<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330</id><updated>2011-10-31T05:42:56.980-07:00</updated><category term='Open office Report'/><category term='search engine tip'/><category term='Usability'/><category term='Microsoft UI'/><category term='Survey on design jobs'/><category term='Open Office themes'/><category term='senior web designer'/><category term='User Interface Designing'/><category term='layout and color'/><category term='PDF split and merge software'/><category term='Usability in istockphoto'/><category term='Logo portfolio'/><category term='Grayscale prototype'/><category term='Design Jobs'/><category term='Adding subtitle to youtube video'/><category term='Interesting Web Site'/><category term='subtitle creation'/><category term='Unblock MSN contacts'/><category term='GUI Designer'/><category term='Google search tip'/><category term='Microsoft Interactive Table'/><category term='logo design'/><category term='User Interface Design'/><category term='Open Office Templates and Themes'/><category term='creative ideas'/><category term='PDF covertor'/><category term='Poor usability'/><category term='Web designer opening'/><category term='Colors and Interface'/><category term='User Experience'/><category term='Usability Issue'/><category term='Open office templates'/><category term='Screenshots for Movie clip'/><category term='Designing in Open Office'/><category term='Branding'/><category term='Web designer job opening in chennai'/><category term='Usability in IBM Express site'/><category term='Creative Country'/><category term='Usability Testing'/><category term='Prototyping tool'/><category term='SEO strategy tip'/><category term='Poor usability in search heavy site'/><category term='Highly Paid Design Jobs'/><category term='Website template'/><category term='Product Usability'/><category term='PDF to word convertor'/><title type='text'>Blog on Usability and Design</title><subtitle type='html'>This blog is dedicated to Usability and Design. How will a usable design look without an asthetic appeal... or a WOW design without usability - striking a right balance between both is what this blog is all about. Do send me your comments.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>24</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-4457559363308467121</id><published>2011-10-31T05:42:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2011-10-31T05:42:57.016-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Adding subtitle to youtube video'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='subtitle creation'/><title type='text'>Adding subtitle to youtube video</title><content type='html'>I was exploring option to add Portuguese subtitle to one of our business videos. I was trying to get some quote from external vendors and thankfully no one got back :)&lt;br /&gt;So I ventured into how these .srt files are made which is the format that is accepted by youtube.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Youtube has tutorial videos from pretty much everything that you want to learn under the sun or even more. This video came in handy &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t6cvEm600"&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t6cvEm600&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a freeware named &lt;a href="http://www.divxland.org/subtitler.php#get"&gt;DivX Media Subtitler&lt;/a&gt; that is easy to use and can help you create the .srt file. Instructions to use this software is available in the video tutorial mentioned above.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-4457559363308467121?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/4457559363308467121/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=4457559363308467121' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4457559363308467121'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4457559363308467121'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2011/10/adding-subtitle-to-youtube-video.html' title='Adding subtitle to youtube video'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-3596369012131204337</id><published>2010-08-30T21:59:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-30T22:03:15.116-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Unblock MSN contacts'/><title type='text'>How to unblock users in MSN</title><content type='html'>I was trying my hand in uploading some new avatar for my profile :) and ended up blocking all contacts. Tried without the help of God Google and it din't work... finally found it with help of google: &lt;br /&gt;Go to tools &gt;&gt; Options &gt;&gt; Privacy... Move all the 'block list' to 'Allow List' Bingo!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-3596369012131204337?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/3596369012131204337/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=3596369012131204337' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3596369012131204337'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3596369012131204337'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-unblock-users-in-msn.html' title='How to unblock users in MSN'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-7433675471975911200</id><published>2009-10-14T04:36:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-10-18T22:35:44.038-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Open office templates'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Designing in Open Office'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Open Office Templates and Themes'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Open Office themes'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Open office Report'/><title type='text'>Templates and Themes in Open Office</title><content type='html'>Maybe the right name for this post would have been 'Creating Open Office themes and templates for Dummies' because I'm no expert in Open Office, neither did I knew anyone who could help me out. So I explored it all by myself and found that 'Open Office' is an awesome software.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm used to word so I was not very comfortable with Open Office. Since we use Open Office for report generation purposes in our software. I was given this task to make the look 'n' feel of reports better and equip the consultants with ready to use themes and templates.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's an insight into what I learnt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Templates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. What ever file you create with header, footer, BG can be used as templates. You have to save the file as .ott&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. To define font and other attributes you should use the 'Styles and formatting' dialog box -(Format -&gt; Styles and formating) This will help you to define font, color, size etc for various usage like Header, body text etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. To use this template for future document creation follow this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;File -&gt; Templates -&gt; Organize -&gt; (Select a location to save the template for ex: My Templates) -&gt; Command button -&gt; Import template -&gt; Select the sample.ott file.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This file will be copied in 'My template' click on the sample.ott file and, click on command while the sample.ott file is still highlighted -&gt; command -&gt; Set As Default Template -&gt; Bingo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now Open a new document and it will have this template in it pre-defined.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Color themes for Open Office tables. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is sim&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/StW9DSUkzoI/AAAAAAAAAl4/d6Xi4wli-2Y/s1600-h/oo-table.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392423993001430658" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 221px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/StW9DSUkzoI/AAAAAAAAAl4/d6Xi4wli-2Y/s320/oo-table.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;ple. Do a pivot table 5x6 matrix. Give the color combination you want.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Now open 'Table -&gt; Auto Format' '&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Click on 'Add'&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Give a name to this format and save - e.g. corporate blue&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Note: You can include Font type, color, size, alignment and lot more. Which will get saved in the format for future use.