World Usability Day banner at Bangalore Airport
November 24, 2008 – 8:48 am
The WUD Bangalore 2008 banner went live at Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) this weekend. Awesome work Narayan and the team.
5 days to go for the big day….
Horn OK Please - Poster Competition: Call for Entries
November 19, 2008 – 7:49 am
Transportation is one of India’s biggest bottlenecks. We all complain about the pace of flyover construction, the stray bullocks on the road, the overwhelmed policeman at the busy intersection, the potholes and slush during the rains, the
flight and train delays. But, we can be part of the problem or part of the change we seek.
This World Usability Day, join other designers, architects, technologists, and other professionals to discuss how we can make things better.
Horn Ok…Please. A Poster Exhibition Campaign for WUD 2008.
Here is your chance to participate, get noticed and contribute to the event.The theme this year is:Improving the Transportation Experience in India
Create an A2 (60 cms x 43 cms) size, single or multiple poster campaign, highlighting what you feel are the biggest problems faced with Transportation In India and how we can improve it. The posters can be under any of the four approaches:
- Awareness and involvement
- Ideas for Public Private Partnerships
- Technology interventions in transportation
- Mobilization of communities for collective action
For example, Exponential growth in cars could be the biggest problem, and Car-pooling could be a possible intiative. The poster can depict the different aspects of the solution that would improve the experience.
Send in your entries by November 25th, to wud08.blr@gmail.com along with your Name, Contact No, Occupation and Address.
All posters will be showcased at the event.The top three posters chosen by a panel of Judges, will receive a cash prizes totalling to Rs. 35,000/-. Public and private stakeholders present at the event, will guide the winners to take their ideas to implementation. Winning entries will also be showcased after the event atprominent locations such as the Bangalore International Airport.
Call for participation - World Usability Day 2008, Bangalore
November 7, 2008 – 9:41 am29th of November | Yahoo Campus (
World Usability Day (WUD) was founded in 2005 as a global initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, in November, over 300 events are organized in over 40 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the issues central to good usability research, development and practice.
WUD 2008: Usability in Transportation
The 2008 World Usability Day focuses on Usability in Transportation. Usability in transportation speaks to the interaction of people and the vehicles, the challenges and issues infrastructure and modes for moving around in our environment. World Usability Day 2008 is focused on exploring and creating awareness for several aspects of transportation in
The
- Keynote talks by decision makers from the Bangalore International Airports Limited (BIAL), Maini Motors (
- Un-conference style sharing of ideas through interactive, rolling presentations
- Public Exhibition of transport solutions for
- A forum to voice opinions with key decision makers
- Transportation Design Challenge
Who will participate in the event?
World Usability Day invites Designers, Architects, User Experience professionals, Urban Planners, Transport Service Authorities, Design Students, Academicians, enthusiasts and other citizens concerned about making
Register Now!
http://www.upabangalore.org/mwiki/index.php/WUD_Bangalore_2008Poster Campaign: Horn Ok…Please!
Horn OK…Please is a poster campaign leading up to WUD,
Download posters!
Help us spread the word. Download Posters and Publicity material for the event.
Organized By
Sponsored By
TimeOut magazine coverage of UPA Bangalore activities
September 2, 2008 – 9:48 am
A few weeks back, I had an interesting discussion with Akhila Seetharaman, journalist with TimeOut Bangalore about the field of design and user experience and its relevance for our everyday life (including in Bangalore). We spoke about UPA Bangalore, the growth of the User Experience community in Bangalore in the past 5 years, good bad and ugly products and services and experiences in Bangalore, and the role design can play in improving all of these.
My friend Sarit Arora from Human Factors (also head of the ACM SIG on Human Computer Interaction and CHI Bangalore) also joined me for a morning chat with Akhila at the Indira Nagar Coffee Day. TimeOut recently published Akhila’s article - you can read the article on TimeOut’s website.
