See if it's still there.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Indian Website Usability Report
JuxtConsult has come up with a report on the "user friendliness" of Indian websites. The Business Standard reports:
Before I go ahead with literally bashing this "study", check out the way JuxtConsult has defined the "User Friendliness Index (UFI)" and "usability" (emphasis mine):
The top item on their list of usability features is branding! Would anyone please tell me just how can branding be a part of website usability? Sure, branding can play a huge role in buiding website popularity and thus the user base, but surely not usability.
The second thing on their list is the vaguely named "navigation structure and added features." Kudos to them for considering the navigation structure of a website in determining it's usability, but added features? Any designer worth his salt will know that a multitude of features, does not add up to usability. Anyone stuck with a feature loaded mobile phone (2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, FM radio, games, bluetooth, infrared, etc. etc.) will know how fucking hard it is to send a simple text message or update the contact book. Getting to the much touted camera or MP3 player in a Nokia N70 which I happened to play with recently required much fiddling and up to five clicks! IMHO the "One button" Nokia phones were the most usable of them all -- Nokia 1100 being the best.
Sure, you can't roll out a product or website with limited or lame features. But blindly adding features over your competitions is not going to make your website more usable. This "Feauritis Curve" from the Creating Passionate Users Blog sums it all up:
How did "contact responsiveness" feature in a website usability study? Contact responsiveness or availabilty of customer service representatives can be used to measure a customer satisfaction index (CSI, if you please) -- but not a frikkin' UFI! The classis case is Cleartrip, where the website is miles ahead of its competitiors (Yatra, TravelGuru, MakeMyTrip, etc.) in usability, but the customer service (or contact responsiveness) simply sucks. That's because the customer care numbers given on the website are mostly engaged. Now, just because the customer care sucks how can you pull down the website for its usability?
(Disclaimer: I work at Cleartrip in the tech team. I know the customer care numbers are usually engaged because we are working with a lesser number of telephone lines. We will shortly be increasing the number of telephone lines after which, even that will change.)
Please go through the list of websites they have put under the 'just about satisfactory group' and 'need definite improvement group.' Yahoo email? GMail? Cleartrip? (Yes, that one's personal!) Youtube? Yahoo Portal? (THE Yahoo Portal? In the 'definite improvement group'? Who's tabbed homepage design is being poorly copied by the indian portals out there!)
And special mention to Wikipedia, which is in the 'needs definite improvement group'. It's a fucking Wiki! It brought in a whole new paradigm where anyone could edit anything on the web. It's in the 'needs definite improvement group'! I mean, what the fuck?!
And compare these to the list of "user-friendly group" websites --
Had these JuxtConsult fellows gone through at least the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design before coming up with such a report, they wouldn't have put SimplyMarry in the top 26 most usable websites. I rest my case.
Of the 26 user-friendly websites, 12 websites - Shopping, Shaadi, Yatra, HSBC, Jobstreet, Ebay, Spicejet, Travelguru, SimplyMarry, Citibank, Reliance and Samsung - are in the ‘best practice group’, scoring more than 95 per cent points. Websites in the 85 to 95 per cent range qualified in the ‘user-friendly group’ included Naukri, Amazon, Bharatmatrimony, ICICI Bank, HDFC, NSE, Timesjobs, Rediff shopping, SBI, Indiabulls and BSE.
Of the remaining 95 websites tested, 45 websites’ (37 per cent) performance was average, qualifying in the ‘just about satisfactory group,’. This group also has some of the most popular sites, including Hotmail, Yahoo email, Gmail, Air Deccan, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Monster, Jobsahead, Makemytrip, Cleartrip and social networking sites like Orkut and Hi5.
Nearly 42-50 per cent websites performed below-average and were classified in the ‘need definite improvement group.’ They included recently acquired website by Google, Youtube, besides online majors like Yahoo portal, Wikipedia, Indian railway booking site IRCTC, banking site ICICI Direct and content sites, Money Control and Times Of India.