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sharing Open Office 'Auto Format'&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While it is easy to circulate templates (.ott) files I had a requirement for sharing the auto format themes also with my colleagues. Here's how you can do it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The formats we add to the Auto Format library are all saved as a file called 'autotbl.fmt'&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This file will be stored in this location (C:\Documents and Settings\&lt;your&gt;&lt;name&gt;\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2 (or3)\user\config)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the other user replaces the autotbl.fmt file in their system with the 'autotbl.fmt' file which has all the new color themes you have done, the user will be able to see the all the color themes in 'Table -&gt; Auto Format' in their system also.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Note: We can only replace 'autotbl.fmt' file this means we will have to lose the old 'autotbl.fmt' file to be on the safer side just rename the old file before replacing&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have created some interesting themes and templates. I'm continuing to explore Open Office to unravel other designer specific features.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are some thumbnails of sample reports I create.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/StXB43fiEvI/AAAAAAAAAmI/zafeR_WbU7U/s1600-h/oo-theme.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392429311559078642" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 247px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/StXB43fiEvI/AAAAAAAAAmI/zafeR_WbU7U/s400/oo-theme.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have a good time trying these out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-7433675471975911200?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/7433675471975911200/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=7433675471975911200' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/7433675471975911200'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/7433675471975911200'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2009/10/templates-and-themes-in-open-office.html' title='Templates and Themes in Open Office'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/StW9DSUkzoI/AAAAAAAAAl4/d6Xi4wli-2Y/s72-c/oo-table.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-2846528781972685026</id><published>2009-07-14T22:15:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-07-14T22:28:41.738-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Some of my recent logo design works</title><content type='html'>Amidst all the serious design work I do. There is some welcoming break with work that does not demand pressure but just pure play creativitivity. I have been working on some not so core corporate initiatives which started right from designining the logo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have posted some of them in coroflot. Check out:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.coroflot.com/nmathu/logo_designs"&gt;http://www.coroflot.com/nmathu/logo_designs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-2846528781972685026?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/2846528781972685026/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=2846528781972685026' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/2846528781972685026'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/2846528781972685026'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2009/07/some-of-my-recent-logo-design-works.html' title='Some of my recent logo design works'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-6600349562824100720</id><published>2008-12-29T01:20:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-12-29T01:41:45.636-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='SEO strategy tip'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Google search tip'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='search engine tip'/><title type='text'>Google SEO tips</title><content type='html'>I'm learning new things on how to make your page SEO friendly. How to get ranking etc. I'm very sure what i know is not even a fraction of how google search works. But here's an interesting thing I learnt. When you search - results are listed based on your location. if you are competing in international market and your primary audience are US based then, there is a way to get results listed like how it it viewed by a user with US IP.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the results are listed, in the address bar - at the end add &lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&amp;amp;gl=us&lt;/span&gt; (google location = united states) like wise you can add relevant country shortforms 'ca -canada, au-australia, in-india'. You can get a sense of your competitors in specific to that market useful when it comes to adwords.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-6600349562824100720?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/6600349562824100720/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=6600349562824100720' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6600349562824100720'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6600349562824100720'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-seo-tips.html' title='Google SEO tips'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-8853281604275748584</id><published>2008-12-21T21:43:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-12-21T21:55:31.768-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Screenshots for Movie clip'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='PDF covertor'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='PDF to word convertor'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='PDF split and merge software'/><title type='text'>Useful links to PDF convertors, Screenshot capture tool</title><content type='html'>Here are some good links that I want to share with everyone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Taking print screen from movie clip:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wanted a software that will help me take screenshots from a movie file. Was testing a lot of freewares and finally found the solution in Frameshots. An awesome tool for taking screenshots from movie clips.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PDF convertor:&lt;/strong&gt; If you want to convert any file to a pdf file just try primo it is super good. Uses print command to convert any file to a pdf file&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PDF to word convertor:&lt;/strong&gt; The freeware itself is called Free PDF to Word Doc convertor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PDF split and merge:&lt;/strong&gt; I had to include a wrapper design to a pdf user manual. The user manual had a wrapper design which was not very impressive. I used Adolix Split and Merge PDF. It was very intuitive. Was able to separate the wrapper from the existing pdf and included my design which was saved in the form of a pdf.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-8853281604275748584?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/8853281604275748584/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=8853281604275748584' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8853281604275748584'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8853281604275748584'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/12/useful-links-to-pdf-convertors.html' title='Useful links to PDF convertors, Screenshot capture tool'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-9062976997776483494</id><published>2008-12-01T21:57:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2008-12-01T22:04:50.160-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='creative ideas'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='senior web designer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='layout and color'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Website template'/><title type='text'>Inspirational site for some great color and layout ideas</title><content type='html'>Long time since I blogged. Official and personal work kept me totally busy. I have been working on some interesting things offlate. I will talk about it in detail when I get the time :).