Alexa Skill - HousieAssist home assistant who can make life easy for you

Technology can be used to make lives better. How? with this question me and a friend set out to put together some ideas on what we can do on the voice enabled skills which is going to be the next big thing with help of technologies like Alexa, Siri, GoogleHome.



So we wanted to think of a place where one can best use Alexa - there are so many skills availabe in alexa over 50000 I guess, but this skill which we wanted to develop should be simple solution to a day-today problem unique also. In the growing urban population across the globe and nuclear families which has become common thing even in traditional countries like India. How do we leave instructions to people who offer their service in our absence say a cook who takes keys from us and cooks in our absence, kids who arrive before us, parents who needs to be reminded on something. Here is where our idea of HousieAssist a home assistant was born.



Leave voice instructions for different people in your house and they can ask Alexa HousieAssist to read the message for them.



For example: Lets say you want to leave voice instruction for your kid who arrives home ahead of you.



Leave Message:



You: "Alexa, ask HousieAssist to record message for Tejas"

Alexa: "What is the message?"

You: "Tejas, please don't miss your drums class today. Come back and start preparing for your geography test"

Alexa: "Message recorded. Would you want to continue"

You: No

Alexa: " Ok Bye"



Read Message:

Tejas: "Alexa, ask HousieAssist is there are any message for me" (Or they can state their name)

Alexa: "what is your name?"

Tejas: "Tejas"

Alexa: "Tejas, please don't miss your drums class today. Come back and start preparing for your geography test"

Alexa: "Would you want me to repeat message or delete message"

Tejas: Repeat

Alexa - would now repeat and ask if it should repeat or delete message again and delete when you have heard and uttered delete.



The skill is here for download:

https://www.amazon.in/Home-Assistant-Housie-Assist/dp/B07C4V5NY1/ref=sr_1_9/260-9511652-1456468?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&qid=1524452660&sr=1-9



Here's a little demo of the skill:

What is usability? - a non-technical explanation

‘What is usability?’ if you search this question in Google with a quest to understand in simple words what this means, the chances are you may end up with more question on what is task analysis, what is IA, what is prototyping…. And the list is endless.

I have constantly thought of ways to explain people who ask me this question. Where do I start, how much should I tell them are some of the questions that come in my mind before answering.

One simple question leading to several question… huh?

Well, recently I had been to a tourist spot in Kerala, India – Padmanabhapuram Palace, were I could nail the answer that I wanted for the question ‘What is usability?’

The entire palace was an architectural wonder a must visit place more so because it is not being maintained well just a few more years before it would be closed for public.  As we passed a water well, I noticed a ring like relief carved on stone at the base where you stand to fetch water.  

It was not even noticed by many who were looking up to marvel the wooden carvings of the palace. Instantly we knew (my husband and I he is also into UI and UX) what it was meant for. It was a relief which has been carved to hold the pots from falling while they are being filled with water. (see next fig. photoshoped)

This my friend is what usability is. There is a purpose, there are tools, but what helps you do it efficiently is what usability is all about (like the ring relief to hold the pot). 

Usability has become a terms that is so restricted to the desktops, smartphones and other electronic devices but to me as a usability professional myself, I enjoy the thought process that has gone inside designs such as this.

This palace was built around 1601 AD, what can I say well a usability guru was there then :)

Adding subtitle to youtube video

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 :)
So I ventured into how these .srt files are made which is the format that is accepted by youtube.

Youtube has tutorial videos from pretty much everything that you want to learn under the sun or even more. This video came in handy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t6cvEm600

There is a freeware named DivX Media Subtitler 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.

How to unblock users in MSN

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:
Go to tools >> Options >> Privacy... Move all the 'block list' to 'Allow List' Bingo!

Templates and Themes in Open Office

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.

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.

Here's an insight into what I learnt.

Templates:

1. What ever file you create with header, footer, BG can be used as templates. You have to save the file as .ott

2. To define font and other attributes you should use the 'Styles and formatting' dialog box -(Format -> Styles and formating) This will help you to define font, color, size etc for various usage like Header, body text etc.

3. To use this template for future document creation follow this:

File -> Templates -> Organize -> (Select a location to save the template for ex: My Templates) -> Command button -> Import template -> Select the sample.ott file.

