User Experience for Mobile and Desktops

TIBCO General Interface sounds very interesting. After downloading and unzipping the contents, I clicked on the GI_Builder.html file and the library started loading. Unlike other libraries, TIBCO offers a Visual UI Design environment (similar to visual basic). It takes some time to getting used to. Clearly TIBCO doesnt offer any "Getting started" kinda help for novices, as this is clearly targeted at Professional UI developers who are good in AJAX, JS and all web stuff. For me, it may take some more time to get into every features and find out how a UX guy can make the most out of TIBCO GI toolkit. I will post another entry soon. :-) - Rajesh Sundaram PS : When I was in vtiger CRM an year ago, we evaluated some JS libraries and TIBCO was one of the library. But due to coding convenience and maintenance reasons, we decided to keep scriptaculous and dropped the idea of appending any new JS libraries.

National Anthem is now used as a brand building tool. Now a days, Sathyam Cinemas shows a version of National Anthem which is produced by Bharathbala Productions and composed by A R Rahman. It looks more like a brand building strategy, than an act of Nationalism. After the "please stand up" card, people sincerely stand up hoping for the national anthem to play.. but the reel starts with credits that says "Sathyam Cinemas and Bharathbala productions presents".. It looks as if all the people stand up and respect Sathyam and Bharathbala. Why the *uck should I stand up and pay respect for Sathyam or Bharathbala? And why not Sathyam play a standard audio version instead of this "commercialized" version ? I am not into discussing whether the run length exceeds the standard or not. Thats a different discussion. This week, writer "Gnanee" too has voiced his concerns in this week's Kumudam.

I love Mozilla's Thunderbird... it's easy to use, quick and gels with any environment (office, home etc) and offers many features. I have been using Thunderbird from its initial days and I am soo happy with it. Recently I have started using intranet web mail which made me. really unhappy ! I wish Thunderbird offers a front-end web application version which can be integrated into a intranet mail system. The TB web app should work exactly like the binary app.. with all the features, User experience etc intact. This will make the life easy for people like me. The software-as-service model is gaining momentum and here is a good chance for Mozilla Thunderbird to capture the numero-uno position. - Rajesh Sundaram PS : I also wish if someone would write a XUL based Thunderbird clone which can be installed in to my Firefox browser.

I have been driving my friend's Hyundai Accent for the past 1 year. Mostly I drive on highway roads. Though Accent is somewhat gas guzzler inside city (return 9 to 10 kmpl avg), it gives better mileage on the highways. 2000 RPM : From my recent trips, I found the optimum speed in which Hyundai Accent should be driven to get more fuel savings, economy, mileage is 2000 RPM (appx 80kmph) , in top gear. My friend's car returns an average of 15.5 kmpl on highways. Some tips 1. Check the tyre pressure. Depending on the load you could choose from 28psi to 30psi. 2. Check wheel alignment and wheel balancing regularly. 3. The premium fuels are costly.. but do add some numbers in mileage. Go for premium petrol if you can shell a couple of bucks additionally. 4. Do not overtake un-necessarily. Calculated and careful driving saves your life and fuel. - Rajesh Sundaram

Creating alerts in Google Alerts is pretty quick and straight forward. But I found the "New Alert" button's placement in the user interface is little awkward. After registering new, most of my interactions to create alerts repeatedly ( the mouse movements, keyboard typings ) happens in the left and middle portion. And the "Create New" is in the bottom right portion. What if I have some 50 or 100 alerts? Or what if I add new alerts on a regular basis? In such cases I have to scroll down and navigate to the bottom right which is time consuming. It would have been much easier if the "New Alert" button is placed next to the "Your Google Alerts" heading. The image below shows the suggestion. - Rajesh

Was using Zoho show today in my home. While working, a thought came up in the lines of 'how will the UI look, if i add some colors to it'? So captured a screenshot and experimented by adding some jazziness to the UI. Here is my first iteration. I have applied some usability enhancements (text snippets from randon slides shown below the presentation name, better visual separation of left-side navigation stack etc, listing of slides and details has been tweaked) too. - Rajesh Sundaram

Let me upload the proposed user interface first. Later I will upload the entire screenshots and analysis report. - Rajesh Sundaram