user experience
UMO2007
UMO2007- a national conference on Desiging for User Experience, an event that makes a difference in so many peoples lives by changing the way they live, work and do business.
On 30th November, 2007 UsabilityMatters.Org and allied organizations will join communities across the world to mark the celebrations for World Usability Day 2007 in Hyderabad.
visit the conference website: http://umo.in/umo2007/
Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com
I will be talking at the STC Annual Conference in Goa
Contingency design does not figure much in conversations amongst technical communicators. In these conversations, the emphasis is usually on the almighty manual. However, oftentimes, customers read error messages before they even think of opening a product’s manual. In this presentation, Suman Kumar introduces the key area of contingency design and answers questions like ‘How do we design for contingencies?’, ‘Can you use error messages to boost customer experience and loyalty?’, and ‘How does effective contingency design help in reducing support costs?’
Read more on the STC Website.
Another interesting paper is by Rachna and Shilpa of Cadence: Test plans as a source of improving documentation quality.
Sweet.
Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com
The Retail Chaos Theory
On a tour of one of his supermarkets, Kishore Biyani notes that shopping carts are getting stuck in the narrow aisles, wheat and lentils have spilled onto the floor, black spots cover the onions and it’s difficult to hear above the constant in-store announcements. He grins and congratulates the store manager.Mr. Biyani, 45 years old, has built a large business and a family fortune on the simple premise that, in India, chaos sells.
(via Wall Street Journal Link may not work. Hat-tip: Madman)
It is an interesting perspective of user-behavior all right but I think this is a transient phase. Indian retail market is in a state of metamorphosis, so probably after a few years, we will have to resort to the time-tested techniques that, say, a Wal-Mart uses. As far as user-behavior goes, I strongly believe More...