Usability Watch India :: by Suman kumar

This blog has moved

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:52:00 +0000

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IRCTC Calendar Design

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:56:00 +0000

IRCTC.co.in is the Indian Railways' ticketing website.

April has only 30 days. I still went ahead and selected 31st April and hit 'Find Trains'. Guess what happened next?

If you know April has only 30 days why would you add 31st to it? Better than designing accurate error messages, is preventing errors. IRCTC seemed to have missed that part.

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

Quick Review of Travel/Ticketing Websites in India

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Travelocity.com

My rating: 2 out of 5

See that screen grab above? Yeah. That's what you're supposed to use to pick a 'From' and 'To'. See how the 'One-way' and 'Return' checking is done. Instead of asking you upfront, they ask you at the end! This is lazy design.

Makemytrip.com

My rating: 2.5 out of 5
Easy to search for flights. But text is difficult to read because the text and BG are not contrasting. But if you are a South Indian and you have an initial for a last name OR if you have two words in your first name (like Suman Kumar), you can't use this site. See screen grabs.

See? They want my last name to be at least two characters long!
And, they won't let me write my first as I always have written in. They want it to be SUMANKUMAR. And not SUMAN KUMAR. Hey! It is my name!

Cleartrip.com

My rating: 3 out of 5

Simple and elegant (as compared to the others I mean). No pull-down menus. Just simple text boxes to pick your 'From' and 'To'. The use of Web 2.0 technology... I like them! But, for the position and color of that 'Search flights' button. It should have been 'inside' instead of jumping out... and white text of reddish-orange? And, most irritating is gray text on gray BG in the search results. Guys! come on!

IPL T20 Website: Sad sad sad!

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:21:00 +0000

They use modx CMS, some open-source script if I am not wrong... they advertise this site on TV! After blowing millions of dollars on players and promos, this is what they do to their website. What a shame!

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

30 Boxes decides how long my last name should be

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:52:00 +0000

Oh well. That means a good chunk of Indians can't use 30 Boxes. Big deal!

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

Sixth Sense

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:16:00 +0000

This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

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

IE Only Websites

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:43:00 +0000

I wanted to buy a CD of Avial and their Record Label website said this: The market share of Firefox is at least 30%. This says it is 45%. However, let's assume that it is only 20%. How the hell can any business choose to ignore 20%? Wow! Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

The Future of Touch

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:16:00 +0000

Made of foam and force sensors, Impress works with both touch and the intensity of pressure. This computing technology lets the user squeeze out information or put objects in motion by deforming the surface of the computer.

The Personable Manual

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:07:00 +0000

Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don�t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the hallowed precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school, is the culprit. Our merit was based on how verbose we were. They judged our style based on how �formal� we were. Take for example, the leave letter. I am sure you have written a few in school or college. Rewind and replay one of those leave letters. Right from the salutation (�Respected sir/madam�) to the signature (�Faithfully/Obediently yours�) it reeks of colonialism. And, we have yet to learn our lessons. In this age of globalization (or globalisation, to my stiff-upper-lip comrades), it is important to pay attention to the three Cs: Consistency, Context, and Culture. The You I have read manuals that say �you can perform this task�� and in the next chapter add, �Users should back up data regularly�. Who is the �you� and who is the �user�? Quite a few of my esteemed friends that are Technical Writers shy away from using �you� in their manuals. Again, it is that skeleton in our cupboards (or closets, if you will, my American friend) called Colonial Composition that proves to be the stumbling block. I do not wish to debate on the aesthetic merit of using (or not using) �you� in our manuals. The goal of your manual is to help users be productive. So let us stick to that story for now. Let us look at an example: 1) If the system displays a blue screen, the OS should re-installed. 2) If your system displays a blue screen, re-install the OS. Let us not discuss active and passive voice. Let us focus on the word �your� that replaces �the�. Both statements offer the same instruction. If you took a poll with your users on which one they liked. I am quite sure they�d pick the one with �your�. Why? Because it is personable. The statement is talking to the user and thus telling the user �there�s something in it for you� and urges action. There is no ambiguity (�OS should be installed? By who?�). And, the �your� statement costs less to Localize. Also, it is important that your product offers a favorable emotional experience to your users. That is where the Colonial Composition fails. Ask any Interaction Designer and she�ll tell you how important Subjective Satisfaction is to the success of any design. Personable Manual Personable writing pays. What would you prefer to read?

"It is recommended that you upgrade your software."

"We recommend that you upgrade your software."

