Zoho CRM User Experience & Interaction Design Blog

Colors & Web Applications

The success of a software relies on number of factors. Some of the factors are good features, good UI and Usability, excellent support, easy learning curve and most importantly, the value-for-money.

Colors and Aesthetics add an extra value to the software. But they ALONE may not sell the software. Depending on the web application and domain, colors and aesthetics should be properly used to make the best out of it. So you may ask or wonder how to figure out whether a web application requires more excellent colors and aesthetics?

Well, as of I know…there is no definite rules here. But I have few suggestions. It may work well for you. First classify whether your software/product is a techie product or productivity/office product or personal entertainment product.

I classify techie products are the ones used by technical guys, i.e the software for systems management, server management, bandwidth monitoring etc. They are a niche segment. These products deal with sensitive data in %, 7 digit decimal accuracy, uptimes, downtimes, traffic etc. The Producttivity / office products are those used in daily office life, like word processors, spreadsheets, page designers, image editors, mail clients, browsers etc. Personal entertainment products are those MP3 music players, video players, streaming movie clients etc. Some software may fall into the union set of any two categories.

Most of the applications which fall into the above 3 categories are now offering web clients / web applications too. Techie products which runs a server at the back-end, now offers “access-from-anywhere” type web-based interface to interact. And, many of the productivity products too, have started appearing as web-application editions. Google’s online word processor, Zoho’s Writer, mail clients (yahoo mail beta) are already available with a very strong user base. And with the advent of streaming flash, anyone can now build a flash based video player easily with Flash SDK. YouTube.com is a classic example. As of now, there are many web applications available for techie products and productivity products.

So when it comes to coloring, I would suggest the techie web apps does not require that much focus on skins/themes. Many techie web app user interfaces,that display status using colored icons, or statistical colored charts should use color themes judiciously. Take care that your theme/skin does not over-shadow the mission-critical status icons or charts. When there is a importance to data, show the data. Don’t hide it among jazzy graphic themes. For example, a system admin who uses a web-app to monitor the status of all critical devices will prefer to see a dashboard, which shows the device status in colors. Say, green LED icon for device up-and-running,blinking red LED icon for problem etc. So in such user-interface, care should be taken not to introduce distracting colors/themes.

Where as, in some monotonous web apps, say for example a spread sheet , where large amount of text appears in black with white background, you can give different type of colors/themes to the application’s interface to enhance the user-experience. Enhancing the interface with subtle and peppy colors will help to reduce the visual boredom.

Concluding, I would say, colors/themes and skins are very subjective and directly relates to the type of web application. Just make sure your web application uses colors/themes judiciously.

- Dharma

(Note : My suggestions may not be 100% applicable to all web applications. And my suggestions are based on my experiences with other web applications as well as the products I have worked on. Feel free to share your views. )

5 years ago, the default TV scenario was like, owning a 21 inch near-flat TV in common households. Then came the korean revolution. Akai and TCL turned the whole market upside down with their low cost offerings. Soon LG and Samsung followed the low cost bandwagon.. crashing market hold of BPL, Thomson and few others. Only a few brands like Onida, Videocon were able to survive the low cost wave then.

Soon the market was flooded with affordable 21 inch real flat TVs, offering a chance for middle class people to buy them. Quickly the 21 inch real flat became the de-facto entry standard, and the 29 inch TVs started moving in, with lower price tags. Two years ago, LG and Samsung started promoting 29inch TV with Rs.20K price tags. And guess what ? most of the TV show rooms are now selling good number of 29s. With flexible finance options and 0% interest schemes, people are no more restrained from buying 29 inch TVs. Coupled with the Rs.5K DVD players you can install a basic home theatre now. And for another 7K, you can buy a 5.1 amplified speakers and complete your home theater. Yes, Home theaters which was once rich people’s symbol, is now available for everyone.

So if 29s move down to common man’s segment, what is entering into the rich segment? Yes, your guess is right, the Plasma’s and LCDs. Now, all consumer brands have a good portfolio of Plasma’s and LCD tvs.

Plasmas and LCDs are identical to each other. They occupy less space, more display area, rich colors, sophisticated features and a rich experience. Except for the underlying technology (plasma vs LCD ) both are identical. LCDs have one advantage that they are available in varous screen sizes. Starting from 15″ and 17″ which is used for computers and ranges through 19, 24, 32, 42 and so on. Somewhere I read Hitachi has a 100″ prototype for LCD TV. I am not sure anyway. Plasma TVs, for some technical reasons are available only in larger screen sizes (42, 52, 64 etc).

Today the LCD TV is the preferred choice for home theater enthusiasts. With the advent of HD-TV technology, Entertainment on-Demand services, digital home satellite connections, and HD-DVD / Blu-Ray discs, the home entertainment is entering into the next step.

LCD TVs are little cheaper now, a 26″ LCD TV costs around Rs.70K, and the standard 32″ LCD TV costs around Rs.98K. Earlier they were around some Rs.90K and Rs.1.2L appx. Check the LCD TVs we have in our office’s conference rooms. One in the first floor, and other in the ‘B’ block. It is unfortunate that you cannot watch any TV programmes in these TVs. But the computer display experience should tell you how rich it will be, if you watch digital tv in LCD.