&lt;br /&gt;But first do check out &lt;a href="http://bestwebgallery.com/"&gt;http://bestwebgallery.com/&lt;/a&gt; I keep going to this side with no brief in mind. Whenever I feel stuck with design, layout, some radical idea this site does help. Some absolutely off beat ideas are there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Post a comment if it was useful to you as well.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-9062976997776483494?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/9062976997776483494/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=9062976997776483494' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/9062976997776483494'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/9062976997776483494'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/12/inspirational-site-for-some-great-color.html' title='Inspirational site for some great color and layout ideas'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-8239752720640082150</id><published>2008-05-22T22:09:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-05-22T22:10:22.453-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='logo design'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Logo portfolio'/><title type='text'>An awesome logo designing company</title><content type='html'>Here's one company I keep going back for logo inspiration&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.misipile.com/"&gt;http://www.misipile.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-8239752720640082150?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/8239752720640082150/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=8239752720640082150' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8239752720640082150'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8239752720640082150'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/05/awesome-logo-designing-company.html' title='An awesome logo designing company'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-6446845371417399315</id><published>2008-05-12T03:38:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-05-12T03:53:28.193-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Design Jobs'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Web designer opening'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='senior web designer'/><title type='text'>Web designer opening - chennai</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;Here's a great chance to work with me ;)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Arial;"&gt;I have an opening with the company I work for, check if your profile suits the requirement mentioned below&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Arial;"&gt;- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Job Title: Senior Web Designer &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;Location: Chennai, India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3-5 years of design experience with a good portfolio to substantiate. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Job Description&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This position forms an integral part of the creative team working on website related design work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Job Requirements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- Proficiency in the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop, Image Ready, Flash, Dreamweaver.&lt;br /&gt;- Working knowledge of print software like Corel Draw will be an added advantage.&lt;br /&gt;- Ability to grasp and conceptualize design briefs and add original flavor to the designs&lt;br /&gt;- Be accurate and succinct in communicating and presenting concepts, design ideas and actual design, in written and verbal forms&lt;br /&gt;- Should be exposed to CSS concepts and be adept in htmlizing designs&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt; Exposure to usability, user interface design will be a big plus&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Candidate should present their design portfolio for evaluation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;If you are interested in this opening send in your CVs to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:nmathu@gmail.com"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;nmathu@gmail.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:arial;"&gt;Note: Please mention in the subject of the mail - 'Web designer profile'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-6446845371417399315?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/6446845371417399315/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=6446845371417399315' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6446845371417399315'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6446845371417399315'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/05/web-designer-opening-chennai.html' title='Web designer opening - chennai'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-4327529886240155988</id><published>2008-04-22T00:36:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-04-22T04:07:59.355-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Handling temporary Creative Block...</title><content type='html'>After a very long time I underwent a bad creative block last week (must be years since I had the last one)... I had to design a print collateral for our SaaS product. After getting the content and understanding the target audience for it, I started to design some layout and I realized all the options I tried working on projected some primitive design skills I had. I was left totally blank was not sure if it was a temp thing or I lost my creative abilities. It just went on for 2 days, I would keep staring at the monitor, try working on some layouts and end up doing options that reminded me of some design which I did years back.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I told to myself print is not your strength anymore... c'mon give up, face it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also noticed that not much of reference for print related work is available over the web (some tips were available but not that good to overcome a creative block). Then I took a break and moved on to chat up with a colleague, and was talking about this weird block I was having and then he suggested that probably a trip to a creative bookstore might help. That sounded interesting and I was in no frame of mind to think of anyother way too. The block already gave me a sleepless night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And Voila! it did help. I found this awesome book "What is Typography?" by David Jury. From the name I assumed it should be a book about the basics of typography, font usage etc. Of course it was related to that but from a broader perspective I realized that getting back to basics after a long time opens new doors of creativity and better understanding of things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back at work it really helped me get over the block I was undergoing. I was able to churn out some good design options. To substantiate my feeling, here's what my boss said"Looks interesting."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think the best part of these kind of blocks are, they are hurdles that inspire us to jump higher. Suddenly I feel like working on more print collaterals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This book is a must read I strongly recomend it. Will post a soft copy of the design once they are sent for print.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-4327529886240155988?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/4327529886240155988/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=4327529886240155988' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4327529886240155988'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4327529886240155988'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/04/handling-temporary-creative-block.html' title='Handling temporary Creative Block...'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-5247276713377373546</id><published>2008-03-18T01:37:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2008-03-18T01:45:43.958-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Web based application UI - released</title><content type='html'>Hi,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Am back blogging after a longgggggg time... was waiting for this big day. Yes the UI I've been designing for the Enterprise Performance Management solution - Corporater Express has gone live.