The article covers topics most of us are familar with: Globalization, the rise of the creative economy, the importance of design and story telling and how the design and User Experience field has evolved in India. It also lists products and experiences we’ve all struggled with or appreciated in India: kick-starting scooters, filling in paper forms, the Indian railways website, cleartrip.com and such.
I hope you enjoy reading the article. Do send suggestions for how UPA can further communicate with the media and expand the discussion on design and usability.
UX Jobs at Honeywell Hyderabad
August 25, 2008 – 6:03 amInterested candidates can contact Vinod directly at Vinod.Subramanyam at honeywell {dot} com
Positions: User Experience Designer/Usability Engineer/Sr. User Experience Designer/Sr. Usability Engineer
Location: HyderabadExperience: 2 to 5 years, preferably in a software product based environment
Education: Formal education in Human-Computer Interaction Design, Visual Communication, New Media Design
Core Skills & Responsibility:
1. Must have demonstrated skills in User Research, Scenario Building, Focus Groups, Concept Generation, Prototyping, Heuristic Analysis, etc
2. Create task flow diagrams; define navigation and interaction pattern, create Low/High fidelity prototypes, storyboards and guidelines for UI development
3. Manage the user experience and interface design effort, including the visual design
4. Developing User experience strategy for larger development projects/ programs
5. Inclination to understand and solve complex technical issues pertaining to human computer interaction.
6. Obtain stakeholder buy-in for the proposed designs and mentoring of internal teams on usability and user centered design
7. Conduct quality evaluations to ensure the user experience vision, design and standards are being fulfilled in the applications
8. Work on multiple projects within the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) in a faced paced environment.
Other skills:
1. Creative and Proactive
2. Excellent visualization skills
3. Good understanding of prototyping tools
4. Strong communication, analytical and interpersonal skills working within cross-functional teams a must
Interested candidates can contact Vinod directly at Vinod.Subramanyam at honeywell {dot} com
Design consulting gigs
August 20, 2008 – 9:37 amA few friends running start-ups in Bangalore have been pinging me for good consulting/full time design talent. Am putting some of the profiles here - if you’re interested in any of them, reach the contacts below directly or give me a holler at pande dot amit at gmail dot com and I’ll connect you to these gigs.
Startup #1
…a well funded stealth mode startup looking for Web 2.0 and UX designers to work on a contract / consulting basis. Based out of Marthahalli, Bangalore.
Here are the basic requirements, to discuss this opportunity in detail send an email to vinodhn@msn.com or call on 98866 38995.
Profile: Web 2.0 Design Wizard
Skills:
1.Solid design experience covering the entire cycle of mockups to final design. Hands on knowledge in Adobe photoshop and Dreamweaver. 2-4 years of experience in handling the entire design life cycle.
2. Good understanding of HTML, CSS, JS
3. Familiarity with Ajax and new Web2.0 frameworks
4. Understanding end user needs and community models
5. Ability to build highly scalable frontend
6. Prior experience in web companies will be plus
Startup #2
…Internet start-up based in Singapore and Bangalore. CEO currently in town scouting for talent. Looking for full time/consulting folks.
Analyst Programmer
- 1 to 2 years of working experience
- Good Knowledge of Web2.0, HTML and CSS
- Experience with Ruby on Rails, MySQL Database and familiar with Linux operating system
- Must be able to work to meet project deadline
- Team player with good inter-personal skills and self-motivated
Web Designer
- Familiar with Web2.0 design
- Ability to produce good artwork in digital format (Photoshop, Illustrator etc.)
- Good knowledge of HTML and CSS
- 1 to 2 years of working experience
- Must be able to work to meet project deadline
- Team player with good inter-personal skills and self-motivated
Dcamp 2.0 trip report (coming soon)
August 10, 2008 – 9:21 pm
dCamp Bangalore 2.0
June 30, 2008 – 5:48 am
dCamp Bangalore 2.0 , an unconference focused on design, development and user experience, is open to everyone interested in the topic: designers, usability practitioners, developers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and others.
