A couple of weeks back Opera announced that they were going to give away their browser free (no ads and no licensing fee). Just like Firefox.
I promptly downloaded the latest version of Opera and installed it in my laptop. And I was hooked! I really can't say what it was that made me switch but in a day I had Opera as my default browser, uninstalled AvantBrowser and delegated Firefox to the second browser spot. Earlier I had Firefox as my 'first' browser, AvantBrowser as my 'second' browser and IE as my 'third' browser. Now I have Opera as my first, Firefox as my second and IE as my third browser (simply because I can't safely uninstall it and still expect Windows to work).
This Opera is just starting.
By the way, if you're wondering what I meant by "the fat lady singeth" look at this page.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
User Experience
The other day (no, it was not THAT other day) I was at an ATM. Lets call the ATM of Bank 'I-52' (why does everyone call the unknowns - X and Y?) So there I was pushing buttons, working the thing and waiting for the dough when I started thinking.
Before that a bit of a background. I have also had the good fortune to access more than one bank. Not that I have a lot of moolah to store, but thats besides the point. So I have used the ATM of Bank 'C-87' also in the past. OK now on with the story.
OK so while waiting for the dough I started to think about the differences I noticed in the ATMs of these two banks.
Bank 'C-87' has this nice plushy casing for its ATM with a touchscreen monitor embedded into the wall (or table or whatever they can find at that particular location). You just press the icons on the touchscreen, the thing gives out a few comforting beeps and out comes the moolah. Plus the graphical interface on this ATM is also quite nice - subtle colors, soft corners on buttons, very easy on the eyes etc.
Bank 'I-52' on the other hand has this box-like contraption which encases its ATM machine. There are hard physical buttons (no touchscreen) for you to type your PIN number etc. The menus are operated by another set of buttons which are nowhere near numeric keypad that you used to type in your PIN number. The on-screen graphics uses very harsh colors which are not necessarily easy on the eyes. Especially when you are desperate for the moolah.
And there are no comforting beeps.
OK so what is the moral of this story? Well I 'feel' happy and content (like a baby that has just had its milk) when I use the ATM of Bank 'C-87'. Bank 'C-87' makes me feel good about the experience. Whereas the ATM of Bank 'I-52' makes me 'feel' that life couldn't get any worse.
I get my dough in both situations (and in approximately the same amount of time) but the difference was in the user experience.
The moolah is really in the user experience.
Before that a bit of a background. I have also had the good fortune to access more than one bank. Not that I have a lot of moolah to store, but thats besides the point. So I have used the ATM of Bank 'C-87' also in the past. OK now on with the story.
OK so while waiting for the dough I started to think about the differences I noticed in the ATMs of these two banks.
Bank 'C-87' has this nice plushy casing for its ATM with a touchscreen monitor embedded into the wall (or table or whatever they can find at that particular location). You just press the icons on the touchscreen, the thing gives out a few comforting beeps and out comes the moolah. Plus the graphical interface on this ATM is also quite nice - subtle colors, soft corners on buttons, very easy on the eyes etc.
Bank 'I-52' on the other hand has this box-like contraption which encases its ATM machine. There are hard physical buttons (no touchscreen) for you to type your PIN number etc. The menus are operated by another set of buttons which are nowhere near numeric keypad that you used to type in your PIN number. The on-screen graphics uses very harsh colors which are not necessarily easy on the eyes. Especially when you are desperate for the moolah.
And there are no comforting beeps.
OK so what is the moral of this story? Well I 'feel' happy and content (like a baby that has just had its milk) when I use the ATM of Bank 'C-87'. Bank 'C-87' makes me feel good about the experience. Whereas the ATM of Bank 'I-52' makes me 'feel' that life couldn't get any worse.
I get my dough in both situations (and in approximately the same amount of time) but the difference was in the user experience.
The moolah is really in the user experience.
In search of power
The other day I was on my way to a meeting when my mobile (a Nokia 6255) beeped. I looked at its screen and found the message "Low battery". Accompanying this message was a cute animation of a battery with very little "juice" (power) shaking around all over the screen. This set me thinking - why can't mobile phones be a little more intelligent?
Lets say the phone is nearly out of juice and could shut itself down at any moment. The last thing you would want it to do in such a situation is display a cute animation which uses up even more juice and hastens its end. What I would like the mobile to do in such a situation is to get into a mode that uses as little juice as possible but yet warn me so that I can get it charged again.
Perhaps the phone could have some form of power management (do any mobiles do that already, outside of these 'smartphone PDAs' that is?). Sort of like the power management you find on laptops - with several hundred profiles such as "writing email", "oogling at pics", "trying to get work done in MS Word" etc which adjust the processor's speed etc based on the kind of activity you're currently on. I am sure there must be a dozen activities that the latest and greatest mobile phone does which have absolutely no impact on your life and which could be safely switched off in favor of a bit more juice.
How about if you're on a call and the mobile phone is able to recognize that you are at the receiving end of a boring conversation? The phone could send you a subtle beep which means "Hey this conversation is not worth my juice". You would then have an option to, for example, clear your throat in the next 5 seconds, which the mobile phone would recognize and promptly disconnect the caller. The phone would then send a message to the mobile service provider's server instructing it to automatically issue a 'busy' signal to that caller for the next 12 hours, hence saving some more juice. Hopefully by then they would have also forgotten what they wanted to say, saving some more juice.
Lets say the phone is nearly out of juice and could shut itself down at any moment. The last thing you would want it to do in such a situation is display a cute animation which uses up even more juice and hastens its end. What I would like the mobile to do in such a situation is to get into a mode that uses as little juice as possible but yet warn me so that I can get it charged again.
Perhaps the phone could have some form of power management (do any mobiles do that already, outside of these 'smartphone PDAs' that is?). Sort of like the power management you find on laptops - with several hundred profiles such as "writing email", "oogling at pics", "trying to get work done in MS Word" etc which adjust the processor's speed etc based on the kind of activity you're currently on. I am sure there must be a dozen activities that the latest and greatest mobile phone does which have absolutely no impact on your life and which could be safely switched off in favor of a bit more juice.
How about if you're on a call and the mobile phone is able to recognize that you are at the receiving end of a boring conversation? The phone could send you a subtle beep which means "Hey this conversation is not worth my juice". You would then have an option to, for example, clear your throat in the next 5 seconds, which the mobile phone would recognize and promptly disconnect the caller. The phone would then send a message to the mobile service provider's server instructing it to automatically issue a 'busy' signal to that caller for the next 12 hours, hence saving some more juice. Hopefully by then they would have also forgotten what they wanted to say, saving some more juice.
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