Before I go ahead with literally bashing this "study", check out the way JuxtConsult has defined the "User Friendliness Index (UFI)" and "usability" (emphasis mine):
User Friendliness Index 2007 is a study to evaluate and classify top 121 highly popular websites in India based on their User Friendliness Index (UFI). UFI of these websites was calculated by evaluating them on 32 individual criteria grouped under 6 different ‘usability' aspects. The 6 usability aspects are ‘branding', ‘navigation structure and added features', ‘website design' ‘company and contact info', ‘contact responsiveness' and ‘technical parameters'. The findings compare each site's UFI score within their own individual category as well as against the entire universe of 121 highly popular websites on each of the 6 usability aspect.
The top item on their list of usability features is branding! Would anyone please tell me just how can branding be a part of website usability? Sure, branding can play a huge role in buiding website popularity and thus the user base, but surely not usability.
The second thing on their list is the vaguely named "navigation structure and added features." Kudos to them for considering the navigation structure of a website in determining it's usability, but added features? Any designer worth his salt will know that a multitude of features, does not add up to usability. Anyone stuck with a feature loaded mobile phone (2 megapixel camera, MP3 player, FM radio, games, bluetooth, infrared, etc. etc.) will know how fucking hard it is to send a simple text message or update the contact book. Getting to the much touted camera or MP3 player in a Nokia N70 which I happened to play with recently required much fiddling and up to five clicks! IMHO the "One button" Nokia phones were the most usable of them all -- Nokia 1100 being the best.
Sure, you can't roll out a product or website with limited or lame features. But blindly adding features over your competitions is not going to make your website more usable. This "Feauritis Curve" from the Creating Passionate Users Blog sums it all up:
How did "contact responsiveness" feature in a website usability study? Contact responsiveness or availabilty of customer service representatives can be used to measure a customer satisfaction index (CSI, if you please) -- but not a frikkin' UFI! The classis case is Cleartrip, where the website is miles ahead of its competitiors (Yatra, TravelGuru, MakeMyTrip, etc.) in usability, but the customer service (or contact responsiveness) simply sucks. That's because the customer care numbers given on the website are mostly engaged. Now, just because the customer care sucks how can you pull down the website for its usability?
(Disclaimer: I work at Cleartrip in the tech team. I know the customer care numbers are usually engaged because we are working with a lesser number of telephone lines. We will shortly be increasing the number of telephone lines after which, even that will change.)
Please go through the list of websites they have put under the 'just about satisfactory group' and 'need definite improvement group.' Yahoo email? GMail? Cleartrip? (Yes, that one's personal!) Youtube? Yahoo Portal? (THE Yahoo Portal? In the 'definite improvement group'? Who's tabbed homepage design is being poorly copied by the indian portals out there!)
And special mention to Wikipedia, which is in the 'needs definite improvement group'. It's a fucking Wiki! It brought in a whole new paradigm where anyone could edit anything on the web. It's in the 'needs definite improvement group'! I mean, what the fuck?!
And compare these to the list of "user-friendly group" websites --
- Naukri? (Hey, where's the job ad? Oh! It's there! Right among a gazillion other banner ads, and text ads! And oh, what's this -- I've got a billion new windows open?! Ah forget it, I'm just fine with this job...)
- State Bank of India -- I would request the reader to please go to the SBI website and search for the SBI branch in Lower Parel, Mumbai. Was it easy? Was it frustrating? Do let me know.
- Indiabulls -- the last time I checked many of my friends who had been lured into an Indiabulls life time free trading account were abandoning it in droves because of their utterly non-usable trading tool. (Runs as a Java applet)
- Bombay Stock Exchange -- Another website which forces the user to start of a Java VM every time they visit the home page. The bloody home page contains a Java applet. (Note: Java applets are bad, for starters, because they slow down the website from loading. And making the users wait is bad usability IMHO. Making the users wait for the home page to load, is harakiri! Try the BSE website here.)
