File browse dialogue- MSFT

This is a insert picture dialogue for Microsoft Word. I think i double clicked on the header to expand it maximise to search an image and then added it to world doc. But after sometime i again clicked the insert image icon and then... it put a full screen dialogue for selecting image. I was searching for a minimise button on top and re size handle on bottom. I couldn't see. And i didn't remember how i had made it maximise. Then i remembered that i need to double click on the title bar to reduce. But my god.. what a trap i was in..
If they are allowing the dialogue to be maximise, should we not have the minimise title bar button ?

Easy7 conference at Bangalore

Attended the Easy7 conference at Bangalore on 5th Jan. This time I saw a small crowd compared to last time. May be they didn't had enough seats. Well, it looks Chi-si.org has now changed its model of conference. I would now rather call it a workshop then conference. They didn't invited any papers. Last year I presented there on "standards based UI Design".
This year it was only invited speakers. They were Jeremy Ashley (Oracle), Bill Scott (Yahoo), Surya Vanka (Microsoft), Sarah Bloomer.
I have been attending the Easy conference for past 3yrs and each year i could see new faces. India is really growing in HCI.
There was going to be an evening meet called by folks from design-for-use. I missed it as i had to catch up with a meeting.

Usability of Shampoo bottles.

Very simple designs but highly usable. The first shampoo bottle shows a pump that can be screwed and fixed. This helps when you are traveling and carrying it. Also accidental you don't pump the shampoo out.

The second bottle shows a cap that is at the bottom of the bottle. Or you can say the bottle is supposed to be kept upside down. This helps the thick shampoo to slide down and be available immediately once you open the cap.

The third bottle is a mouth freshener with a integrated cup. Isn't that great..you can know how much you are using.

But the usability of such small shampoo sachet is still in question. You tend to use this while you are in bathroom and try to tear it off. But you have slippery hands and you cant. Can there be better design to break this sachet with wet hands.

Salary Survey for HCI professionals in India

The salary survey for 2006 usability professionals in India is out on www.upahyderabad.org

Videocon TV remote usability

I have this Videocon portable(14 inch) TV. If you look at the remote, the designers have placed the most unused buttons(Frequency, Chanel scan & color settings) very close to most frequently used buttons(volume). They thought the user is going to carry this portable TV every alternate day to USA and then to India. They the user needs to change the frequency from 50Hertz to 60Hz. Then they thought user needs to keep scanning channels every day. It was such a headache that i finally chopped off the rubber buttons. You can see that. Thanks Videocon for providing rubber buttons.

Philips DVD player. Placement of buttons ?

Check out this Philips DVD player. Everytime i have to eject the CD, to put the next one, i often swithch off this player. You know why ?.. .the power off button is next to CD window and eject button is far at the end. Dont you think is should have been reversed ?

Windows mobile 5 features

• The new windows mobile 5 OS do not allow for adding separate video for any contacts. You can just add picture. But look at the size of picture it displays.. It like a small icone.
  Also the dialing pad do not have some important buttons(call history, Speed dial) mapped to hard buttons. You have to use the touch screen only...
• Another big issue is it does not closes applications (eg- file manager, camera, photos viewer, music player) once you open it. They all run in background and eat your Ram. There is no exit menu for any application.
• The fonts are very small. You cant really increase size to make it readable.
• And off course it hangs many times.
• I like it but still needs improvement.