User Experience & ROI

Here is the best example, no actually the proof of ROI from good user experience and need for upfront investment in UI Design. Need I say more?

100% growth from the peak of recession till now, when things are turning around
1000% growth in the last 10 years.
Check it out for the last 20 years and get surprised

Customer Experience, Social Media & Revenge

Well...! In just about 2 months, 5 million people have seen it and understood the power of social media and the damage it can cause to a mighty organization with poor customer service (Dejavu again!) Hope the companies will wake up and understand the power of online media and the real meaning of customer experience.

Best position to hold Steering Wheel

Ever wondered what could be the best position to hold a steering wheel? Having driven 3800kms (Vaishnodevi - Delhi - Bangalore via golden quadrilateral) in a short span of 1 week, and near missing head-on collision twice, I came to conclusion, this (8-2) could be the best position.

It creates two opposing forces between two hands and in under any given situation, driver can swerve the wheel in any direction with much faster reaction timings. Though it looks awkward, it's also the most comfortable position for me now.



But our movie depiction of (10-2) is probably best suited to Driving Miss Daisy. It's never possible to react quickly. Specially if you sweat in hands.

Marketing & User Experience

Though there is a stark similarity between these two professions, many times they never talk to each other. Each one is on his own. And the end result, the product suffers or fails at the market. Finally no one in the company will be really accountable to these failures, because nobody realizes the root cause of such failures. Every one will think the users are stupid and they couldn't appreciate the good product.

Marketing & Advertising are the "Brand Promises' (gets Mind share)
User Experience is the "Brand Deliverable" (Gives Market Share)

When a service or product lives up to the promise by actually delivering the promise, there will definitely be a word of mouth marketing happening. (Now, who am I to say its the most powerful sales tool in the world. More true if its related to women)

Five Second (Usability) Test

Here is a kickass online tool for a programmer or for some one who thinks he too can design something, (but not a professional designer) to collect some honest feedback about their designs. Especially, if that designer is a boss of some sorts and can't get critical comments. It gives the best results in about 3 days time after uploading a screen shot and then on, the number of visits to your design reduces gradually.

The real persuasion comes from the little counter and the sentence below it, which says "Cheer up a designer..". Its so compelling, you won't be able to resist trying it at least once. :) Good for them, good for the wannabe designer.

BTW: If you're a designer, this tool is a big boon. you can go ahead and actually prove to your left brainy boss, that your designs really work as intended. The power balance tilts. May the force be with you.

Design Sense vs Common Sense

Most managers (& management) think design is common sense and they have acquired plenty of it due to their age and experience. This is where they falter in their design sense. Its really sad that people who follows an Accountant's or a Lawyer's suggestions blindly never thinks about a Designer's advice. It's time they learn to respect Design & design sense (which more often contradicts common sense & ego) and get ready to pay for what its worth. It's definitely worth as much or even more than any of the management roles.

Stanford, MIT & Harvard have been promoting some design thinking for the very same reason.

"Good leaders will now look to design & innovation as a principal source of differentiation and competitive advantage; they would do well to incorporate design thinking into all phases of the (business) process."

Designers vs Programmers

Here is growing list of Right vs Left brain activities and skill sets.

1. Visual vs Verbal
2. Emotional vs Rational
3. Leader vs Manager
4. Uncertainity vs Certainity
5. Imagination vs Reality
6. Strategy vs Execution
7. Design Sense vs Common Sense (!)
   
8. Song & Dance vs Dialog
9. Artistic vs Analytical
   

 If you've some thing to contribute, leave it in the comments.

Drunken Drivers and Hidden Messages

My first reaction to this road side display by Bangalore Traffic Police is...
"If this driver was drunk, why did someone else dropped something big on the car?" Did they hate him so much? Or did driver hit a tall building and it fell on the car?

Our normal association with drunken driving is a fast car crashing in a head on collision and smashed frontal portion. And here I could see a clear cognitive dissonance. Enough Indian movies have embedded it in our mind.

The police could have displayed the context of this crash for people to remember it for a longer time frame. A picture always speaks more than words. Think of it as thumbnail in picture and details in physical form. All of us are used to this representation of scenarios right. Don't make me think!

PS: I really appreciate the good service done Bangalore Police anyway.

Gender Bias - Packaging design

I saw this at a pharmacy POS Display. The products were placed at about 8 feet from the counter and I could barely read the words on packaging. How can someone giving a 2 sec attention to this display know that these are two different products targeted towards different genders? The chances are pretty slim. Designers should consider context of use (display) or the design ends up pretty useless.

The only differential is the height of the packaging and given the short attention span, one may not be able to comprehend them as two products. And it will surely affect the bottom-line of at-least one of the products. The simplest solution could have been a color coding of pink & blue which would act as pre-attentive variable for better cognition.

PS: The products I'm talking about are the two Tommy Hilfiger Deo Spray bottles in the center of the image.