Usability Watch India :: by Suman kumar

Deccan Herald Does a Kingfisher

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:45:00 +0000

While trying to navigate to a page on DH via Google, I was told this. Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

UB Group website can harm my computer?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Sometimes usability is not even about your design! I searched for UB City and Google warned me that the site can harm my computer! Wow! Dr.Mallya, what's going on? You owe me a beer sir!

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Mumbai Suburban Rail Ticket Vending Machines

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:11:00 +0000

A user writes about his experiences and makes some pretty smart recommendations too!

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Rediff Books: Spaced out?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

So did I enter numeric data or not? I did, only, I inserted a space. If I am not wrong, the field does not allow spaces between numbers. The error message should read "Spaces not allowed." or something like that. But, this error situation should not occur in the first place. Why can't Rediff tell the user BEFORE the user enters data that spaces are not allowed? Better still display an example of the accepted format? I wanted to buy the latest Chetan Bhagat's book. But looks like I will shop else where for it. Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Dell Vostro 1310 Screw-up

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 03 May 2008 05:34:00 +0000

Looks normal, right? Look at your own keyboard... notice anything different? Okay, maybe you don't. But try actually typing on this and it all becomes far too apparent. The whole of the bottom row of letters (Z, X, C...) is one too far to the right. The Z should be below and between A and S, not S and D. You're looking at a brand new Dell Vostro 1310, ordered the day after its released, and delivered on 30th April 2008 in the UK. They keys are all there. Shift, \|, Z, X... its just that the left shift is too big, forcing everything over too far. The Z has to be between the A and S... look on ANY other keyboard and that's where it sits. This is not a US/UK layout issue, just a general monumental flaw. [read more]

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Happy to Help? Really?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:19:00 +0000

Vodafone claims it is happy to help. Take a look. Click on the pictures to enlarge them. It is not enough if you deploy a CRM solution that's worth a zillion. How can you disable my account just because I didn't log in for 180 days? You send me your bills, and I pay them too; So, why should you disable my account doggy? Sometimes a little common sense goes a long way.

Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Ubuntu Desktop Usability Issue 1

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:21:00 +0000

I have decided to log all user experience issues that Ubuntu Desktop throws to me, a Windows user.

"Setting up my broadband Internet access is cumbersome or at least it appears so."

The way Windows XP handles this is not any pretty, but it would have been nicer if folks at Ubuntu had at least provided a Windows-like UI to perform this rather crucial task.

Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Hey! I love this!

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

What's in a last name?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:37:00 +0000

If you try to download a white paper from http://www.comparecrm.com/ you need to fill a form (yawn!) before you can start the download (it fires the PDF on the fly and thus chokes my damned browser!); if you have initial(s) for a last name. God save you! The all-knowing designers of comparecrm.com think a last name has to have more than a single letter. What's the big deal? Read this!

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:29:00 +0000

The guys at insidecrm.com claim:

These quick tweaks will help you keep visitors engaged.

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Apostrophes in Names Stir Lot O' Trouble

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:01:00 +0000

It can stop you from voting, destroy your dental appointments, make it difficult to rent a car or book a flight, even interfere with your college exams. More than 50 years into the Information Age, computers are still getting confused by the apostrophe. It's a problem familiar to O'Connors, D'Angelos, N'Dours and D'Artagnans across America.

(via AP) Well, well, well! There's another problem with online forms: quite of few of them return an error message 'last name can't be a single letter' when I give it as 'R'. I can't help it but south Indians have initials for last names. For example, mine is R as my dad's name is RanganathaChari! When Niall O'Dowd tried to book a flight to Atlanta earlier this year, the computer system refused to recognize his name. The editor of the Irish Voice newspaper could book the flight only by giving up his national identity.

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Firefox VC++ Runtime Error

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:24:00 +0000

One more for the Hall of Shame! Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

My STC India Annual Conference 2007 Slides

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:10:00 +0000

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?'

Find out: Contingency%20Design.zip (2.28 MB)

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

UMO2007

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:47:00 +0000

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

UMO2007

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:47:00 +0000

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

Length of the error message...