Between these CRT TVs and flat panel LCD TVs, there is a niche segment called “Projection TVs”. They are sort of compromised options. Technically, they look like a large 100″ LCD TV, but they use a projector which is installed behind the screen. Using optical technology, the projection from the undrelying projector is deviated and magnified to fit the 100″ screen. But projection TVs are not successful, as the display is not consistent from edge to edge.

So what’s next? expect some low price seasonal offers in LCD TVs and Plasma TVs for this Diwali. But, do not buy the LCD/Plasma TVs now. Wait until, the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format wars settles down. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray uses a content protected video stream which needs compatible HDMI decoder/adaptors in TVs. The current assortment of LCD TVs and Plasma TVs are not fully compatible with the standards. So wait till the standards come into force.

Till then, check the market periodically and keep saving the bucks.

- Dharma

This is the screenshot from Opera 9.0.0, asking to upgrade to Opera 90.1.

I suppose it should be 9.0.1. Some typo error must have occured.

- Dharma

MockupScreens is a small windows software tool, aimed at User Interface designers, Product Architects and Managers. It is developed by Igor Jesse.

Developed with User Interface designers and Architects in mind, MockupScreens lets you create user interface mockups in black & white . It is not like visio, where you use a flow-chart approach to design the User Interface. It is similar to Visual Basic IDE and has the basic controls like Textbox, Checkbox, Radio Button, Buttons, Tree control etc. You can click a control in the left side toolbar and click on the UI space in the center. There is a little property editor in the bottom where you can change the text value or some basic properties.In the right side, you can see list of all controls you used in the user interface.

MockupScreens, is not just a UI design tool. It features a slide show option, helping you to do a walk-through, which is very much needed to evaluate a sketched UI. The slideshow is not fully loaded, but it is handy.

To test the software, I downloaded the 30 day trial and designed an user-interface. it took hardly 15 mins to place the controls, edit the properties and prepare the storyboard with two screens. Both are identical, except the screen screen shows the content of the second tab. MockupScreens allows you to copy-paste an entire screen and edit the controls. This saves a lot of time,when your walk-through includes a series of similar looking UIs. (Example : Wizards)

Binay Application Development or Web Application Development ?

MockupScreens is more binary app UI friedly. But it can be used to construct web app UIs too.

Usability, Ease of Use

Easy to handle, it takes some 10 to 20 minutes to understand how it works and how it can be used. Once you are familiar, you can straight away jump into action. Though it doesn’t provide any advanced editor options, it packs the basic features.

How much does this cost?

The software is priced at $59.00. Considering the cost and features offered, I would say MockupScreens is a value-for-money software tool.

Conclusion:

A decent tool for designing UI mockups. Not professional, but sounds good.

Website : http://www.mockupscreens.com

- Dharma

Having gone through many resumes for the past one and half years, I feel, many people are un-aware about preparing a “selling” resume. No! I am not talking about the look-and-feel, or the colors or the fonts. I am talking about the contents of the resume.

Many candidates tend to prepare the resume from an already existing resume. Fresh graduates usually use their senior’s resume or some unknown’s resume. The result, most of them carry the sames mistakes passed on, from one resume to another resume.

One of the major issues we face, (and probably everyone in any hiring board) is the descriptions of projects! Candidates just fill up all marketing stuff about the project they have worked in and forget to include their role in that project. People who hire always look for the roles and not the project descriptions. 90% of the interviewers are least bothered about the project descriptions, unless it is a terrific or some brand new concept etc.

Most interviewers will agree, if I suggest to give only a few lines of description about the project. Then, give a good description of what you did in that project. How you used the technology to achieve some task. To put it simple, write how you used ‘this’, to achieve ‘that’. This helps in understanding your exposure easily.

Here are some tips to write a better resume

1. Start with your name and your technical role. Use some role names like “Java/Struts Developer”, “ASP Developer”, “Web Graphics Designer” something that says who you are technically.

2. Your contact details on the top. Do not give your contact details in the last page. HR and Interviewers dont have that much patience to swap the pages and locate your contact details

3. Give a short summary about your professional life on the first page. Write how much year experience you have, write about your expertism in your domain, write about some specific certifications/ affiliations/ achievements that you own. For example, if you are CCNA certified professional, mention it in the summary.

4. Give a precise skillset. Mention your level of mastering (Intermediate, Expert, Novice etc) only if you are sure about that. Otherwise, avoid mentioning the mastering levels altogether.

5. List the name of companies that you have worked with, in a seperate heading. Dont let the interviewers browse through the resume to find the name of companies.

6. The project/product should be presented in a descending fashion. Always the very recent project/product should be listed first. The old project should be listed last.

7. For each project clearly mention the technologies you used, whether you worked in a team or solo, and most importantly, what you did in that project/product? Avoid writing an extensive project description. Just write about the project in a few lines, followed by your roles and actions in that project.

8.List customer testimonials / awards received during the course of a project /product / service.

Remember, your resume is your marketing brochure. It should sell you, and not the projects/products you worked with.

-Dharma