Tag Archives: user experience

One “rude” feature that E-commerce sites need

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Was brainstorming with the new graphic designer at work about ‘fun’ features that e-commerce websites should have to transform user experience. Here are a few:–

When a customer does a lot of aimless browsing and stuffs his “wishlist”,an animated character could appear on the page and say one of these sentences :—

“Hey,you’re gonna buy or what?”

“Are you confusing us with Pinterest” ?

” You just spent 120 minutes window-shopping”.

Most e-commerce sites focus on being nice and polite and having a dash of humor is not going to alienate customers.Hope someone out there reads this and includes this in their company’s e-commerce website.

P.S– The ideas are completely mine 🙂

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Skully AR-1 – The “Thinking Cap” for motorcyclists

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I just came across a revolutionary motorcycle helmet called  Skully AR-1 that is set to transform the motorcycling experience of riders worldwide.I am in India and here’s what I foresee:–

  • Important calls can be answered on the go(on the flip side you cannot give excuses about not attending calls since you were bike riding!!)
  • Long rides would be more enjoyable with the integrated music feature included.
  • Motorcycle manufacturers may eventually say good-bye to rear-view mirrors thus reducing overall bike design costs.
  • The 180 degree viewing angle view from the rear view camera may encourage usage among joggers who may want to look out for stalkers!!

See what users have to say about it :–

This product is yet to go into large-scale production but when it is available I am pretty sure that it would save a lot of lives .Looking forward to seeing it in India soon!

Polybrowser — a must for multitasking

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A couple of days ago, I came across a panoramic browser—Polybrowser —while spending some time on LinkedIn.Shown below is a short video explaining the functionality of the browser :–

http://lnkd.in/bYNjc8H

This product was released almost a year ago and is currently available for download and use.

I have started using it and here are the benefits that I envision for possible users.

1. Could replace additional monitors for processes that use multiple monitors which could result in cost benefits.

Case in point: I used to work at Nielsen where there were some projects that had to use 2 monitors to enable ease of reference.Using Polybrowser along with a huge 30” monitor is definitely the way forward for data analysis.

2. The need for launching multiple web links using bookmarks is eliminated with the use of Polymarks. (The use of Polymarks does not seem very user-friendly currently ).

3.The time spent on accessing and referring to information while editing/writing is reduced to a great extent.

There are however a few glitches and I have pointed them out for fixes/tweaking.See my comment below on LinkedIn :–

Polybrowser

P.S : I sometimes scroll some websites like jaymantri.com for photos for my blog posts.I have to scroll through hundreds of photos and if I am suddenly called away from my desk,I have to scroll another few hundred images to get to the image I want.Wish someone could create a vertical bookmark to help navigate to last browsed section.Just saying!

Video credit:Aaron T.Travis

Should Paytm revise its Turn Around Time ?

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I have been using Paytm to recharge my mobile for more than 6 months now and never had a problem with the service.The ease of usage and the convenience of not having to enter the  debit/credit card details repeatedly are features that got everyone hooked.

Today (September 9th) , I recharged for Rs.100 and the amount was not credited to my account though I did receive confirmation SMSes from both my bank and Paytm.

I contacted the customer care (care@paytm.com)  and this was the response(see below):–

Paytm

I  guess  Paytm does not have much competition from similar players as of now but shouldn’t the TAT be less than 72 hours for a Rs.100 recharge? I find this unacceptable and unreasonable.

Addendum:

Paytm contacted me is less than 3 hours and addressed the issue.Apparently they are taking the “Underpromise and Overdeliver” phrase a bit too seriously!!

Did FlipKart Get It Wrong?

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Whenever I order books online I choose Flipkart because they deliver much ahead of the stipulated time.A couple of days ago,I was in for a shock when I noticed that FlipKart had an option to expedite delivery for an additional fee of Rs.60 (please keep in mind that I was ordering a book!).