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:50:00 +0000

The length of the error message is directly proportional to the user's threat-perception. (Threat-perception = 'Something's wrong with this product') Does it make sense? Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

I will be talking at the STC Annual Conference in Goa

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:29:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:52:00 +0000

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 that they will adapt after realizing the importance of an organized shopping experience. Did we ever dream that Maggi Noodles will become a fixture on the list of our 'must haves'? On the other hand, a silent revolution is happening in processed, packaged, ready-to-cook food items. MTR Upma, and packaged curd rice in Chennai are some examples. These are interesting times for Indian retail.

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

NY Times on Usability

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:05:00 +0000

SOMETIMES there is a huge disconnect between the people who make a product and the people who use it. The creator of a Web site may assume too much knowledge on the part of users, leading to confusion. Software designers may not anticipate user behavior that can unintentionally destroy an entire database. Manufacturers can make equipment that inadvertently increases the likelihood of repetitive stress injuries. Enter the usability professional, whose work has recently developed into a solid career track, driven mostly by advancements in technology. [read more]

Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Usability and Testing Colloquium

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 10:53:00 +0000

I got to talk at this colloquium on usability. It was a last minute thing but I enjoyed talking to some 40 people, most from software testing. Glad to see that usability is gaining popularity in this country.
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Cricinfo.com: Pathetic Contigency Design

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:30:00 +0000

Cricinfo.com is probably the number 1 site for Cricket fans. Given the number of Cricket crazy fans in India and a huge Indian diaspora living all over the world, their traffic volumes must be huge. But that still doesn't stop me from complaining about how a production website can throw up these really elementary errors:

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (11) in /usr/cricinfo/QUIZ/inc/inc_db.php on line 19 Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket= '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (11)

I got the above error message when I tried to access there new Cricket Quiz site. Yes, things breakdown, I know but shouldn't Cricinfo be throwing up a human readable, non-geeky message? Something like "Oops! Looks like our server is acting up again. We are very sorry about it. In the meantime why don't you check our abcd service, while we fix this bad, bad server?"
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Chevy Spark's Warning Lights

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:44:00 +0000

I want to buy this car. I probably will. But Spark has a usability issue:

The Spark has a ground-breaking interior design with ergonomically advanced controls. In the driver's direct area of view is a semi-circular display of control and warning lights.

The semi-circular warning lights. I could see lights of at least three colors. I am sure it is more than that. Pray tell me, given that traffic in Indian cities demand all the attention that a driver can muster, do you really think a driver will pay attention to those lights? I don't care but here is the bitter pill: the lights increase the cognitive load on the driver and probably will contribute, at least at a minor level, towards a bad driving experience. Picture this: 1) You are driving on M.G. Road and bikers are wreaking havoc; you are worried that one of them would scratch your precious Spark and some Red light starts flashing on the console! 2) You are worried if you could make the Green and some orange light on your console starts flashing. Won't you be pissed off? I don't know if I am stretching it far, but do tell me what you think. Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

The Evil 404s

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:15:00 +0000

NDTV.com puked this at me:

An error occurred while processing your request. Reference #97.44ac7cb.1170673976.725f00a

Now, what the hell am I supposed to do? I can understand if a personal website crashes and pukes such garbled nonsense at me. Not NDTV. Haven't they heard of user friendly 404 pages? Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Brains can tell the difference between metaphor and irony

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 09:25:00 +0000

Most language processing takes places in the left hemisphere of the brain. When we read, carry on a conversation, or listen to speech, most of the action -- for right-handers -- takes place on the left side of the brain. (For left-handers, the situation is more complex; it's not simply a mirror image of a right-handed brain. For this reason, most studies involving any sort of brain scan routinely exclude left-handers.) But there are a few occasions when the right hemisphere gets involved: when we create a narrative, for example, or when we make inferences. Some types of figurative language, such as metaphor and irony, also involve the right hemisphere. But research on perception of metaphor and irony has had difficulty identifying differences in how the two processes work. [Read more on Cognitive Daily] Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Usability heuristics for web development teams

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:37:00 +0000

...surely there should be a broader focus; and one that incorporates as many areas of front end development into an heuristic review as possible.

Read more! Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com