Kern looks for Usability Professionals

Are you getting frustrated conducting heuristic evaluations of websites everyday?
Kern will offer you a range of activities to do--contextual inquiry, user analysis, user interface design, prototyping, visual design, and usability testing. And NO WEBSITES at all. All these exciting activities with software applications/products that make a difference. Many of our clients are software product companies and work with us from idea upwards. Others are US-based usability consulting companies that depend on us for critical usability services. Are you excited?

Is the promise of a big city not working out for you?
Hyderabad, the most happening IT destination, is the work place for you. It offers smooth broad roads, a transparent and responsive government interface, no power outages, and definitely far lower cost of living than Mumbai or Bangalore. People in Hyderabad are still honest, helpful, and most speak & understand Hindi and English. What more, you can catch up with latest movies in theaters whenever you want.

Are you a small fish in a big pond?
Kern is a small usability consulting company and offers you to be a big fish in a small pond (a growing one though!). Kern promises to offer you good mentoring in usability, excellent quality international work, and a good remuneration package. Not to forget, Kern does NOT ask its employees to sign any employment bonds--isn't it really demeaning? Kern also believes in kicking everyone out of office for a week at a stretch each year for vacations--we are then officially closed.

Are you really the one?
Yes, you definitely are! If you have deep empathy for the users, have structured understanding of usability (either through education or through practice), and have excellent communication skills in English, we will be happy to talk to you. Send me a mail ripul at kern-comm dot com with a link to your portfolio. Write now!

Usability Patterns for web-based applications

There are usability patterns and there are more usability patterns. In this maze of patterns, I also propose to put in some more interaction patterns. How are my patterns different from others? Well, I will leave it for you to discover.

For some months, each month there will be a new pattern that I have designed and tested (with users obviously!). Yes, they all work and fairly well too! Mind you, these patterns are complex patterns that have emerged out of my consulting experience with many web-based applications--an experienced hand is required to implement them successfully.

I believe that each type of artifact has a spatial relationship with the visual palette (screen). Artifacts in a web application have designated places. Any shift in these places usually causes lot of problems--especially to find these elements by novices and experts alike. To understand the places of each type of element, the introductory pattern that I want to talk about is called "Layout of a typical web application." As we go along in this journey, this pattern will be key to understand other patterns.

Watch this space for the first pattern. Leave a comment with your email address if you want to be notified--I will send a mail.

Apple's troubles start with video iPod

The new video iPod from Apple will definitely be a mild success. It will be riding on the huge success of the iPod family which is used by millions to listen to lots of music, carry data, and occasionally show and tell about great photographs one has taken. However, to make it another iconic product as the original iPod, designers at Apple must think "big" again.

In each coast-to-coast flight or while waiting for connecting flights at the hubs, you would see many avid movie watchers trying to catch up on latest flicks. These guys are just everywhere - parks, restaurants, and trains. These frequent fliers and mass transit commuters like to see their movies on as big a screen as possible.

Roadblock 1
The biggest roadblock Apple's video iPod going to face is the size of the screen. The screen size is a little too small to have a meaningful display of moving images, it is at best a boy's toy to show around and boast about. Movie watchers may not bother to see a new flick or for that matter their favourite TV show on the new video iPod because of the screen's small size (320 x 240).

Roadblock 2
Movie buffs cannot enjoy the movie "Lord of the rings" with its numerous and detailed wide-angle action sequences on a 4:3 format. This roadblock will not make the video iPod more popular than other portable video players like Creative Zen or the Archos. The video iPod suffers from what I call the "hangover from the previous version" syndrome or you can call it "new wine packed in old bottle." But, it still has hope - Apple needs to get these roadblocks cleared at the earliest. The new video iPod could have wiped out all other portable video players out of the market now, it still can! This is how the movie Grease looks like on a regular video iPod:

Design Makeover
Surprisingly, iPod's size is its greatest strength. If the industrial designers at Apple place the iPod horizontally, iPod can exactly fit a 16:9 screen of 430 x 240 pixels - isn't that incredible? This placement will solve both the problems - size and aspect ratio. See how the new improved iPod can look like (did you see what all you are missing with the regular iPod?):

Oops! Where is the magical click wheel gone? I don't like my iPod without the wheel. Apple can magically get back the click wheel virtually, yes virtually! A circular segment of the screen can be touch sensitive and an image of the click wheel below can appear. This image can appear whenever a human touches the wheel part of the screen. It can magically disappear after some seconds of inactivity. A click wheel can look like this when it appears:

With these improvements, I would like the purchase the iPod and enjoy two full length and full width movies from NY to LA. Is there anyone who can take this up with Mr. Jobs?

Movie screen grabs are from http://www.geocities.com/obsessivetougafan/grease.html