The latter engages you. It makes a convincing statement. It doesn�t hide behind the facade of passive voice, and it puts an arm around you and requests, like a friend, to do the needful. There again, some of you might say �well, if we screw up, then because we used �we� we may get into a soup.� Let me reassure you here: 1) you don�t write for a contingency called screw-up. 2) You write to ensure your user increases her productivity. And 3) Whether you write in passive voice or active voice, if it is in the manual, you are liable. Finally, being formal is overrated. Just because you are in business does not meant you have to be business-like in your manual. That is a sad misconception. You got to connect. You have to converse with your user. You need to engage and offer a positive emotional experience to your user. Else, the user will pick that phone and call Support. Now, that, in my book, ~~completely~~ obviates the need for publishing a manual. And, having a writer on board.

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

Idea Cellular Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Ideacellular.com What's with yellow boys. Don't you know?

Yellow, pure bright lemon yellow is the most fatiguing color. Why? The answer comes from the physics of light and optics. More light is reflected by bright colors, resulting in excessive stimulation of the eyes. Therefore, yellow is an eye irritant. Babies cry more in yellow rooms, husbands and wives fight more in yellow kitchens, and opera singers throw more tantrums in yellow dressing rooms. [read more @ colormatters.com]

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

Promoting Document Usage: Taking a leaf out of Business Directories

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:19:00 +0000

You can argue all day that you know a customer that reads your manuals but my point is that most don't. It is a blessing in disguise for most of us: we get away with some really sloppy writing. But if you honestly want to help your customers but don't want to incur support costs, here goes:

Don't talk to them about your cream. Talk about beautiful, flawless skin. Didn't get it? No problem. Most software vendors bundle documentation or at least provide documentation online. And, most think their duty ends there. It doesn't. If it did, explain why customers still call up your Support Desk for information; the same information that your manual offers.

The explanation to this predicament lies else where: Business Directories. I used to be a Sales Rep for Tata Press Yellow Pages in Chennai (they call it InfoMedia now). After publishing and distributing the directory to users (all homes with a phone), they ran a publicity campaign. The campaign was meant to educate users on how Yellow Pages can help them. "Looking for an Architect? Look under Architects category in Tata Press Yellow Pages" Or something like that. The success of the brand depended on people using the product.

Do you promote the usage of your product documentation? I know the answer. Most of you don't. So what should you do?

Talk to your marketing/sales and support folks and send periodic e-mails to your customers. "Did you know that the Deployment Guide can help you customize the interface?" Or "Want to integrate MS-Office with your_product_name_here? See the Office Integration chapter in the Deployment Guide."

Also:
1) Track the kind of support calls you've been receiving
2)Identify common issues
3) Address them in your documentation
4) Highlight the fixes in your usage mail campaign
5) Start from step 1 and keep iterating!

I said track support calls instead of 'take a survey' because I don't believe in surveys. Surveys are the equivalent of you asking your dinner guests 'Hope you liked the food!' The answer is always yes, unless you have a socially aberrant guest who'd say 'Yuk. That food sucks!'

Think about it.
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Gestalt principles of form perception

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:04:00 +0000

The law of proximity posits that when we perceive a collection of objects, we will see objects close to each other as forming a group.

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

Working Through Screens

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:11:00 +0000

100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work.
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Wrap-rage!

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:19:00 +0000

http://tinyurl.com/5vawe7 Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Internet Explorer 8 Beta: Are these people for real?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:43:00 +0000

An e-mail from MSDN says:

Consistent with our efforts to promote further interoperability across the Web, Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability allows us to help web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of "write once, run anywhere", freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. As such, we�ve provided a meta-tag which can be added on a per-page or per-site level which will instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes. We are encouraging site administrators to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there will be a beta release in the third quarter of this year targeted for all consumers. To learn more and get started, please follow the step-by-step instructions located at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120024.

So I followed the link and ended up reading this rubbish:

Some Web sites may not be displayed correctly or work correctly in Windows Internet Explorer 8. This problem does not occur in earlier versions of Internet Explorer, and the affected Web sites continue to be displayed correctly and to work correctly in Windows Internet Explorer 7. For example, you may experience any of the following symptoms in Internet Explorer 8:
Menus, images, or text are in the wrong positions on some Web sites.
Some Web site features do not work.
You receive script error messages on some Web sites.
Internet Explorer stops responding or stops working on some Web sites.

