Zoho CRM User Experience & Interaction Design Blog

Things look good, if it is clean and tidy. The same principle applies to every object in this earth. Right from your home, the place where you sleep, bath, eat, watch TV, cleanliness helps in maintaining a “fresh” and inviting atmosphere. The same applies to UI design too.

Keep things clean and neat. This cleanliness can be analogous to the Salt we use in cooking. Salt should be used right. Not less, Not more. Or else, it will spoil the whole dish. Similarly, Cleanliness in a UI can be achieved by using right mix of white space and contents. Too much salt (whitespace) then the UI becomes too simple or too thin. Less salt (whitespace) means, too cramped or less breathing.

In web GUI, the cleanliness feeling can be inserted using whitespace and padding/margins. White space can act like a median separating two  blocks of information. You can note this if you watch all the Web 2.0 sites out there. Ample space and emphasize on highlights. Highlight the important element on that page/block. Provide ample whitespace around the highlighted element, and the user’s brain captures it. Damn simple. You don’t need a fashion model or some attractive image to grab the attention. Well planned cleanliness will create the desired effect. Balance it right, and it will rock!
- Rajesh Sundaram

Wow! I must say that is a good post. You don’t need to spend money buying a book. But just read the 6 steps. A really nice post to read and jazz up the life.

http://www.mindcafe.org/6-steps-to-think-like-a-millionaire

- Dharma

In our country, talking on mobile phone while driving is against Law. So I mostly avoid picking up calls during driving, or I pull over and pick up the call. Sometimes I wonder if I could wear a handsfree and answer the calls while I am driving.

I tried the supplied hands-free headphone with my Nokia 6233. Apart from the good quality, the hands-free headphone has two issues.

1. Wearability :- It does take some solid 30 seconds to wear it around your neck and put the two ear pieces on.

2. Mic Position :- The MIC is placed on the dongle that actually falls on the chest. This awkward position picks up other sounds rather than my voice.

I tried using the Bluetooth headsets, but they often created pain in the ear and a weird feeling that I looked  deaf. Also BT headsets has the same problem of picking up lot of wind noises when driving. So they too seemed useless.

All the highend headsets (wired and wireless) seemed to focus on quality but not on wearability. My “best” headset would feature a simple  connector with a Mic that hangs/sticks around my collar and a single ear piece. Fortunately I was able to find some, but they are often bundled with entry level headsets that feature a different connector. I am still searching for a good hands-free headset that fits my Nokia 6233.

In my opinion, a perfect hassle-free, radation free (bluetooth) hands-free headset is nothing but the ones that are bundled with the entry level headphones.  Check my sketch below.

- Rajesh Sundaram