From the monthly archives: September 2010

Curb cut failure

on September 28, 2010 · 1 Comment

Ever since I learned about the thought applied in designing curb cuts, I have been noticing them all over the SF city. One particular design instance defeats the purpose of curb cuts. I have sketched the failure of curb cut application on 7th and Mission Street intersection in San Francisco. The curvature of the road [...]

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Of password visibility

on September 26, 2010 · No Comments

Jacob Neilson argues that “Usability suffers when users type in passwords and the only feedback they get is a row of bullets. Typically, masking passwords doesn’t even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures. Users make more errors when they can’t see what they’re typing while filling in a form. [...]

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Aesthetic and Utilitarian design types

on September 26, 2010 · No Comments

Warren Berger’s recently published book — “Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life and Maybe Even the World”. I read his interview on CNN. This is what I learned from that article. There are two types of design – aesthetic type which is more like self- expression. The other type is utilitarian and deals with [...]

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Intelligent copy feature

on September 23, 2010 · No Comments

Typical scenario – I copy some text and want to paste it in a text field. Instead of pressing Cntrl + V, I accidentally press Cntrl + C. It copies the blank text in the text field. An intelligent copy feature should be able to recognize the blank text and revert back to the last [...]

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Chrome does not show title on the tab

on September 22, 2010 · No Comments

Safari and Firefox show the title on the tab, Chrome does not.

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Second thoughts on gtalk

on September 18, 2010 · No Comments

While chatting with my friends on gtalk, I have often wondered after reading their responses if that was really what they intended to say. Or have they given it 2nd thoughts or perhaps just rephrased their lines or just corrected their spellings. Though I can never know the complete story, it will be fun to [...]

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Relevant adverstising on hulu.com

on September 16, 2010 · No Comments

I catch up on my favorite comedy shows on hulu.com. Their strategy for advertising is very user oriented. Before the video starts playing, they used to have an option for letting the viewers choose from either the long 2 minutes advertisement (after which there will be no more interruptions) or the shorter 30 seconds clip [...]

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