Ha ha ha! Ladies and gentlemen, so *that's* how you win the browser war! Jesus!
Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Finnish e-voting fiasco

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:46:00 +0000

The good old 'human error or bad design' debate resurfaces.

Today, the Ministry of Justice revealed that due to a usability issue, voting was prematurely aborted for 232 voters. The pilot system was in use in three municipalities; this amounts to about 2 per cent of the electoral roll. Seats in the municipal assemblies are often determined by margins of only a couple of votes. It seems that the system required the voter to insert a smart card to identify the voter, type in their selected candidate number, then press "ok", check the candidate details on the screen, and then press "ok" again. Some voters did not press "ok" for the second time, but instead removed their smart card from the voting terminal prematurely, causing their ballots not to be cast. [Link1] [Link2]

The argument here is not 'it worked for 98% of the people'. The deal here is that seats in Finnish municipal assemblies are determined by margins of only a couple of votes. So 2% is huge and whoever designed the system should have taken that into account.
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Canon India's Website is an Attack Site?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:37:00 +0000

First, Google said:

So I went to http://www.canon.com/ and selected the Canon India site from the Worldwide Site list: Now, my Firefox said:
Webmaster of Canon, could you please wake up and smell the coffee?
Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Chrome Issues and Defects

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:10:00 +0000

You must have read enough about Google Chrome so I am not going to humor you with the basics.

I noticed some defects with my Chrome installation (on Windows XP) and I am logging them here:

Blogger Backlink does not work, when your post has a backlink.

Upload Images feature does not work in Blogger. I tried twice but failed. I use a custom domain and not blogspot (that is obvious, I know).

Are the above really issues or is it just me? Let me know. P.S. No RSS auto-detection? I thought this was 2008!

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

Dear Adobe

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:42:00 +0000

Product/Program managers come up with a million reasons why they could not go to users while building the product. I have heard some really stupid reasons from Project Managers: "We don't have the time. We want to ship on the so-and-so date!" is the classic refrain. Most product managers are still stuck in the stone age of software design: the 90s. They refuse to budge and the result is, well, predictable. Products that irritate users. Stupid products. And, and, and, your competition gets amazing publicity: One of the users of Dear Adobe site wrote:

Try to beat FoxIt Reader for size and load time. Go ahead and try.

Dear Adobe lists gripes against Adobe products. It makes for some fun reading but it also sends an ominous signal to Adobe. Listen to users or perish. Excerpts from Dear Adobe's Top 50 gripes:

1) Why does the Acrobat Reader take two minutes to launch, and require updates twice a month, just to display PDF pages?
6) Please create an installer that puts your software on my computer in less time than it takes to install an operating system.
15) Please update your Updater so that it won't take 110% of my CPU just to download some files.
20) I really don't want a 'My eBooks' folder. Please ask first.
21) Could you make Adobe Reader start up slower? I'd like to have enough time to go get a sandwich before I read a one page document.
22) Please stop forcing your PDF plug-ins into every orifice of OS X. Apple designed Preview for a reason. Fucking deal with it.
45) Why oh why is Updater.app such garbage? It's 2008 already - why do I need to close Safari so you can update InDesign, exactly?

You know the positive thing is that, Adobe Product Managers don't have invest time or effort to figure our what's wrong with their products. The users have spoken. The least they could do is listen to them. Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Which version is the latest?

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Hey, maybe their versioning/numbering sequence is in an inverse sequence. But it is confusing to me Jack. Recommended Books on Usability
write to me: sumank [at] gmail [dot] com

Status Messages on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:28:00 +0000

How often do you find two friends talking about usability (or about the lack of it thereof) on Facebook! Recommended Books on Usability write to me: sumank+usability [at] gmail [dot] com

Gmail Usability Issues

noreply@blogger.com (suman kumar) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:24:00 +0000

I had written about it sometime back but the issues still remain. Let's give it another deko: 1) I want my 'Go' button. It is too easy to click the wrong choice in the drop-down.

And, what does the Refresh link do? Refresh my mail or...? You know? The link needs a new place. Next to the 'More Actions' menu, it makes you think. Doesn't it?

You wanted to delete only one mail from the conversation... you clicked Delete.

...Gmail deletes all the mails in a conversation. Gmail should pop a message asking you 'This will delete all the mails in the conversation. Are you sure? And, shouldn't Delete be renamed to Delete Conversation por favor? And, and and... provide the Delete Message control in a prominent place where you can find it without thinking too much? Right now, you have to click that small drop-down button next to Reply.

Your thoughts?

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

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