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Check out &lt;a href="http://www.corporaterexpress.com"&gt;www.corporaterexpress.com&lt;/a&gt; , you can sign up for a free trial and experience the application. Shortly we'll be putting up guided tours and demos. It does require some amount of knowledge in scorecard management, scorecard building, performance dashboards etc. But I think the interface is quite intutitive. Do post you feedback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And by the way even the site was designed by me.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-5247276713377373546?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/5247276713377373546/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=5247276713377373546' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/5247276713377373546'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/5247276713377373546'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2008/03/web-based-application-ui-released.html' title='Web based application UI - released'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-6482320710547886606</id><published>2007-11-29T03:12:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2007-11-29T03:14:36.644-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Lorem Ipsum - dummy text generator</title><content type='html'>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Cras id est. Proin rutrum, elit et consequat convallis, lectus lorem laoreet nibh, in accumsan quam odio mollis massa. Vestibulum ullamcorper lectus eget tellus. Morbi dictum, libero sit amet adipiscing facilisis, ipsum nibh lobortis tellus, id sodales tellus augue at mauris.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Quisque sit amet nisi. Maecenas pretium gravida turpis. Sed rutrum cursus lectus. Aenean commodo magna eu nibh. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse potenti. Proin sit amet libero. Phasellus quis augue vel orci egestas nonummy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Curabitur ac eros in mi vestibulum ornare. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Ut augue leo, dignissim ut, convallis nec, consectetuer in, arcu.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;relax... here's the link for generating the 'Lorem Ipsum' random text.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.lipsum.com/"&gt;www.lipsum.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-6482320710547886606?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/6482320710547886606/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=6482320710547886606' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6482320710547886606'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6482320710547886606'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/11/lorem-ipsum-dummy-text-generator.html' title='Lorem Ipsum - dummy text generator'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-242591202255533824</id><published>2007-11-15T22:42:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2007-11-15T23:24:11.134-08:00</updated><title type='text'>An interesting icon design...</title><content type='html'>I happen to review my design which I did for an EPM portal in a CMS tool called Joomla - an open source content management tool. I noticed an interesting icon design in that application...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Generally I prefer to buy icons online from sites like stockicons.com (I'm loving it :). They have invested good amount of time, effort and creativity in getting the icons right. It gives all the finesse you will need to make your application look world class...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most of the icon visuals are abstract of what was in practise before computers came into full use... ex: the concept of using a piece of 'Paper' represents 'New' document. This is extended to other icons in that family as well like cut, copy, paste... They are established visuals and it is better to go with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1CEzk8VgI/AAAAAAAAAPs/uUHwm0Rer2E/s1600-h/cut.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133331800604300802" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1CEzk8VgI/AAAAAAAAAPs/uUHwm0Rer2E/s320/cut.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now... If I ask you to visualize the function 'Archive' I'm sure it would be an image were there is a prominent document in the front followed by some more papers fading in the background, or an image where some documents are kind of put inside a folder like image....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How do you like this icon for archive....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1C-Tk8VhI/AAAAAAAAAP0/_0N3_Q4juuE/s1600-h/archive.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133332788446778898" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1C-Tk8VhI/AAAAAAAAAP0/_0N3_Q4juuE/s320/archive.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Don't you think this is what we actually do when we archive :) Anyway applying the gestalt rule of similarity in related items this won't work in that place but joomla has a set of interesting icons to go with this....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1DjDk8ViI/AAAAAAAAAP8/gJkGPPXZANE/s1600-h/blog_icon.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5133333419806971426" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1DjDk8ViI/AAAAAAAAAP8/gJkGPPXZANE/s320/blog_icon.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When there is an opportunity to be off beat yet understandable... I think we should go for it.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-242591202255533824?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/242591202255533824/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=242591202255533824' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/242591202255533824'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/242591202255533824'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/11/interesting-icon-design.html' title='An interesting icon design...'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rz1CEzk8VgI/AAAAAAAAAPs/uUHwm0Rer2E/s72-c/cut.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-6862953258041104336</id><published>2007-10-11T03:01:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2007-10-11T03:19:08.093-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Web designer job opening in chennai'/><title type='text'>Opening for Web Designer in chennai based portal</title><content type='html'>This afternoon I had met my ex-boss for lunch and she was asking me if I can refer her a good creative designer who will be interested in working on a portal design which she heads. I was not able to pull any one from my contact. If as a designer you are interested do send me your CV. Portfolio is a must. The job location is chennai. If you are shortlisted I will give you more details about the opening...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;nmathu[at]gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-6862953258041104336?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/6862953258041104336/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=6862953258041104336' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6862953258041104336'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/6862953258041104336'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/10/opening-for-web-designer-in-chennai.html' title='Opening for Web Designer in chennai based portal'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-8229924774916829229</id><published>2007-09-11T22:11:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-09-16T21:56:47.411-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability Issue'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Interface Design'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability'/><title type='text'>Existing Design - things that work and don't work an introspection</title><content type='html'>Been busy with the hi-fidelity prototype work for the past 3weeks... But the good news is I was able to build a well appreciated and usable Interface for the SaaS based EPM solution.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This articles focuses on the importance of taking a look at the existing system before you start to re-design.