6 posts tagged “design”
Just came across this awesome vectorizing web service from Stanford called VectorMagic. My first and foremost 'delight factor' is the simple fact that I can use the service without signing up. In about 3 minutes of landing on the home page of the website for the first time, I was well on my way to downloading a vectorized file in .EPS format after having uploaded a .JPEG on VectorMagic.
With do-it-yourself services like there coming up, DTP (desktop publishing businesses) need to figure out ways to provide more value than just image editing capabilities, etc.
Here are a few initial screen shots.
An excellent blogging site. Along with Cleartrip.com, Instablogs has become my second favourite Indian website ! There aren't too many well designed India webservice sites online today. Instablogs kicks ass for many international sites as well. No discrimination intended... but who would have imagined a family run startup from Shimla would come up with something as awesome as this...Bravo!
Does that title make any sense to you? "Sexy. Trendy. Design. Technology" was the topic give to me as a speaker at the 3rd edition Proto.in in Chennai. For those who are unaware of what Proto is - Proto.in is a conference that aims to create an ecosystem for start-ups (mainly in the digital space i.e mobile & web) in India.
This was my first conference talk and with a topic like Sexy. Trendy... Design I had no clue what to talk about initially. Another factor that confused me about what to speak about was the fact that there were 2 parallel tracks - Business track & Technology track' on Day 1 of the conference and I was to speak in the Technology track. This meant that I would have an audience who talked in PHP, Python, Java, SQL, etc, etc trying to understand or listen to a designer to whom all those languages were gibberish or Greek!
But the question still loomed over my head.. what do I talk about? Sexy. Trendy. Design. Technology... how could I possibly present this topic?
OPTION 1
Sexy + Trendy + Design + Technology
Do I talk about how all these add up in the creation of a new product?
OPTION 2
Sexy & Trendy : Design & Technology
Should I seperate the two clusters and talk about what defines Sexy and Trendy products and then move on to how Design & Technology are integrated?
OPTION 3
Sexy & Trendy Technology enabled by Design
Or should I talk about how Design thinking can be used to create Sexy, Trendy products.
I decided to choose option 3. This topic seems to come a lot naturally to me than any of the others. It is something I practice and therefore was much more comfortable talking about.
Unfortunately because of the parallel Business track there wasn't much of an audience in the Technology track. (around 25 listeners). I guess most people who were attending Day 1 we there mainly to learn what it takes to start a company and this was exactly what was being discussed in the other room. Eitherways,I had a great experience.. the people who did listen in, showed interest and engaged in interesting conversation after I had finished my talk.
All in all !! Was a great FIRST !! Looking forward to lots more...
Netvibes the webservice that allows you to make your own personalized feed aggregator/startup page has done it again!
I hope the designers at Netvibes as working on the ASAP because it won't be too long before the aha! wears out and people start pointing fingers! :) Until then... enjoy!!
However it would be ignorant and brash of me to assume that they have not considered this totally. I understand that there needs to be some level of difference to characterize the application itself. (you can't have a powerpoint application looking similar to an excel sheet application or a chat application!)
BRANDING:
The Zoho logo along with the branding of the specific application always appears on the top left of the screen.
USER INTERFACE:
Although I accept designing a variety of applications with UI can be hard, I do not think that it is impossible. The Zoho Suite has a global navigation bar (consisting of text links) on top of the screen that allows the user to move across the different applications. However this is the only place where there is UI consistency. Apart from this the buttons in each web app have different styles, the menus are in different places, some applications have tabs to navigate, some have free floating buttons, etc.. I am not proposing 'consistency for monotonous experience' but 'consistency for intuitive experience'.
Here is an example. (See enlarged version of image above)
If you look at the above image, you will see transparent yellow boxes over each header. Those yellow boxes mark the spaces on the header of the application UI where the button (Create/Upload/New/Add) to start a new activity specific to that particular application is placed.
The image below is a collection of those yellow boxes representing their location on the header of their respective applications.
As a user I might be used to seeing the 'New' action (which will allow me to create a new word document) on Zoho Writer on the left-hand corner in a bevelled capsule styled button. When I decide to start using Zoho Sheets or Zoho Notebook, it would be a lot easier for me to transition to that application if the New Sheet/New Notebook actions represented in the same space and in the same style, and not as a tab.
Familiarity is a key factor that affects the usability of any object or service. Personally, I have noticed myself rejecting services (as useful as they might be) due to the amount of learning involved in understanding the new interface. In my opinion Zoho should use familiarity to its advantage and standardize a few key actions. This way many first time users will not get intimidated by the learning curve required to begin using the service.
Its great to see our international airports getting renovated and truly, it is about time! However what is a lot more interesting is the transition posters that we see all around. Apart from the common 'Inconvenience is regretted' messages, which travellers are so tired of seeing on road blocks and hearing at airports on flight delay announcements, I saw these posters at the Delhi airport which is currently undergoing a massive renovation, saying :
Poster 1 ''You'll soon wish
that your flights get delayed. More retail outlets, coming up soon.''
Poster 2 ''Soon you'll stop
worrying over traffic jams. More check-in counters coming soon.''
Poster 3 ''Better lighting arrangements
coming soon. Because you deserve a brighter smile.''
:) I wonder which design firm working on this airport project is, 'coz I'm sure they could have been cleverer. Unfortunately I could not capture the 3rd poster on camera since I had to proceed further in the queue but what's the connection with lighting arrangements and better smiles?
The only connection I can make is Orbit white ads :) the only thing is they would have interchanged the sentences saying "Brighter smiles coming soon, because you need a better lights!"
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