Had these JuxtConsult fellows gone through at least the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design before coming up with such a report, they wouldn't have put SimplyMarry in the top 26 most usable websites. I rest my case.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Fighting back!
Two hard hitting blog threads in one day.
Hawkeye and his wife fight back against a "goonish" milk vendor for overcharging and then harassing customers who dare to question his behaviour. Read about his ongoing battle here. Very inspiring. (Currently there are seven posts on his blog giving updates on the situation. Use the archive links on the right bar to go through all of them).
N has a complete update of how she fought back against sexual harrasment in her office. Read about it here. (Scroll down to the post entitled "The Right Kind of Strong" and read upwards from there).
Hawkeye and his wife fight back against a "goonish" milk vendor for overcharging and then harassing customers who dare to question his behaviour. Read about his ongoing battle here. Very inspiring. (Currently there are seven posts on his blog giving updates on the situation. Use the archive links on the right bar to go through all of them).
N has a complete update of how she fought back against sexual harrasment in her office. Read about it here. (Scroll down to the post entitled "The Right Kind of Strong" and read upwards from there).
Monday, February 05, 2007
Review: Guru
The very first thing I noticed about this movie was the atrocious music. Seriously, the music sucks! I couldn't believe that A.R. Rehman could come up with such tracks. I always think about how many number of distinct musical tracks can there be in the world. Probably Rehman has exhausted his quota of the good ones.
The second thing I noticed was, that all the songs were simply not required. They were not woven into the plot and were probably added on later. All of them, except probably the one which plays in the background whenever Abhiash ( :-) Immense Pleasure Arises) are sharing an intimate moment onscreen.
Abhishek has rocked the movie. Though, I think his character has been a little underdeveloped in the beginning. How does the bijnis bug bite him all of a sudden? He refuses a promotion and salary hike at Shell just like that? The peculiar mannerisms that he's picked up for the character -- standing with a hand on his hip with the coat pushed back, laughing/chuckling with a slight tremor of the shoulders -- are also very well done. The four minute thirty seconds (somebody please time it!) monologue at the end sounds a bit too much like his father, though! Was it meant to be?
Mithun Chakraborty is a good actor. He just has prior commitments to keep the entire Ooty film industry occupied for the rest of his life. He's portrayed the editor-in-chief of "The Independent" wonderfully. A pleasant surprise - kasam paida karne waale ki!
R Madhavan is good too. I found him really irritating in the only other movie of his that I remember (Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein). But he has acted well in Guru. And is looking good too (and I'm not gay!)
The biggest surprise in the movie is Roshan Seth. With hardly 10 mins of screen presence he has delivered such a power-packed performance that it's unbelievable. Is it because he naturally fitted the role so well or is it because he is a very good actor? I don't know. But he simply rocked!
Verdict: Minus the songs (specially the misplaced, mistimed, and mistuned drunken orgy after child birth) the movie would've been much better. A sure watch, nonetheles.
The second thing I noticed was, that all the songs were simply not required. They were not woven into the plot and were probably added on later. All of them, except probably the one which plays in the background whenever Abhiash ( :-) Immense Pleasure Arises) are sharing an intimate moment onscreen.
Abhishek has rocked the movie. Though, I think his character has been a little underdeveloped in the beginning. How does the bijnis bug bite him all of a sudden? He refuses a promotion and salary hike at Shell just like that? The peculiar mannerisms that he's picked up for the character -- standing with a hand on his hip with the coat pushed back, laughing/chuckling with a slight tremor of the shoulders -- are also very well done. The four minute thirty seconds (somebody please time it!) monologue at the end sounds a bit too much like his father, though! Was it meant to be?
Mithun Chakraborty is a good actor. He just has prior commitments to keep the entire Ooty film industry occupied for the rest of his life. He's portrayed the editor-in-chief of "The Independent" wonderfully. A pleasant surprise - kasam paida karne waale ki!