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes as usability professionals we get too high on confidence in the level or expertise we have and fail to look into the importance of why things are done in a certain way (as a usability professional I' sure you would have encountered this situation in the past ). When I started to analyze the existing design I knew it was easy to use but that was only because I had a some sessions with the product experts on how the whole Scorecard creation works. To develop a scorecard in that application the user should have good amount of knowledge in the best practices, different components of a scorecard and how to measure them... while it it is important to know all of this to be able to develop a scorecard, the most important factor the existing design failed to address was, being a SaaS product, where u can sign-up for a free trial and get started right away, it really wasn't intuitive, some very important functionalities which no other EPM SaaS product give where almost unreachable (deep, down, inside)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I was almost done with the analysis and presented the prototype to team it was accepted very well initially. But as we started to have discussions on various scenarios and how the new design will address it, there I realized a gap in my prototype and how the existing design was able to handle it... Though for a first time user the existing application will look complicated for a user with domain knowledge it would still be a great product.... So I had to revisit my analysis now more from the angle, the existing design is great in terms of functionality and its potential how do i make it intuitive and not try to re-invent the wheel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Voila! This time I guess I was truly successful. The new prototype was tested for all the scenarios possible and was accepted finally... I'm done with the core modules and have started to work on user management, file management etc., The development teams has started to work on the application when we are ready with the product to go live, I will post it on my blog test it and let me know your comments....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I guess the proverb looks can be deceptive holds good for UI also :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-8229924774916829229?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/8229924774916829229/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=8229924774916829229' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8229924774916829229'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/8229924774916829229'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/09/existing-design-things-that-work-and.html' title='Existing Design - things that work and don&apos;t work an introspection'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-1015078923965131739</id><published>2007-08-07T23:17:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-08-09T04:26:30.094-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Grayscale prototype'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability Testing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Prototyping tool'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='GUI Designer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Product Usability'/><title type='text'>Usability testing - in my opinion</title><content type='html'>For the past few weeks I've been going around setting up things to start on my new assignment. Yes, I'm an Independent Creative Consultant now. Predominantly working on Product UI and Usability revamp. I work for a products company, headquartered in Norway. With fully established client base for desktop EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) solutions. Their new venture is to offer this solution on the web as SAS (software-as-a-service). I took a demo of this product while I was asked to do some consultation work on their website revamping. I was simply fascinated about the product functionality but it was not very intuitive. So here I am doing exactly what it takes to make it a world class product :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now over to the topic: Usability testing with Grayscale prototype.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As usability professionals, we base few of our design rules on established practices which are tested and used across other organizations. So when we develop the wireframe we will ensure that most of that gets into the design as hygiene. I had developed 2 wireframes and presented it to the operations head. He was able to visualize how the end product will get transformed and then he asked me if I can give him a document why this wireframe is better in terms of usability than the existing product. To give him a tangible way to measure usability I asked the question to god google “How to measure usability” after skimming thru’ the search results picked up &lt;a href="http://www.userdesign.com/usability_faq.html#measure"&gt;http://www.userdesign.com/usability_faq.html#measure&lt;/a&gt; it was precise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I picked up few metrics and developed a test and ran it thru’ few prospective users – I was really amazed at the way I could qualitatively gauge my prototypes. Sometime the things we assume the user might know are not so in reality. End of the test I went back to my table and figured out solutions for the most of the issues and developed the recommendation document. And I was sure why my design was better than the existing in terms for first time user experience, time taken to complete a task, where people get lost in the existing design and how the new design can handle it etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Deadlines sometimes make us deliver products before the end of their gestation period. Which is not very good for the product. I think as usability professional we should take intiative to champion the cause of usability in the organizations we work for. And eventually it will become an established practices for the generations to come :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some useful article about Grayscale prototype:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.newfangled.com/website_development_process"&gt;http://www.newfangled.com/website_development_process&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Prototying software &lt;a href="http://www.carettasoftware.com/"&gt;http://www.carettasoftware.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It think it will be more useful for websites than web apps.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-1015078923965131739?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/1015078923965131739/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=1015078923965131739' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/1015078923965131739'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/1015078923965131739'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/08/usability-testing-in-my-opinion.html' title='Usability testing - in my opinion'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-7619004066481631765</id><published>2007-07-16T22:32:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-07-16T22:46:04.499-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Experience'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability Issue'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Interface Designing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability in istockphoto'/><title type='text'>Follow-up article.... Poor usability on istockphoto.com</title><content type='html'>Been quite sometime since I've updated my blog eh? I read an article by Jacob Nielsen on bloggers contribution to information clutter in cyber space &lt;a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/articles-not-blogs.html"&gt;http://www.useit.com/alertbox/articles-not-blogs.html&lt;/a&gt; was contemplating on my perspective to this article and have finally decided to go low on number of post but improve the quality of each post. Now over to the article &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Remember my previous post on usability issue on istockphoto.com, they have done a quick fix to this issue, the 'search within' feature is completely removed from the site!!! Now that can only be a quick fix since 'Search within' is a critical functionality in image search portals... &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RpxV8wwBNoI/AAAAAAAAAFM/8IL9aHpB5FU/s1600-h/istock_fix.gif"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088036181388637826" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RpxV8wwBNoI/AAAAAAAAAFM/8IL9aHpB5FU/s400/istock_fix.gif" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I think instead of trying to re-invent the wheel they can do a CtrlC + CtrlV of this functionality from their parent company site gettyimages.com its handle quite well there.