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 -> command -> Set As Default Template -> Bingo.

Now Open a new document and it will have this template in it pre-defined.

Color themes for Open Office tables.

This is simple. Do a pivot table 5x6 matrix. Give the color combination you want.



1. Now open 'Table -> Auto Format' '



2. Click on 'Add'



3. Give a name to this format and save - e.g. corporate blue

Note: You can include Font type, color, size, alignment and lot more. Which will get saved in the format for future use.

Sharing Open Office 'Auto Format'

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.

The formats we add to the Auto Format library are all saved as a file called 'autotbl.fmt'

This file will be stored in this location (C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2 (or3)\user\config)

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 -> Auto Format' in their system also.

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

I have created some interesting themes and templates. I'm continuing to explore Open Office to unravel other designer specific features.

Here are some thumbnails of sample reports I create.
















Have a good time trying these out.

cheers

Some of my recent logo design works

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.

I have posted some of them in coroflot. Check out:
http://www.coroflot.com/nmathu/logo_designs

Google SEO tips

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.

After the results are listed, in the address bar - at the end add &gl=us (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.

Useful links to PDF convertors, Screenshot capture tool

Here are some good links that I want to share with everyone.

Taking print screen from movie clip:
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.

PDF convertor: 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

PDF to word convertor: The freeware itself is called Free PDF to Word Doc convertor.

PDF split and merge: 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.

Inspirational site for some great color and layout ideas

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 :).
But first do check out http://bestwebgallery.com/ 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.

Post a comment if it was useful to you as well.

An awesome logo designing company

Here's one company I keep going back for logo inspiration
http://www.misipile.com/

Web designer opening - chennai

Here's a great chance to work with me ;)

I have an opening with the company I work for, check if your profile suits the requirement mentioned below
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Job Title: Senior Web Designer
Location: Chennai, India
Summary
3-5 years of design experience with a good portfolio to substantiate.
Job Description
This position forms an integral part of the creative team working on website related design work.
Job Requirements
- Proficiency in the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop, Image Ready, Flash, Dreamweaver.
- Working knowledge of print software like Corel Draw will be an added advantage.
- Ability to grasp and conceptualize design briefs and add original flavor to the designs
- Be accurate and succinct in communicating and presenting concepts, design ideas and actual design, in written and verbal forms
- Should be exposed to CSS concepts and be adept in htmlizing designs
- Exposure to usability, user interface design will be a big plus

Candidate should present their design portfolio for evaluation
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If you are interested in this opening send in your CVs to nmathu@gmail.com
Note: Please mention in the subject of the mail - 'Web designer profile'

Handling temporary Creative Block...

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.

I told to myself print is not your strength anymore... c'mon give up, face it.

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.

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.

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."

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.

This book is a must read I strongly recomend it. Will post a soft copy of the design once they are sent for print.

cheers

Web based application UI - released

Hi,

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.

Check out www.corporaterexpress.com , 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.

And by the way even the site was designed by me.

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An interesting icon design...

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...

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...

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.

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....

How do you like this icon for archive....



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....

When there is an opportunity to be off beat yet understandable... I think we should go for it.

Opening for Web Designer in chennai based portal

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...

nmathu[at]gmail.com

Existing Design - things that work and don't work an introspection

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.

This articles focuses on the importance of taking a look at the existing system before you start to re-design.

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)

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.

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....

I guess the proverb looks can be deceptive holds good for UI also :)

Usability testing - in my opinion

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 :)

Now over to the topic: Usability testing with Grayscale prototype.

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 http://www.userdesign.com/usability_faq.html#measure it was precise.

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.

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 :)

Some useful article about Grayscale prototype:
http://www.newfangled.com/website_development_process

Prototying software http://www.carettasoftware.com/
It think it will be more useful for websites than web apps.

Follow-up article.... Poor usability on istockphoto.com

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 http://www.useit.com/alertbox/articles-not-blogs.html 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

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...

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.

Poor Usability in istockphoto.com

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.

User behaiour in image search portals:
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.

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.

And I also noticed that it threw some completely unusable search parameters as reference for the image keyword i was looking for.



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.

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.

That apart I found the right image that will suit my copy. http://www.istockphoto.com/ 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.