Top UI designer from a search engine giant leaves

Top designer from a search engine giant left saying,

“When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.

Yes, it's true that our team couldn't decide between two blues, so they're testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can't operate in an environment like that. I've grown tired of debating such miniscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.”

I have different perspective on this subject. One of the prime objective/use case of designing is to provide elegant and easy to understand view of information(i.e. data). Isn't data, the prime factor to drive UI design ? Internet and WWW is all about sharing of data in different forms. Yes, if data doesn't looks good or is not applauding to customers, one must go and reinvent the wheel.

Being an engineer and not a designer, I would not care that much about shades, dimensions and style of a component. From business point of view, it matters a lot and it does make a difference. Example, read story : 'How Changing a Button Increased a Site's Annual Revenues by $300 Million'.

This is my - an outsider's relative opinion on the subject and with all respect to that top designer.

Framework dilemma

I had written generic framework for performing group, addition and sorting operations in code on fields of record set. One of my colleague was working on task where in this framework could be reused. After going through on how to use it, he mumbled "how complex". Err. I was bit surprised , as tried my best to keep it simple and neat.

Consumers perspective might be totally different than developers perspective in most of the cases.

• He/She do not have clear understanding of efforts that will require in using straight forward approach rather than using any framework and possibility of that code getting repeated.

• Framework cannot be made more simpler and cleaner: Kick your ass, Some things can only be done in dirty ways !

• Crucial - It was developed in a limited time frame. Its very important to realize that the tool(not a GOD) is not going to fix each and every worlds problem, but it is extremely handy in instrumenting its intended functionality, was developed in a limited timely frame.

• No love for frameworks: Often developers hate to use/consume code written by co-workers/buddies. Even if you follow general organization coding standards, practices, there are differences in the way people code and meant it.

I would prefer using library/code/function if I am able to derive significant value for doing so on following basis,

1. A1 = (T1 - T2) / ( T1 + T2)
T1 = Time required for task without framework/library/third party code
T2 = Time required for task with framework/library/third party code

2. A2 = F1 / F2
F1 = Features consumed for task
F2 = Total features provided by library

3. A3 = All additional overheads in terms of memory,CPU consumption, rework required if any. It should be weighted between 0 - 1.0, totally depends how much critical these factors are for the application.

V(%) = A1 + A2 - A3 * 100
V = Final value of Framework/library/code for consumer

If V > 30%, go ahead use it.

Letter from a laid-off manager - an eye opener

I got a forward from my friend, whose x-manager was laid off in his company. What ever he has written, is applicable in recession scenario as well as in general.

He wrote,

"My forced vacation did not last long. I have joined X company today. I have got just the kind of work that I was searching for, besides the office is located only 2 kms away from my home. This will keep my bicycle rolling more. The lay-off turned out to be a blessing in disguise :)

Some lessons learnt from this episode:

• Don't ever think that you are un-touchable in times of recession. That adds to the gravity of the impact.
• Don't wait for your turn to come. If you think you are not enjoying the work, or you have different opinions on how/where the company is going, then it is time for you to move on.
• Don't panic. This is a global phenomenon, you are not the only one to get laid-off. Don't go in the self-doubt phase.
• Keep your personal foot-print on the company resources (email, harddisk) very small.
• Utilize this time well. Read some books to refresh your knowledge, do something that you enjoy the most."

How will you react ?

Olympic fever

Olympic has commenced in Bijing on 8th August, 2008. Olympic has its root way back in 1896, when it was conducted in Athens, Greece for the very first time. The official Olympic flag has five interconnected rings on the white background, representing 5 continents. The colours of rings are blue, green, red, black, yellow which was chosen so that at least one appears on each countries flag. The rings are interconnected to represent friendship and union among these continents. Its pride playing for your nation.Everybody tries to put their countries top on the medal list. Well, India was never looked shining in Olympics.Lets look at history of India in Olympic.

India's first official appearance came in year 1928 and was able to pull off gold in Hockey. For the next 5 successive olympics, India bagged hockey gold medal. Major Dhaynachand was the backbone of Indian Hockey Team at that time. Years 1928-1956 is know as golden years of Indian Hockey. Indian Hockey hasn't lived up to the hype after Dhyanchand era. On the other hand, history of individual medals is not that bright. Notably Khushaba Jadhav was India's first individual medalist, which he won in 1952 Olypic games in free wrestling. After 44 long years,India again snatched individual bronze medal in form of Leander Peace. Leander came stunner in Barsilona Olympics ,1996, upsetting words top seeded players. The Indian Army Major Rajverdhan Rathod was surprise package in Athens(2004). He pulled off silver in shooting to put country of 1 billion population on the list with count of 1.

One needs to analyze the sports infrastructure, processes and financial limitations, which is responsible for this poor show. Players don't have enough facilities and coaching to master their crafts. Government aids are not sufficient. Even worse, society encourages students to persue high paying professions, even one is capable of making it happen. No wonder, country has poor sporting culture. They say, 'India is an aspiring super power'. I wonder. Cricket fobia is other factor that's ruining development of other sports like tennis, gymnasium, athlete. Corporate word should pore some money for good of these sports and not just for Cricket. Media is also responsible for keeping these sports ignorant.

Whats more fascinating is despite of all odds, we had successes in past. We have players walking on their own to make it happen. With little help and encouragement, things are certainly going to change. China will be our idol for that.

With 2008 games all set up to sizzle, will Indian squad pull off again ? Lot of hype has been created about Anjali Bhagawat(Shooting),Anju boby george(Long jump),Rajvardhan Rathod(Shooting),Pace/Bhupati(Tennis-double). Will they live up to expectations ? Nobody is talking about Hockey team, which has once again disappointed with their poor performance that even couldn't get them into Olympics. Its a nightmare. We need to wait for the answers.

(P.S.: While I was writing this, news came that Abhinav Bindra has managed to snatch gold in 10m air rifle. Kudos to him. )

Little Shayari

Badlon ke darmiyan kuch aaisi sajish hui,
Mera ghar mitti kaa thaa mere hi ghar barish hui,
Unko bhi jid hai bijliyaan girane ki,
Aur hame bhi jid hai aashaiyan wahi banane ki !!

A typical day in a software company !

Very funny video ! But I only wish life in Software company was this easy going and simple,its much more than meetings, parties, lavish lifestyle and all.