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RpxXCAwBNpI/AAAAAAAAAFU/yeQ2_MReW-c/s1600-h/getty.gif"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5088037371094578834" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RpxXCAwBNpI/AAAAAAAAAFU/yeQ2_MReW-c/s400/getty.gif" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-7619004066481631765?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/7619004066481631765/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=7619004066481631765' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/7619004066481631765'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/7619004066481631765'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/07/follow-up-article-poor-usability-on.html' title='Follow-up article.... Poor usability on istockphoto.com'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RpxV8wwBNoI/AAAAAAAAAFM/8IL9aHpB5FU/s72-c/istock_fix.gif' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-4093762914522153645</id><published>2007-07-01T22:05:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-07-01T23:14:24.525-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability Issue'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Interface Design'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Poor usability'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability in istockphoto'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Poor usability in search heavy site'/><title type='text'>Poor Usability in istockphoto.com</title><content type='html'>Over the weekend, I've been doing some extensive image search for one of my online campaigns. I wanted a portrait of a Team manager preferably in his 50s with a happy look on his face which will suggest 'how easy it is for him to manage data with the help of this particualr tool for which i was doing the campaign. Additionally if the image had people in the background, out of focus, like his subordinates, will add value to the campaign messaging.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;User behaiour in image search portals:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The clarity in the kind of image a user wants as they start to search will be about 30-40% as you keep refining your search keywords is when you will arrive at the right kind of image.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I used istockphotos because they have a good repository and affordably priced. The moment you enter the keyword and hit on search... automatically the option to do a 'new search' changes into 'search within'.... Everytime i have to do a new search I have to change it from 'Search within' to 'New search' adding to more number of clicks and interupting on the thought flow. It was very annoying.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And I also noticed that it threw some completely unusable search parameters as reference for the image keyword i was looking for.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RoiNiBsqCkI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cL_0TekMaOo/s1600-h/istock.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5082467795198413378" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RoiNiBsqCkI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cL_0TekMaOo/s400/istock.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the option to do a 'Search within' was by choice, it would have been more usable and time saving instead of assuming user behaviour in best possible scenario and automatically changing the search criteria.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This morning I thought I will send my feedback on this particular usability issue to istockphoto and to my surprise they din't have their feedback button upfront. I had to do some searching for that as well... I did manage to find it and have posted my comment. Lets see if they take user feedback seriously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That apart I found the right image that will suit my copy. &lt;a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/"&gt;http://www.istockphoto.com/&lt;/a&gt; has a very good image repository and the best part is you can get a good image for web usage as low as $1. These minor edits on crtical functionalities will enable the user to use the site more effeciently.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-4093762914522153645?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/4093762914522153645/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=4093762914522153645' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4093762914522153645'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4093762914522153645'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/07/poor-usability-in-istockphotocom.html' title='Poor Usability in istockphoto.com'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RoiNiBsqCkI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cL_0TekMaOo/s72-c/istock.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-1468237388655399125</id><published>2007-06-24T22:25:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-06-24T22:58:08.394-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Microsoft Interactive Table'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Branding'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Colors and Interface'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Interface Designing'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Microsoft UI'/><title type='text'>Microsoft Surface - User Interface in Mauve.</title><content type='html'>When it comes to choosing colors for the web... there is still a universal liking for shades of blue, but i always wonder is blue the only color which is easy on eyes... I do keep experimenting on different shades. But today i hit upon one on microsoft's product venture 'Microsoft Surface' - An interactive Table, What they claim the product can do is, you can actually grab virtual data like photos, videos, games with your hands and move information between objects like 2 mobile phones with natural gesture and touch.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a color which I have always felt as a shade very heavy - Mauve&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rn9UKeC3ZYI/AAAAAAAAAD0/3dAX37IZtEw/s1600-h/mauve.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5079871443537716610" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rn9UKeC3ZYI/AAAAAAAAAD0/3dAX37IZtEw/s400/mauve.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Haven't thought of using this color in my designs even in wildest of my dreams... But the designers have dared to use it as their base color with a very interesting gradient mix up with prussian blue, tinge of orange and black. The logo was even more interesting... Its is obvious that they have tried to create an abstract representation of touches, stretches and spin... which again is a mauve and orange. The logo and the color, to me has a very good scope for branding and extending unique identity to other medias like print as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rn9WDOC3ZaI/AAAAAAAAAEE/eME_ytsruUA/s1600-h/surface.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5079873518006920610" style="WIDTH: 149px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 196px" height="380" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rn9WDOC3ZaI/AAAAAAAAAEE/eME_ytsruUA/s400/surface.jpg" width="302" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:78%;"&gt;Click on the image to enlarge&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The product capabilities and the rich interactive experience show cased in their site leaves you with a WOW feeling. It definitely cutoff my mind set for Mauve which I had right from college days.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can check out the colors and read more about the product at: &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/surface/"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/surface/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-1468237388655399125?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/1468237388655399125/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=1468237388655399125' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/1468237388655399125'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/1468237388655399125'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/06/microsoft-surface-website-ui-in-mauve.html' title='Microsoft Surface - User Interface in Mauve.'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp1.