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HFI is a leading usability and human factors consultancy. So I was a little surprised when I came across a small blunder. An example which illustrates the importance of permalinks. Also the importance of experience design.
The page I am talking about is the UI design newsletter page. I got to this page from google search. After glancing through the newsletter I wanted to see the past issues. Near the PDF file icon, there is a links which says, “back to past issues”. What would you expect to happen when you click this link? You expect to see the past issues page.. right? Now click on the image to go to the page, and see what happens.

.

If you clicked on the image and then clicked on the “back to past issues”, you would have come back exactly to this page. Because the link that it uses is a javascript link.

<a href="javascript:history.go(-1)">Back to Past Issues</a>

This just uses browser history to find out which was the last page and opens that. Either this is a small slip-up or whoever decided to use the javascript link assumed that the user will only come to that page from the HFI site. In fact people can come to that page from any search engine or any other site/blog where it is linked. Ideally the back buttons should have the link for the list page for the newsletters. The URL could be something like,
<a href="http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/newsletters">Back to Past Issues</a>

This example illustrates how even technology overlaps into user experience design.

I have been listening to the song Goldfinger from the James Bond movie. I have always liked the song. After seeing this video of the live concert did I realize why the liking. I could identify at least 6 rasas. The way Shirley switches from one to the other is remarkable too. She should have been an Indian classical dancer seeing her mettle in expressions. I have tried to take screenshots to show what I mean.

Rasa - Adbhutam (Amazement)

Rasa - Hasyam (Laughter)

Rasa - Karunyam (Compassion)

Rasa - Vatsalya (parental love)

Rasa - Vibhatsa (disgust)

Rasa - Viram (heroic mood)

Do comment if you see any other rasa in the video.

Moments after I tweeted this:

“Fight Club” in the real world http://bit.ly/bB7jrU

I received this reply:

@kaargocult His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.

Apparently the user IAmJacksBot keeps searching for a few keywords, “fight club” being one of them. As soon as it finds one, it replies to the original tweet with a random dialogue from the movie.

I am not sure if anyone is using this automatized replying as a way to monetizing twitter.

Imagine you tweeting: “I would like a new camera phone with 5 megapixel”, and immediately getting a reply “read our recent review of 5 megapixel camera phones. Nokia XXX came out the winner”.

Found an old book rummaging through my collection. From my school days.

Titled :Model school essays, letters and paragraphs.

I am copying a letter called First letter to a pen friend from it.

——

282 Bunglow,

Sector- 16A,

Chandigarh

Dear Monita,

I saw your name and address in the Hindustan Times dated …. under the heading of ‘Wanted Pen Friend’. Enclosed please find my photograph and details like education, hobbies, extra curricular activities, political ideology etc. as desired by you.

Please send me your photograph along with other necessary details at the earliest. I hope, we will prove good friends.

With best wishes,

Yours Truly,

Sunny

——

The first thing which strikes me is the so formal tone of this letter. Maybe I have grown used to the casual copy like the ‘flickr is having a massage’.  While in the first paragraph he is slightly hopeful but still very polite. In the second paragraph he suddenly becomes much more confidant ‘demandin’ she sends in the picture. Obviously she will only do so if she likes Sunny’s details.

Fun to realize that this is what the  “Fraindship request’ used to look like in those days. This book was published in 1992.

What do you remember from those days?

Click to download

The food themed issue of Aahsome magazine is out. It has got comics, a piece of food history, stories, reviews and two contests. You can win free chocolates and restaurant vouchers. You can download it here: http://bit.ly/aahsome-food (direct link to PDF file) .

Thanks to all the contributors and friends for helping out with proofreading etc. Please be giving feedback on how to improve it and how to spread it more.