Sunday, May 20, 2012

User Experience Blooper May 2012


Ultimate Usability Testing - Pixar- Lifted  


Simpsons … confused on the UI


Computer clip from ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs


Buffing while sending message 



Bada OS (Androidish + iPhonish + Symbianish) -Samsung Wave 525 review

Having used HTC Desire HD with 4.3inch screen and low battery life, I was looking for something very compact, supporting wifi, email sync, long battery and OK camera. I came across this Samsung Wave 525 model with BADA OS 1.1. It was a tiny iPhone. I was amazed at he features it is packing at the cost of just Rs6000 ($140). The best apart is , it has a qwerty portrait keypad, which Nokia also dont have in any phone till now.

Spec -

Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
Size 240 x 400 pixels, 3.2 inches
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- TouchWiz UI 3.0
- Multi-touch zoom
Primary 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels
Features Geo-tagging
Video Yes

ADA OS :

The samsung guy have taken lot of inspiration from Android OS + iPhone+Symbian.

What is like Android -

There is pull down quick access title bar like android that give access to Bluetooth, WiFi and sound profile.
They also have contextual menu from bottom of screen like android
A task manager can be invoked similar to android by long pressing menu button. But the backward navigation is not consistent. After you go 2 or 3 screens ahead, you need to return to application menu only by hitting center home/application button
The OS support copy and past like android. but not full fledged like iphone.
….





Iphonish -
You can swap across a row (like delete in iPhone) to call anyone from contacts &  sms
You have the traditional iphone like unlock screen.
Symbianish -
You would find some contextual popup menu on long press to items like images, contacts etc.
Whats Good about BADA
Well they started as multitouch, apps based, touch screen OS. Company like Nokia still dont have any smart OS with is touch friendly.
BADA OS has good multi touch gestures like pinch to zoom(images), swap for call, etc.
There is an app store where you can download some apps and widgets. but they are very limited. Almost useless.



The home screen can have scrollable widgets
Without proximity sensor, they have managed to lock the screen when holding the phone to your ear. preventing accidental cancel.
the capacitive screen had a good response to the BADA OS. Even with low processor the OS managed to work smoothly.
They have good support of Exchange emails. I have only used the Gmail for exchange. Dont know if your company email will work.
They have integrated social feeds, sms, files in context to contact card. So you get to see all info at one place.
Bad about BADA & Wave 525
The dialer is good looking but it does not support T9 contact name search. Instead samsung guys thought everyone in the world remembers their 1000 phone numbers. So they actually try to match the phone number on the dialer rather then the contact name.
There is no call log immediately visible on dialer.
The camera of Wave 525 is really horrible. Without auto focus, most of the pictures are blured and grainy.
the photo gallery is like a windows desktop thumbnail view of files. Really bad.
The app store is just a joke. There is no serious apps for productivity, messaging, No skype, no image viewers, etc.

Business class flight

Got an opportunity to travel business class.


Saturday, May 19, 2012

Tata Aria - Experience Design


Bad Design. The driver's seat is far from the steering. Driver has to lean forward to access it.