Why have an additional fee option when your service delivers in less than 48 hours anyway?And who wants the delivery of books to be expedited?I can understand if it were clothes,phones or other accessories but books…makes no sense at all 🙂

Somebody PLEASE enlighten me!

Can Movie Theaters give you the truly interactive experience you want?

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You might not have to worry about the scenes you miss anymore

 

RunPee is an app that helps you schedule your toilet breaks(read my post on RunPee here)by identifying sections of movie that do not have a major impact on the story-line, enabling you to step out for a quick loo-break.

If you needed a description of the ‘inconsequential’ scene ,it is made available by the app.Most of the ‘peetimes’ are short (4-5 min)and in a large theater,if people shot out of their seats for the scheduled peetimes…I can see the news in my head “Woman killed in stampede in theater due to……..”

To avoid any kind of mishap and to ensure a “memorable movie experience”,a more flexible option is needed.Enter..Flexible Film Time Capture (FFTC) a concept that can possibly revolutionize your movie experience and if possible create a few jobs:—

A transcript of the entire movie movie is first created to have a minute-wise breakdown summary.When the movie starts a digital clock (or something that shows the minute countdown)that is placed somewhere close to the screen —-placed in such a way as to not block/distract view of the screen—will start to tick down in sync with the duration of the movie (the clock will not run during interval breaks or advertisements).If any moviegoer wants to step out (for an emergency call,call of nature,call of duty.. etc) all he/she has to do is to note the time on the digital clock when he steps out and the time when he (am going to stick with ‘he’)comes back and send the details via SMS to theater support team.The transcript of the proceedings of the ‘missed’ scene for the time-frame is sent back to the moviegoer (should I say customer?)for the specified time-frame via SMS, for a fee.

If possible a video link for the missed scene can be sent for one time view only(certain caveats would have to be in place to prevent collation/distribution of content).

This feature would benefit the Indian film industry,in particular, since films are released in different languages, have long duration and creating transcripts and sharing of the specific content would require customer support and hence jobs per theater.

If you had to deal with idiots who talk loud during crucial scenes,buddies who turn up late and want you to give them directions or just wanted to win a bet with your friend on what was really said,you will want this feature.

Should YouTube evolve to protect film-makers?

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Safeguarding film-makers interests’ might not be a stretch for the video sharing website

 

Hundreds of films get released on a monthly basis and the competition for more eyeballs was never tougher.In the backdrop of this situation, are unscrupulous people who upload entire moves (that have just been released)as a single video file or parts of it(with Part 1..Part2..Part3 in the titles) or climax scenes (damn!).Some Indian fan clubs go to the extent of uploading the videos of other new films (to dim their chances of box office success)that are released at the same time as the films they support!!

This is YouTube’s stand as of now (as per policy outlined on its website):—

Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made or that you are authorized to use. This means don’t upload videos you didn’t make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary authorizations. Read our Copyright Tips for more information.

You can the read the entire policy here .

YouTube should come up with a mechanism to detect uploading of videos that exceed duration of 30-45 min(requiring additional user authentication; privileges can be created and granted to select organizations )and any content which is not a “old movie” should be flagged.They would have to follow these steps (I am hypothesizing here):-

  1. Create the “special account” (made available by YouTube specially for film-makers).
  2. Specify the movie name title which YouTube can use to detect and possibly block.(since YouTube is owned by Google,a search algorithm which looks at different permutations/combinations of same title should not be a problem).
  3. Specify the duration for which uploads should be blocked .(If the film bombs, the film could atleast get a few hundred views on YouTube!).

YouTube could avoid a lot of hassle created by removing videos that are reported for copyrights infringement, if they do implement such a feature(as outlined above)besides it being a revenue option.

If you like this post and think that this idea is feasible,go ahead and hit the ‘Recommend’ button and/or share with your friends.You can also leave your comments to share your insights.

Here are some of my other posts:

Movies need better regulations to Safeguard Women

Facebook ‘Like’ is NOT Expressive ENOUGH

Photo by Jay Mantri