Since its release in 2007, iPhone remained a hot topic of discussion especially in our design fraternity. Those who loves it and those who loves to hate may give sufficient reasons and I am not going to talk about it over here. But, I comes in the former category. iPhone has brought with itself a whole new paradigm of innovation, learning and applying.
For the last few months, I am designing applications for iPhones and this gave me an opportunity to come more closer to this device which further strengthened my belief in it. I went to lot of literature and case studies to make myself updated with this new technology and was happy to learn so many things in such a short period of time.
During this stage, I also learnt a lot about gestures that are being recognized by iPhone and I tried to use them in a fairly decent manner in my applications. It was when I came across this application designed by one of the premium design studios of US, I learnt the equation mentioned as title in its true sense.
This application is for kid which shows a deflated balloon on the screen. User then has to 'blow air' in the mike of phone to inflate the balloon strip. Shaking the device gives the balloon shapes of different animals randomly with which kids may interact by touching their body parts.
I was so much into those crammed dynamic gestures of touching and sliding and shaking, that I almost lost the actual essence of interaction design. This was so intuitive but still never thought of. When we may use mike to interact with our friend on the side of phone line, why cant we use it innovatively to enhance the user experience.
Design is therefore not to just come up with some thing new but its also to come from the right direction towards the right direction.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sorry - saree
Not to mention, Chennai is famous for its Kanjiwaram Silk work. Knowing this I decided to go to some good shop and grab a Silk saree for my dear mother as a souvenir. Since, I am totally crude in such kind of shopping, I asked one of my PG mate who bought half a dozen of sarees last month for his mother and sister in laws. He agreed to give me a company and luckily one of his office colleague also joined us in the market. Since, she was a girl, I was sure I would be having a nice buy.
So we entered into, what people calls, the Best saree shop of Chennai. It was just impossible for me to fathom the variety and collection they had. And yes, for the first time, I saw so many beauties in Chennai under the same roof and I really mean it. We all headed in three different directions according to our interests. My friend's colleague went straight to latest collection section. My friend went to sale section and I went to 'look around'.
Suddenly my friend's colleague called us to a counter and waved indicating to come and see the stuff and I followed. Next to my friends, a couple was standing. The man was in his mid thirties, smartly dressed holding a blackberry. So was his wife, elegant and smart, wearing a 'gajra' in her hair-bun.
The counter has a tag-board saying “Rs.10,000 to Rs.25,000”, where the attendant was showing some brown colored saree. As soon as I went and the first look at that saree, it just came out of my mouth: “Is this some sort of a bed sheet or what ?”. Holy sh**, I was way loud. Audible enough. That lady looked at me, gave a strange look and then started looking at the saree with a faded smile. To make the situation worse, my friends were laughing like anything. I heard the man asking his wife “What did he say, what did he say?”. And she just replied with a went-off mood “ He is saying that saree is looking like a bedsheet”. I could clearly listen the controlled laugh of the man.
Another man (must be the couple's assistant) whispered to three of us and said “That man is some high Government official and that is his wife. The saree that you pointed is worth Rs.16,000 which has just been finalized by his wife and shopkeeper was wrapping it up.”
He also started laughing.
Realizing, what mistake have I done, I just came out of the shop feeling embarrassed. Just after five minutes, we saw the couple coming out of the shop bare handed. They didn't buy that piece looking to which my friend's colleague said that no lady on this planet would ever buy a saree after such a fantastic remark. We all three laughed and headed towards another shop.
So we entered into, what people calls, the Best saree shop of Chennai. It was just impossible for me to fathom the variety and collection they had. And yes, for the first time, I saw so many beauties in Chennai under the same roof and I really mean it. We all headed in three different directions according to our interests. My friend's colleague went straight to latest collection section. My friend went to sale section and I went to 'look around'.
Suddenly my friend's colleague called us to a counter and waved indicating to come and see the stuff and I followed. Next to my friends, a couple was standing. The man was in his mid thirties, smartly dressed holding a blackberry. So was his wife, elegant and smart, wearing a 'gajra' in her hair-bun.
The counter has a tag-board saying “Rs.10,000 to Rs.25,000”, where the attendant was showing some brown colored saree. As soon as I went and the first look at that saree, it just came out of my mouth: “Is this some sort of a bed sheet or what ?”. Holy sh**, I was way loud. Audible enough. That lady looked at me, gave a strange look and then started looking at the saree with a faded smile. To make the situation worse, my friends were laughing like anything. I heard the man asking his wife “What did he say, what did he say?”. And she just replied with a went-off mood “ He is saying that saree is looking like a bedsheet”. I could clearly listen the controlled laugh of the man.
Another man (must be the couple's assistant) whispered to three of us and said “That man is some high Government official and that is his wife. The saree that you pointed is worth Rs.16,000 which has just been finalized by his wife and shopkeeper was wrapping it up.”
He also started laughing.
Realizing, what mistake have I done, I just came out of the shop feeling embarrassed. Just after five minutes, we saw the couple coming out of the shop bare handed. They didn't buy that piece looking to which my friend's colleague said that no lady on this planet would ever buy a saree after such a fantastic remark. We all three laughed and headed towards another shop.
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