes at the conceptual level, $10 gets spent on making changes at the design level and $100 on making these changes at the development level. While iterative testing/changes really happen, there shoudn't be any drastic change required, at the development level.

Such a design process which is centered around the user requirements, avoids a lot of back and forth movement between the different stages. This will speed up the product development process, save cost, ensure that key features are not pushed to "Phase II" for the sake of meeting deadlines. Incidentally, you know what "Phase II" means right?... ;)

2004-02-23T17:48:00.000+05:30
Hi Guys,
This is my first post on blogspot!
I am a Usability Analyst based in India.
Through this blog, i intend to discuss/present concepts related to Interaction Design & Usability.
So, watch this space! :)