Month: March 2010

User Experience – Tell me the desired result

It’s weekend again and it’s gym exercise time again (the real reason is I cannot get a ticket to the Hong Kong Rubgy Sevens this year … damn). This club house gym around my home is a pretty good one, and there are about 30 exercise machines like treadmills, gym systems, weights, benches, bikes, rowers etc. etc..

One thing puzzles me all along is there is a set of machines (with brand X) attracts a lot of people, and there is another set of machines (with brand Y) always get idled. And indeed, I exercise with the brand X machines only.

As far as I can tell, both brands offer similar exercise machines and all of them are good … probably except one thing – their instruction notices. Following you can find the notices of Brand Y first, and then Brand X.

Which one you will spend time on ? And I think the answer is quite obvious.

Brand Y instruction notice

Brand X instruction notice

Lessons Learnt : If you want me to try your product, please tell me the desired result first.

Kindle Apps for Tablet Computer (including iPad)

Ah, the Amazon development team is really efficient, just after a week from the release of Kindle for Mac they have another new product ready to roll out. Somehow the news is broken not from their official press release, but from a report in New York Times. This is the Kindle Apps for Tablet Computer, and it works on table computers including the iPad as well (obviously, they want people to know about this application, before the official launch date of iPad in early April).

Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers

Unlike other Kindle applications (iPhone, PC, BlackBerry, Mac), there are some new fancy features like:

  • Tailored to the size, look, and feel of your tablet computer
  • Adjust screen brightness from within the app to make reading easier
  • Page turn animation replicates the look of turning a page in a book. Or choose Basic Reading Mode for a simpler and unadorned reading experience

In the case of iPad version (assuming Apple will approve it …), the New York Times reports that:

“… large images of book covers are set against a backdrop of a silhouetted figure reading under a tree. The sun’s position in that image varies with the time of day.”

I know you want it, don’t you ? Check out the pictures and have a feel of this new application.

Kindle for Mac, now available

Yap, just one month after the beta version of Kindle for BlackBerry, today Amazon rolls out the Kindle for Mac. The features are similar to other free downloads like Kindle for PC and Kindle for iPhone. However, according to the press release …

Several features will be added to the Kindle for Mac app in the near future, including full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights. Kindle for Mac is available to customers around the world as a free download.

So I guess, we need to keep an eye on the future upgrade as well. You can download the free application from www.amazon.com/kindleformac. Will install it tonight to try it out …

Kindle for Mac

Getting freebies with Twitter

You probably know with good use of Twitter, you can fix your hotel reservation issue and even get a free dessert / appetizer. What about getting some freebies by just tweeting? You can certainly do that by:

  1. Writing a tweet about how good a company is;
  2. Writing one to complaint a company instead;
  3. Telling the world that you’re fixing a software problem, specify the company’s name in your tweet;
  4. Letting people know that you’re evaluating a website’s products / services, don’t forget the company’s name.

You know what, the companies mention in your tweets will not send you free stuff, but their competitors will as they are constantly monitoring any tweets about their rivals. For example, two hours after I tweeted about evaluating an image website …

Free credits

Mumbai in 80 hours

It’s quite obvious, 80 hours (or even 80 days) are not enough to explore this dynamic city. And in fact out of the 80 hours, I spent most of the time in meetings so not much photos were taken in this trip. Pictures aside, found something interesting in the trip …

  • There are lots of private jets in the airport taxi area (i.e. lots of rich families);
  • The Hyatt Regency Mumbai Hotel is high-tech and traveler friendly;
  • The Kindle works perfectly in the plane and a great way to kill time when waiting in lounge (no free Wi-Fi);
  • The in-flight entertainment system of Cathay Pacific, the movies District 9 and Inglorious Bastards are great;
  • The GMail is smart enough to insert a pull down menu in the editing area to let me input Indian characters;
  • You can live like a James Bond, or Jackie Chan … just hire a cab;
  • And yes, the Indian food in ITC Maratha Hotel is really delicious.

Okay, here are some photos: