Zoho CRM User Experience & Interaction Design Blog

This happend two weeks ago. I was returning from my home town by bus and landed at Kathipara. Got an auto to velachery and started speaking to the driver. The auto I hopped in is a big Piaggio Ape model (Not the regular bajajs). He revealed some interesting facts about the chennai ‘APE’ autos - Investments and returns.

1. Those big autos (usually driven as small share Autos) are actually earning more than regular autos
2. Such small-share autos (made by Ape, Garuda etc) runs on Diesel and has a fuel-efficient yet powerful engines. Easy to maintain and their mileage is 35kmpl. (Re.1 per kilometer)
3. These autos cost Rs.2.5 lakhs (including the permit i think)
4. He is driving from 7am in the morning till 9 or 10pm in the evening and earns around Rs.1000 per day average.
5. Running the auto in share-auto mode yields more income per kilometer than a ’single-savaari’.
6. From the daily earnings, Rs.500 per day goes to loan and remaining to his pocket. Apart from fuel charges and other maintenance, he still earns Rs.200 per day minimum.
7. He said he bought the auto 10 months ago, and the loan is about to close in 2 months.. and from then on, around 50% of his earnings is complete profit !
8. Also driving a rental-auto (Rs.400/day for Ape models, and Rs.140/day for bajaj models) is more profitable for daily-income. But on the long run, a own auto will give more profit.
9. He is planning to buy another auto this year.

I was thinking that probably all chennai auto drivers must be earning in 5 digits. But my friend told that income depends on where the auto stand is. Auto stands located in happening places, bus termials, central, kathipara type of busy places are earning more.

Anyway that’s interesting !

Looks like 2007 is the year of cinema theaters. INOX started off with a bang, and it is PVR, who is likely to follow in June, with the biggest multiplex in asia (rumour?). It is said that Sathyam Cinemas and Devi Cinemas are planning for an extension and revamp. Expect some of the biggest blockbusters this year screened in these new theaters. Some of the candidates are Rajini’s Shivaji, Kamal’s Dasavadharam, Shrek 3, Pirates of Caribbean 3, Spiderman 3, Ghost Rider, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and more

Introduction
INOX at Chennai Citi Center, was ready long ago and it was expected to open during Diwali, then expected around Christmas/New Year.. and finally, last week, the automatic door managed to open and the security guard welcomed the viewers.

We tried to book the tickets online and found Chennai was not listed in the online booking. Upset, we decided to drive to Chennai Citi Center and book tickets for GURU. We did that two days back and entered the mall yesterday night. Looks like chennai malls and mall-visitors never sleep.

INOX has 4 screens at Chennai Citi Center. I am not sure about this anyway, coz I saw only two screens in the two floors. Somebody please confirm. There is a ticket counter at the ground floor with outlets. Inox features 3 types of seats. One - the executive class priced at Rs.XXX (i dont know yar!) Two, the Regualrs @ Rs.120 (inclusive tax) and Three, the economy @ Rs.10. Only Executive and Regulars can be booked in advance and all time. The Rs.10 ticket is said to be issued only 30 mins before every show. I wonder if they really have Rs.10 seats? Entrance is at third floor. Either you can test your patience waiting for the lift or, take a quick escalator cruise to 3rd floor.

Sekuruti (as capten says)
After getting hold of our tickets, we reached the 3rd floor and entered the hall. INOX has decided to opt for strict security. So ladies and gentlemen will be checked for a long list of prohibited items, which includes Cigaretts, matchbox, lighters, water bottles, books, bags etc etc. At the security gate you should hand-over all your accessories.. except the wallets, phones and handbags. He will seal them in a poly-bag and issue a token. Remember to re-collect ur belongings when you leave the theater.

Architectural Marvel?
The entrance leads to a hall which has two screens on either side. 90% of the flooring is carpeted. The center hosts the cafetaria and snacks outlet. The extreme lefts and rights hosts the rest rooms. Smoke rooms? well I dont think there are any. There was some difficulty in reading the ticket to find which screen we should enter. Luckily, one of the helper directed us and we entered. Wow! the hall was amazing. Light guided steps and carpeted floors. The interiors are really good. The size of the hall is similar to Shree / Santham at Sathyams. Some 20 rows with 19 seats.. probably seating 400+ audience at a time. Architectural marvel? Donno !

Interiors
Interiors are really good.. nice lighting and coloring. The steps are clearly marked with neon glows and the seat-number-directors are inscribed on the floor. You will reach your seat within minutes. No hassles. That was cool. The Seats are little hard, but okay. Wide enough to accomodae a noraml physique person. Push back enabled. I found the backrest was not angled enough and during interval i felt slight neck pain. There is ample legroom to stretch your legs without hitting the seat in the front.

Fragrance, Audio and Visual
The sound is upto the mark, except some annoying “chrrrrchrrrrrrrr” noise during the first 5 minutes. The projection is clear and crisp from edge-to-edge. Very good. Cleanliness.. is good and even there are automated air-freshners sitting on top of the OCS surround speakers.

Canteen..Cafeteria
Grab a nachos for Rs.45. Grab a flavorred pop-corn for Rs.45. “Amma vaanga .. ayyaa vaanga.. etha yeduthaalum ambathu rooba”. You get almost all type of quick bites and other snacks there. Combos featuring burgers, sandwiches, popcorns and cokes are available ranging from Rs.1XX down to Rs.65 for a popcorn and coke. Popcorn+coke is probably the only value for money deal available. Thirsty? you need to buy water. You are prohibited from bringing your own water supplies . Cokes are again Rs.45. Oh yeah, you have fruit juicess too. Add Rs.200 for snacks in your movie budget, if u visit INOX.

Trekking Trekking
I guess for the night shows, people has to take the steps down, to reach the ground floor. We walked down the steps to reach the ground floor. Adangappaa.. sameee.. Anyway I believe this will not be the case in morning shows.

Conclusion
A very good beginning for INOX, with good screens, halls, seats and state-of-the-art projection. Let down by the hefty price-tags of snacks, and few itching issues. INOX is probably too money-minded?

After some 4 years.. I played my hands in Flash again… Yeeehaaaww ! There are some software I always love sooo much, they are Photoshop, Truespace, Flash and Premiere !

Today was FACE 2007, an event full of fun programs. And I was offered to do the title part. The time was short so I started yday evening with preparing the sound track. Used the trustworthy Audacity to cut bits and pieces of various tracks and composed a 34 second audio clip. But it took nearly 3 hours to listen to various tracks from my collection and pickup the bits.

Then today morning onwards, I was preparing photos and video clips… and finally started composing the title sequence in FLASH Basic 8. Took nerly 4 hours to compose a 34 second run-length title sequence. The fact it took 4 hours is because, I forgot almost everything in flash. 4 years (again the number 4) is such a long gap and I have not touched flash in the meantime. Anyway, applying my best effort and fast learning curve, I managed to complete the title sequence with a modified script (due to delivery constraint). Finally it was 4.35 when I finished and luckily the event which is supposed to start at 4.15, was getting delayed by various other reasons.

After uploading the FLASH projector file to the event laptop, I felt a relaxing breath.. and only then I remembered I didnt eat lunch. hehehe.

Well the event started, my title sequence was executed.. and wow cool, the presentation looked better at the auditorium’s big display. Suddenly when the title was half-way through, the power was cut and the whole thing paused. I never felt soo upset.

I am not sure if my title sequence was good or bad. But it is the presentation problem, that spoiled the whole mood. Slowly I got myself cheered up and enjoyed the show later.

- Rajesh Sundaram

Two days back I visited a dealer in T.Nagar who sells premium home theater systems. After a couple of regular demos of Marantz and Yamaha AV receivers, I noticed a black box in that rack and found that it is a Blu-ray disc player from Sony.

He gave us a 10 minute demo of Blu-ray movie experience. Switched on the player, connected the Marantz receiver and the room was ready. There was a big 72″ plasma TV and standard 5.1 speaker setup driven by Klipsh speakers

We selected the movie “Behind enemy lines” and sat comfortably. After a few seconds the movie started. DAMN ! I was like this -> totally unbelievable.. amazing.. awesome.. phew! Exceptional picture clarity .. sharpness and accurate clarity from the film to screen. 1080 lines of clarity displayed in High Definition plasma TV is sure enough to make your jaws touch the floor. (To compare.. a normal DVD displays 480 lines max ). For the next 10 minutes I was soooo involved in that movie.. enhanced by the flying bullet sound from the snipers, land mine explosions and the wind thrust sounds from F-16s wankel engines! That was awesome experience.

To feel the awesome experience … you should see it in real.

High definition movies is gonna be the next sure thing in home entertainment. HD everywhere.. TVs, Movies, Videos, Content-on-demand services. So in the next 3 years, Blu-ray and HD-DVD will flood the market allowing the viewers to enjoy rich High definition entertainment.

Here are some facts that you should know ..

1. Blu-ray is a High-Definition storage medium developed and promoted by Sony

2. Blu-ray is pitched as the competitor to HD-DVD and has higher storage capacity than HD-DVD

3. Blu-ray players cost up to Rs.50K and are expected to become economical in coming years.

4. Blu-ray and HD-DVD players use the HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connection to send the audio/video signals to the TV/Display. Only HDMI connection can display HD contents.

5. To watch high definition contents, you need a HDMI equipped LCD/Plasma/CRT TV. If your LCD / PLASMA TV doesnt have this feature, then you will not get the full benefit.

6. HD contents are protected by Copy-protection mechanisms. Though HD-DVD is cracked now, Blu-ray is yet to be cracked. So available of HD movie discs in gray market may take some time.

8. HD players are designed with features like.. IP protected video/audio streaming, copy-protection enabling at TV-level and time-limited-play nuisances.

To conclude.. High definition movie experience is great., but you need to spend a lot for the TVs, players and Home theatres. Right now, HD is a ultra-premium luxury.

Hope many of you know about Kalki’s acclaimed tamil historical novel “PONNIYIN SELVAN” which is spinned around Raja Raja Cholan’s life. Some may have read it.. some may be still reading it again and again.

So how do you like that novel ? cast your vote above… If you have anything to share about the novel, let other know !

What is your favorite character? Select from above

Incident 1:

This monday I was in my home town. The BSNL dial-up connection that I use there, has expired and I wanted to renew. But that day was a government holiday and 99.9% of the offices are closed. So I thought BSNL office too would be closed. But that monday evening, i was driving through the main road, where BSNL’s customer care office is, and found it was open !!!

Parked the Scooty, entered in and surprised to see one officer was sitting in the desk. I asked him for a renewal pack and the service was prompt. He answered my doubts about renewal etc.

When asked, why the customer care is open on a holiday, he said BSNL’s customer care is open 365 days a year.. from 8am to 8pm. Aint that cool?

Incident 2:

I am using BSNL broadband at home and was using the Rs.500PM plan. I wanted to change the plan to Rs.900 unlimited. When approached the BSNL exchange in RAM nagar, Velachery, the officer in-charge told me to write a letter to BSNL asking for a plan-change. I wrote a letter and handed over. Within the next 3 days, the letter was forwarded to Panagal Bldg office and my plan was changed. That was a pleasant surprise! I never thought BSNL became so fast in processing requests. In olden days, usually such requests will take weeks to get processed and you need to follow-up frequently to get things done.

And till date I never had any link-drops, connection cuts with my BSNL broadband. Unbelievable.. eh ?

Incident 3:

When I re-located from Royapettah to velachery, I transferred the phone too. But there was a mistake in the address.. and my monthly bills never reached my home. I was browsing their website looking for some contact numbers (at that time.. BSNL customer care number did not exist). I couldnt find any proper numbers. So I just filled in their online contact-us form requesting the change in address. I was pretty sure that it was useless. But surprisingly, the next month, I received my bill with correct address!

Well I am not a fan of BSNL, but still I would rate their service to be very decent, compared to their monopoly days.

Oh btw.. being a BSNL landline subscriber has another advantage too. I used my telephone bill for address-proof, which is accepted everywhere. Whenever you are in need of address proof.. produce your BSNL bill.

If you are looking for a decent no-nonsense service I suggest to go for BSNL.

- Dharma

I always love to drive Utility vehicles. Right from my days as kid, I loved the big cranes, tipper trucks, utility vehicles than the luxurious, glamorous cars. Right now I am eyeing on Mahindra Bolero which is my personal favorite. The second thing i love to have in my garage (anyway i dont have a garage now) is Maruti Suzuki’s Gypsy.

Here is a photo of Mahindra Bolero, retouched in photoshop, to give it a more appealing look. It looks like a chrysler brand now !

Enjoy..

Rajesh Sundaram

I am an occasional computer game player. Not a freak anyway!. But my favorites includes most of the hit games spreading across various genre. Age of Empires Series for RTS, Doom being the first 3D game, Halo for its compelling story, Doom 3 for its thrill and marvellous performance… well the list goes on and on. Oh yeah, did i forgot to mention that i loved “Jazz Jackrabbit” too ?

Recently I bought a nvidia 7600GS gaming card. It’s a pretty mid-range card with decent graphics power to push triangles and 3D geometry at more than 60fps with the current gaming trends.

Having purchased a good gaming card, I bought a new game.. which is considered as one of the benchmarking games for 2005 and still 2006. I will not get into game’s details, but rather I prefer to share my views about the art of story telling.

Before, let me share some of my views. Any game.. except the first few pioneers, rely on some out-standing feature to get succeed. Pioneers like Doom became a hit because it was the first 3D shooter game. Later clones, didnt shine that much.. and very few like Duke Nukem became a hit, coz it was different game. Lara Croft Tomb Raider was huge success, but it’s successors weren’t. Why? There are several reasons and one major reason I sense is the STORY.

Many game developers start with ‘just some story’ and end up developing technically superior game, but un-compelling story line. For how many days people will enjoy shooting demos and enemies? Not always.. as time progress, people’s expectations are gradually changing. They expect more from a game now.

How did Halo Combat evolved for PC became a smash hit? That game doesnt have any astonishing graphics engine.. no “busty” characters, just a predictable sci-fi plot, just a wonderful sound track, a good DX9 graphics. Did the sound tracks pushed the game to success? No ! Its the story-telling. Bungie designed the game in such a way, that the story is binded into the game. There is no great “puzzles” or ultimate-challenging deathmatch style voilence. But, there were many out-door sets making the people to interact with the world, rather than just run-around. The story was beautifically conveyed throughout the game.

On the contrary, the FEAR game, developed by Monolith and published by SIERRA, is one of the game, that fails to impress me. Though the game has a good plot, the game play was more repetetive, much like running through tunnels, finding hidden passages, regular guns.. 90% of the time, the gameplay happens in the indoor. There are no ‘wow’ or stunning worlds. Passages / steps / rooms / doors / tunnels / pipes,…. nothing new, compared to Quake or Doom. But the textures, objects and other small things are beautifully crafted. No wonder that game is treated as a 3D benchmark. But after finishing the game.. I felt nothing great. Just like yet-another-3d-game.

I still love to play Halo again and again.. because the 3D world is more unique.. more involving.. and more over.. the story is unfolded as you move into each level, making you want more and more. Bungie’s style of story telling is amazing! Only a few games in this world use a good story.. and DELIVER it in the same spirit.

Very soon, people may start demanding more and more good stories, much like the movies. PC or Console games will start to meet such demands soon.. and that day is not so far!

- Rajesh Sundaram

Finally, after too much speculations, rumours and stories.. it is confirmed that Apple’s revolutionary phone.. the iPhone has been released. Yes.. ladies and gentlemen, the rumours are true. iPhone is here. But a word of caution, the phone still hasn’t got the FCC certification. So there might be some delay in seeing the phone in sales stands.

To give a brief idea.. it is a iPod plus phone plus messaging device that runs on a amazing OS X (not the crappy symbian or proprietary OS) which means Apple has big future plans integrating desktop software products into this mobile device, a welcome move. If everything works very well, iPhone could be your next all-in-one true mobile gadget.

Some notable features..

- Buttonless interface (touchscreen)

- 4GB or 8GB storage capacity

- OS X, Multi-tasking with all defautl OS X goodies (browsers, calendars etc)

- 2 MP camera (auto-focus? not sure)

- iPod+iTunes

- On-Screen Qwerty Keyboard

- Proximity and Light sensors (tilt the phone and display re-orients itself)

- WiFi / EDGE and Bluetooth

Read more about iphone here and the specifications of iphone here