R Madhavan is good too. I found him really irritating in the only other movie of his that I remember (Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein). But he has acted well in Guru. And is looking good too (and I'm not gay!)
The biggest surprise in the movie is Roshan Seth. With hardly 10 mins of screen presence he has delivered such a power-packed performance that it's unbelievable. Is it because he naturally fitted the role so well or is it because he is a very good actor? I don't know. But he simply rocked!
Verdict: Minus the songs (specially the misplaced, mistimed, and mistuned drunken orgy after child birth) the movie would've been much better. A sure watch, nonetheles.
Review: Salaam-e-Ishq
A little late to review the film, but what the heck?!
- Akshaye Khanna-Ayesha Takia: The best track IMHO, with Akshaye taking all the lines, screen space, and credit. He was simply amazing. Especially the part when he's recording his "break-off message" on the handycam. Hilarious! Ayesha was painted with excess makeup and since she ended up looking horrible, she was punished and asked to stand in the corner for the rest of the film! (One of my friends tells me that, both, Akshaye & Ayesha have worn a Mayo College t-shirt in one of the scenes. Couldn't spot it. If you do, please let me know/send me screenshot).
- Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla: This track was good too. The subject of marital boredom was treated very well for a Bollywood movie. And the "bollywood dance" by the "other woman" (don't know her name) was HOT! Age has finally caught up with Anil Kapoor, even though he looks good with his new look in the movie. Juhi's performance was good too, underplayed and subtle.
- Salman-Priyanka: This track was the bloodsucker of them all. Why, oh, why, I pray was this included in the movie? Chop off the entire track and it doesn't make one bit of a difference to the entire plot. I think this was added after the script had been finalized. In the climax scene, at the wedding, everyone's presence was well woven into the story except Salman and Priyanka's. What the fuck was Salman doing at the marriage in the first place? And will someone please tell him that apart from looking like a dork he sounds like a one too. (Checkout his fake accent whenever he speaks!)
- Sohail Khan-Isha Kopikar: The comedy track. Sohail Khan redoing the "Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya" bit. But it was funny. Hurrr....
- John Abhram-Vidya Balan: Could've been much better had it not been for John Abraham. His entire repository of emotions consists of exactly two facial expressions. Watch him closely and you'll understand! The only movie he has passed off with some decent acting is Viruddh (which, in fact, is a must see). On second thoughts, the plot for this track was also a bit underdeveloped.
- Govinda-Shannon: Hmmm... is this the best track or is the Akshaye-Ayesha track the best? I guess it's a tie. Govinda rocks! He simply does! "Maidum" and "Saal we" was amazing. The scene on the Laksham Jhoola at Rishikesh reminded me of a trekking trip to Kuwanri Pass (we had halted overnight at Rishikesh, I still remember standing right in the middle of the jhoola and looking up in awe at the lovely sky and the number of start we could see). The way the track ended was a bit over the top, but what the hell, everything's fair in love and war; and love is blind; etc.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Air Deccan or Air Dhakkan?
Shankar's post on his Air Deccan misery prompted me to blog about my own horrible experience with Air Deccan. So, here goes...
My fateful flight, DN-603, from Delhi to Mumbai was scheduled to depart at 3:00 in the afternoon. At around 11:00 AM I get an SMS from Air Deccan that the flight was delayed and would now take off at 5:30 PM. At 4:00 PM, I get another SMS, flight late, departing at 7:30 now. At 6:30 PM we reached the airport and from the Air Deccan counter came to know that the flight was further delayed and would now depart at 8:00 PM. After some time another SMS, flight late (again?!), departure at 8:30!
One interesting thing that I noted at the airport was, that even though so many flights were getting delayed and/or cancelled, it was only Air Deccan check-in counters that had long winding queues, commotion, and total chaos. Just a sample of the cluelessness of tha Air Deccan officials:
Random DN-603 Passenger: Madam, yeh flight kitne baje take-off karegi?