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rn9UKeC3ZYI/AAAAAAAAAD0/3dAX37IZtEw/s72-c/mauve.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-5278254560135744644</id><published>2007-06-17T23:43:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-06-20T23:44:52.184-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Survey on design jobs'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Creative Country'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='GUI Designer'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Highly Paid Design Jobs'/><title type='text'>Country where Designers are Rockstars!</title><content type='html'>I'm a frequenter to Coroflot - The online design portfolio management site where designers can post and view great work. If you are creative contributor I strongly recommend coroflot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;Designers - rockstar survey&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; - Coroflot took the average salaries of the top 14 countries in the recent survey and ran them through The Economist's Big Mac Index. "Rock-osity - is the Units in which a designer value is measured( In some countries designers are simply hotter commodities - and as is the case with rockstars, demand turns into dollar$$$. And this is why they measure the degree of this demand in units of "rock-osity")&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's the resuts (courtesy &lt;a href="http://www.coroflot.com/community/salary_survey.asp"&gt;http://www.coroflot.com/community/salary_survey.asp&lt;/a&gt;). A bar graph or rather the rock graph which indicates the value for designer in each country...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hongkong I guess is the place to be followed by India.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-5278254560135744644?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/5278254560135744644/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=5278254560135744644' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/5278254560135744644'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/5278254560135744644'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/06/country-where-designers-are-rockstars.html' title='Country where Designers are Rockstars!'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-3266520177315513626</id><published>2007-06-12T00:19:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-06-12T00:36:06.605-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='User Experience'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Interesting Web Site'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Usability in IBM Express site'/><title type='text'>Loading... (an interesting representation)</title><content type='html'>The topic says it all... I happened to bump over the IBM express site today and was awestruck by the way they have used the rich media technology to enhance user experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a nutshell, if usability is about helping the user get the content they are looking for without any hassle... well then this site has definitely done a good job. Conceptualized in a very interesting way, a job well done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So here's what I liked the most about the design adding value to user experience "Loading files(streaming) is done in an intesting way: The whole design revolves around choosing which floor you want to visit and you get a virtual feeling you are taken there via the elevator. As you choose the solution of technology you want to visit the elevator takes you up and parallely uses this gap to load the file... For once i felt nice about waiting for the content to stream.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;check it out: &lt;a href="http://express-portfolio.com/ibm/"&gt;http://express-portfolio.com/ibm/&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You'll know what i mean.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-3266520177315513626?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/3266520177315513626/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=3266520177315513626' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3266520177315513626'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3266520177315513626'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/06/loading-interesting-representation.html' title='Loading... (an interesting representation)'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-3198134376172794647</id><published>2007-06-06T02:30:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-06-06T03:51:32.996-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Design School I went to</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Government college of Fine Arts (formerly Madras school of Arts) - The first ever School of Industrial Arts established in India in 1850, which later became the Madras school of Arts and Crafts and then College of Fine arts as it is now known. It was started by the british more as a training center for crafts. (I still remember seeing photographs of my supeeeeer senior: sitting with pot making wheel with half shaved hair and raised hair locks with traditional panchakacham like outfits and working in class rooms - This photographs is in the college museum now)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaGWOC3ZRI/AAAAAAAAAC4/UxV77AdASJo/s1600-h/f3cb.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072889746564801810" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaGWOC3ZRI/AAAAAAAAAC4/UxV77AdASJo/s400/f3cb.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:78%;"&gt;Picture courtesy - The Artocrats, an online alumni community of GCAC&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;The college took up arts and crafts more seriuosly as an education system when Debiprasad Roy Choudhury took over as the first Indian principal in 1929. Artists from the length and breath of India had travelled all the way to chennai to do their diploma in this college (It gives a nice feeling to know - I have walked the place they had years back). Even until today there are a lot of renouned people in the field of arts, animation, graphics, film industry who have made it big with their formal education from this college. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;In the early days of my training I found the education system... as in, the teaching, trainning methods, syllabus to be slightly primitive, meaning in the year '94 when I did my 1year(its used to be a 5 year degree program), computer based designing was the hot thing (I'm taking about the photostyler days) In the contrary we at college were asked to do typography with pen and ink. I always used to wonder... when it is as easy as typing text and taking printout why do they ask me to sit and spend hours together figuring out how to do a slant line, curvy line with ink and brush.... There were a lot of design excercise like this. Today when i look back, I can relate it very well with what I'm doing at work, that is like even 8 years after finishing my course. I learned there are 2 parts of a design one is skill and other was technology. I guess at college i had mixed up then idea of knowing technology as the skill. But in days like this when there a lot of designers who are good at technology the skill which I learnt back at college is the differentiating factor. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;It is an awesome place to be... And this article is a reminiscence of my college life and how it has equipped me to face the design world.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color:#cccccc;"&gt;*******************************************************************************&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;Here's a design excercise which was easy for me to re-create. Take it up... &lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;I enjoyed doing it as a student... I think about this little excercise when i get stuck up with my layout....&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The shapes -&lt;/strong&gt; Use the following shapes and create all possible layout &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaMMeC3ZUI/AAAAAAAAADQ/MtTeTDJhBCc/s1600-h/shape.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072896176130843970" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaMMeC3ZUI/AAAAAAAAADQ/MtTeTDJhBCc/s400/shape.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;For example:&lt;a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaM2uC3ZVI/AAAAAAAAADY/eTXED42ftxk/s1600-h/layout1.jpg"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaRQeC3ZWI/AAAAAAAAADg/LJ5Sn1bnaf4/s1600-h/layout1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072901742408459618" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaRQeC3ZWI/AAAAAAAAADg/LJ5Sn1bnaf4/s400/layout1.