Date : 26 July 2008, Saturday, 10.00 am onwardsLocation : Aditi Technologies224/16, Ramana Maharishi Road, Sadashivanagar, Bangalore – 80(O) +91.80.23613344
Directions :
With Windsor Manor on your right, continue straight under the bridge towards Cauvery Theatre on Bellary Road (also called Ramana Maharishi Road). Proceed from Cauvery Theatre junction towards Mekhri circle, on the left is the Aditi facility. Participants/volunteers/planners can now sign up at the dCamp Bangalore 2.0 wikiParticipate in the DCamp Design Competition. Fame and fortune, just a design away! Also see dCamp Bangalore 1.0 wiki & dCamp banglaore 1.0 Photos/Blogs
- http://flickr.com/photos/allagappan/sets/72157602032806436/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/13654802@N05/sets/72157602052966699/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/13714210@N04/
- http://the100rabh.blogspot.com/2007/09/dcamp-bangaloreyes-i-was-there.html
- http://anandbora.blogspot.com/2007/09/psbea.html
- http://siddhi.blogspot.com/2007/09/design-of-programmer-spaces-my-dcamp.html
- http://muthuonline.com/archives/2007/09/17/dcamp-bangalore-v-10-rocked/
- http://amitpande.com/2007/09/18/dcamp-bangalore-observations-and-takeaways/
- http://enterframe.blogspot.com/2007/09/dcamp-bangalore.html
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/11855965@N00/sets/72157602072883228/detail/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/52524942@N00/sets/72157602094754657/
Jobs : Principal UI Designer, AOL Mail , Bangalore, India
June 27, 2008 – 8:10 amPrincipal UI Designer, AOL Mail
Bangalore, India
Help us design elegant user experiences for one of the world’s largest email audiences! AOL Mail is looking for a Principal UI Designer to work closely with product managers, developers, QA and other designers to help design our web and client e-mail applications. This position will also work closely with the Director of UI Design for AOL Mail in the United States.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Applying user-centered design processes to design high quality user flows, wireframes, and detailed visual UI designs.
- Working closely with a cross-functional team to develop stellar user experiences that elegantly achieve product and business requirements.
- Creating prototypes and writing design specifications documents.
- Working with Web Developers, Engineers and QA to deliver the final product while ensuring that it meets design specifications
- Successfully communicating conceptual ideas and design rationale
Minimum Job Qualifications:
- A portfolio of work demonstrating the job qualifications below
- 6-8 years designing highly usable, elegant interfaces for large-scale web or desktop applications.
- Several years of experience working with an international team
- Outstanding ability to clearly communicate and present your designs to in-person and remote teams.
- Expertise with Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and/or Photoshop
- Deep understanding of user-centered design methodologies
- Strong understanding of web technologies like advanced CSS, DHTML, Java Script, etc.
- Extensive experience creating detailed wireframes, user flows, and detailed UI design specifications
- Familiarity with field and lab-based user research methodologies
- Proven ability to take initiative in a team-based development environment
- Proven ability to meet ambitious deadlines and deliver high-quality work on schedule
- Proven ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously
- Strong organization skills and an eye for detail
Highly Desirable Skills for This Position:
- Strong coding/prototyping skills in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, or Flash
- Experience conducting or leading user research or usability testing
- Strong visual design skills in color, typography and layout.
Contact details:
Ekta Choudhary
Recuriter AOL
080-66413001
User Research study
May 20, 2008 – 5:29 amUPA Bangalore is planning to undertake a non-profit study, to understand smart-phone usage pattern, among tech and business users in Bangalore. The aim is to understand how power users like improve the manner in which they use their smart phones and also identify existing pain-points.We are looking for volunteers to do part time user-research. Opportunities would include direct and active involvement in planning, recruiting, scheduling, conducting field surveys, user interviews and the works. The effort estimate could range from 8 hours/month to 12 hours/month.Do get in touch with Muthu at muthuonline <at> gmail <dot> com, if you this study interests you.