Check-in counter lady: Aath baje. (8 O' Clock)
Me: Par mere ko toh SMS aaya hai ki sadhe-aath baje (8:30 PM) hai departure?!
Check-in counter lady: Hain?! Ek min zara SMS dikhaiye...
(I handed over my phone with the SMS on the screen, she scrolls through it).
Check-in counter lady: Haan 8:30 par depart karegi. SMS aaya hoga na aapko bhi?
(Random DN-603 passenger leaves with a confused, amused, bewildered, hairaan, pareshaan, look!)
After the check-in and security check was over, we were subject to an endless wait. 8:30 PM swooshed by. No announcement. No SMS. No information whatsoever.
And then, with a stupid magazine in hand (Men's Health! What the hell was I thinking?!) I slowly dozed off on the swanky new Delhi Airport chairs.
I was awoken suddenly to a lot of noise. In the few seconds between breaking out from my dream world and snapping back to reality, I realized that the noise actually was chants of "Air Deccan hai hai!" The entire airport lounge was taking out a morcha against the airlines! I was zapped! I mean, WTF?!
And today I realized that this kind of shit has happened before with Air Deccan!
Anyways, the flight finally took off at 10:30 PM amidst a lot of (sarcastic) applause from the passengeres and embarrased smiles from the air hostesses.
Primary moral of the story is, if the price difference is very little, dump Air Deccan. Secondary moral of the story is that at least these buggers SMS you well in time, that the flight is going to be late.
My fateful flight, DN-603, from Delhi to Mumbai was scheduled to depart at 3:00 in the afternoon. At around 11:00 AM I get an SMS from Air Deccan that the flight was delayed and would now take off at 5:30 PM. At 4:00 PM, I get another SMS, flight late, departing at 7:30 now. At 6:30 PM we reached the airport and from the Air Deccan counter came to know that the flight was further delayed and would now depart at 8:00 PM. After some time another SMS, flight late (again?!), departure at 8:30!
One interesting thing that I noted at the airport was, that even though so many flights were getting delayed and/or cancelled, it was only Air Deccan check-in counters that had long winding queues, commotion, and total chaos. Just a sample of the cluelessness of tha Air Deccan officials:
Random DN-603 Passenger: Madam, yeh flight kitne baje take-off karegi?
Check-in counter lady: Aath baje. (8 O' Clock)
Me: Par mere ko toh SMS aaya hai ki sadhe-aath baje (8:30 PM) hai departure?!
Check-in counter lady: Hain?! Ek min zara SMS dikhaiye...
(I handed over my phone with the SMS on the screen, she scrolls through it).
Check-in counter lady: Haan 8:30 par depart karegi. SMS aaya hoga na aapko bhi?
(Random DN-603 passenger leaves with a confused, amused, bewildered, hairaan, pareshaan, look!)
After the check-in and security check was over, we were subject to an endless wait. 8:30 PM swooshed by. No announcement. No SMS. No information whatsoever.
And then, with a stupid magazine in hand (Men's Health! What the hell was I thinking?!) I slowly dozed off on the swanky new Delhi Airport chairs.
I was awoken suddenly to a lot of noise. In the few seconds between breaking out from my dream world and snapping back to reality, I realized that the noise actually was chants of "Air Deccan hai hai!" The entire airport lounge was taking out a morcha against the airlines! I was zapped! I mean, WTF?!
And today I realized that this kind of shit has happened before with Air Deccan!
Anyways, the flight finally took off at 10:30 PM amidst a lot of (sarcastic) applause from the passengeres and embarrased smiles from the air hostesses.
Primary moral of the story is, if the price difference is very little, dump Air Deccan. Secondary moral of the story is that at least these buggers SMS you well in time, that the flight is going to be late.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Mumbai food sucks!
This side of the country has the suckiest food... ever. Period. No debate about that. It's not quite south, it's not quite north, it's some random "mash-up" gone horribly wrong!