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;End of this excercise you will realise that you can do thousands of layout with just these 5 shapes... a friend from college had done about 3000 unique layouts out of these shapes...&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;The learning which I carry from this little lesson is that, today at work if i am assigned with a design work the moment i look at it, it is easy for me to visualize the end layout to an extend wihout even touching a piece of paper level and as I work on it gets better.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color:#cccccc;"&gt;*******************************************************************************&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="color:#cccccc;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Post me how many layouts you were able to do.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-3198134376172794647?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/3198134376172794647/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=3198134376172794647' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3198134376172794647'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/3198134376172794647'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/06/gcac-saga-govt-college-of-fine-arts.html' title='The Design School I went to'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/RmaGWOC3ZRI/AAAAAAAAAC4/UxV77AdASJo/s72-c/f3cb.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-451505003121957092</id><published>2007-05-31T23:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2007-06-01T00:09:51.115-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Icons... the first most usable icon design</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Icons... the first most usable icon design - Susan Kare.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;This afternoon I was surfing to web focusing mostly on icon design. There poped-up Susan Kare's website.... like usual i saw the portfolio (i believe in "see it to believe it") but to my surprise i ended up seeing some single bitmap icons.... like the ones you see in MS paint. i was laughing at the portfolio thinking to myself... what the heck somebody as actually dared to put stuff as primitive as this and claims that to be there portfolio... but to my surprise when i read the description at the base... it read like this "created for Apple corporation in the year 1983. I was like 'gimme a break!'. I got so hooked on i saw the entire portfolio and moved on to read about Susan Kare. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here's a portion from her bio data: "Susan Kare received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in fine arts from New York University. In 1989, she was a founding partner of Susan Kare LLP. She is a 2001 recipient of the Chrysler Design Award. read more at: &lt;a href="http://www.kare.com/design_bio.html"&gt;http://www.kare.com/design_bio.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl_FhGNmLiI/AAAAAAAAACY/XaRndWwSvPg/s1600-h/susan_kare.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070988877836463650" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl_FhGNmLiI/AAAAAAAAACY/XaRndWwSvPg/s400/susan_kare.jpg" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;If i'm asked to do a design (not just me all designers for that matter) the first thing I will tend to do is look for reference :(. I'm kinda trying to put myself in kare's shoes 24 years back creating something out of nothing... unimmaginable. I've become a great admirer of Susan Kare. Awesome. I felt i have learnt something worthwhile... while sometimes you tend to get carried away with all peer pressure.... meaning whats your friend's designation in another company, how much does he get paid, we kind of fail to get in terms with the fact that all of that is just a superficial hype. I believe in good design, simple and explicit... similar to the ideologies of susan ;). Suddenly I felt a sense of confidence I can do far far better than what I'm doing. There is more to explore in your work womething waht they call the 'job satisfaction' giving your self a a pat in the back after a great job is done. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Got her mail ID from the site... I think I'm going to mail her and tell how nice i felt knowing about her.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-451505003121957092?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/451505003121957092/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=451505003121957092' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/451505003121957092'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/451505003121957092'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/05/icons-first-most-usable-icon-design.html' title='Icons... the first most usable icon design'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp3.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl_FhGNmLiI/AAAAAAAAACY/XaRndWwSvPg/s72-c/susan_kare.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358724383439844330.post-4799788460846243414</id><published>2007-05-29T07:41:00.001-07:00</published><updated>2007-05-29T23:12:32.658-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Intro</title><content type='html'>&lt;div&gt;Hi,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’m Mathuram. Call me Mathu. I work as Creative Manager with Synaptris Decisions ( a CSS group company). I’m into a lot of things related to design as part of my role, apart from managing the design team- I’m into web design, package design, UI, branding, logo designs, collateral, etc. The best part of my work is when I’m assigned to design stuff that stands a part in terms creativity and usability.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;color:#666666;"&gt;Career track -&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl0VaT3iakI/AAAAAAAAAB8/G14kDqEP-FI/s1600-h/career1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070232297243044418" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" height="115" alt="" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl0VaT3iakI/AAAAAAAAAB8/G14kDqEP-FI/s400/career1.jpg" width="167" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:78%;"&gt;click on the image to view the enlarged version&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well the thought of starting this blog had been there for a long time now… Finally here it is. Right from the day I started to work as a fresher, there have been lots of people like my peers, seniors, friends from the design world, my bosses who have definitely contributed to what I am today. A spark that ignited me and which is propelling me even today started back in college when I won a Best package design award until then I was not so serious about my professional. More about this later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well apart from work, I have a great family a husband who is also a creative guy (picked him up along with my degree in college J. And an year old son who is fun being around with. Love to visit a lot of places, explore more in enhancing user experience, put up my own design consultancy etc, etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Guess thatz enuf about me… watch for more in my blog in upcoming days...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;cheers.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/358724383439844330-4799788460846243414?l=usability-design.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/feeds/4799788460846243414/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=358724383439844330&amp;postID=4799788460846243414' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4799788460846243414'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/358724383439844330/posts/default/4799788460846243414'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://usability-design.blogspot.com/2007/05/intro.html' title='Intro'/><author><name>Mathuram Nallathambi CUA</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01781915830818618899</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='31' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Sl1lFj9_CHI/AAAAAAAAAhw/dUuXl-ghyCs/S220/me.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://bp2.blogger.com/_sDAv21pv7wk/Rl0VaT3iakI/AAAAAAAAAB8/G14kDqEP-FI/s72-c/career1.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