My pet peeve is that Mumbaikars don't know what a sookha bhaaji means. Go to any wayside restaurant, order a plate of mix veg and you'll get potatoes, peas, and carrots floating around in a red coloured slurry. Order chana masaala, and you get boiled chhole (white coloured chickpea) in the same red coloured gravy. Paneer tikka masaala -- same gravy. Paneer handi -- same. Kadhai paneer -- ditto. Veg Kolhapuri, sounds like an authentic Maharathi dish, but no! Same goddam red curry! And it tastes awful. Yechh!
They make a mess out of North Indian food. Which is sort of understandable. But order any South Indian dish and the accompanying sambhar (which is the thing you need to get right) is a semi sweet, semi solid piece of mess.
Don't even bother trying out the paani-puri at chowpati -- sucks! I've had much better and much cheaper paani-puri in Kanpur. They're called gol-gappas up in the north and they can give the Mumbai paani-puri a run for its money. Fifteen (or twenty) bucks to six pieces seems to be the norm here in Mumbai. Back at IIT Kanpur (in front of Hall 3) we used to have five of them for Rs 2.50! Seriously. And after two years when inflation caugh up, the fellows increased their prices.... to Rs 3.00!
So you're only left with Marathi cuisine. Which, IMHO, is virtually non-existent. The only Marathi thing I've eater here is Missal/Ussal Paav which is not that bad. But, heck, how long can you keep eating dried peas and daal-moth in spicy curry?
The only saving grace in Mumbai is the rasta sandwiches and the rasta bhel. The sandwiches at that price simply ROCK! I'm especially fond of the ones I used to have right ouside Star TV's Mahalaxmi office.
And please don't tell me that I'm eating at the wrong restaurants. Sure, if I go to a swanky restaurant every time I need to eat my lunch, I'll probably get a better deal with the food. But swanky restaurant make not the local cuisine. ITC hotels all around the world are going to serve the same Dal Bhukhari. It's the wayside restaurants, the dhabas, the samosa-cutting corners which make the difference...
My pet peeve is that Mumbaikars don't know what a sookha bhaaji means. Go to any wayside restaurant, order a plate of mix veg and you'll get potatoes, peas, and carrots floating around in a red coloured slurry. Order chana masaala, and you get boiled chhole (white coloured chickpea) in the same red coloured gravy. Paneer tikka masaala -- same gravy. Paneer handi -- same. Kadhai paneer -- ditto. Veg Kolhapuri, sounds like an authentic Maharathi dish, but no! Same goddam red curry! And it tastes awful. Yechh!
They make a mess out of North Indian food. Which is sort of understandable. But order any South Indian dish and the accompanying sambhar (which is the thing you need to get right) is a semi sweet, semi solid piece of mess.
Don't even bother trying out the paani-puri at chowpati -- sucks! I've had much better and much cheaper paani-puri in Kanpur. They're called gol-gappas up in the north and they can give the Mumbai paani-puri a run for its money. Fifteen (or twenty) bucks to six pieces seems to be the norm here in Mumbai. Back at IIT Kanpur (in front of Hall 3) we used to have five of them for Rs 2.50! Seriously. And after two years when inflation caugh up, the fellows increased their prices.... to Rs 3.00!
So you're only left with Marathi cuisine. Which, IMHO, is virtually non-existent. The only Marathi thing I've eater here is Missal/Ussal Paav which is not that bad. But, heck, how long can you keep eating dried peas and daal-moth in spicy curry?
The only saving grace in Mumbai is the rasta sandwiches and the rasta bhel. The sandwiches at that price simply ROCK! I'm especially fond of the ones I used to have right ouside Star TV's Mahalaxmi office.
And please don't tell me that I'm eating at the wrong restaurants. Sure, if I go to a swanky restaurant every time I need to eat my lunch, I'll probably get a better deal with the food. But swanky restaurant make not the local cuisine. ITC hotels all around the world are going to serve the same Dal Bhukhari. It's the wayside restaurants, the dhabas, the samosa-cutting corners which make the difference...
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