workshop

Insights Into Web Content Writing

March 7, 2010 Design

I had the privilege of attending a workshop by Techved Design on writing content for the web. I wasn’t planning to leave the house in the killing humidity and heat but changed my mind thanks to my dearest friend Neha Modgil.

Writing immersible content for the web is always challenging. It’s a medium not known to sustain readership beyond a few seconds. Imagine having to sell a product in a limited amount of time and sustaining the attention span of an online user. This is what the workshop intended to address. Content speaks to a specific audience and good content only makes the actions on the website more compelling.

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The TCS Marketing Workshop

September 8, 2006 General

I am just back from a 2 day enjoyable marketing workshop which was aimed at introducing the various departments, spread across the nation. It gave me a good opportunity to know the team members closely and their roles and responsibilities in the commune. The workshop was organised in the pleasant surroundings of the Retreat Hotel at Madh Island near Mumbai.

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Flash Accessibility Workshop

March 16, 2006 General

Macromedia Flash 8 PackThis was yet another attempt on my part to get familiar with Accessibility. The term means a lot but to me it refers to usability of computer systems by people with disabilities or age related limitations. I was notified about this seminar which looked at Macromedia (formerly) Flash as a delivery tool and how one can make it accessible – Designing Accessible eLEarning Applications with Flash. The title was intriguing because I never thought one could make it accessible the way HTML/xHTML behaves and hence I decided to participate.

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Workshop Wrap-Up

January 22, 2006 General

Abhishek in & as BluffmasterThe Human Factors seminar ended quite nicely today and I admit that it has made a huge difference for me. As I have said earlier when I attended the very first workshop, the first few hours itself were enough to change my mindset completely. Both Hitesh and Neha, our instructors for the Practical Usability Testing workshop created enough interest and excitement to make the 2 day workshop very absorbing. I am now going back to my sweatshop desiring to put some of the gained knowledge to actual practice. I am also hoping that the management gives a serious thought in constituting a body of usability experts from the industry who can work in tandem with the developers in making usable web and software applications.

After the day ended with some emotional goodbyes and hand shakes and promises of keeping in touch over email, it was time for me and Aadesh to chill out. Being movie buffs, we hopped over to Huma Adlabs at Kanjurmarg and watched the Rohan Sippy directed Bluffmaster starring Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Nana Patekar amongst others. It’s the story of a deceiver Roy (Abhishek) and Simmi (Priyanka) and their lives. Nana as Chandru, a local don has been amazing throughout the movie.

The movie has been shot wonderfully. I say this because it presents to you some of the most scenic images of Mumbai which have hitherto been unexplored. I personally liked Abhishek’s apartment and the magnificent view of the city from it. There’s no point in narrating the story and spoiling the fun. The least that I can say is please go to the nearest theater and enjoy the movie :-)

Usability Training Workshop

January 20, 2006 Design

Human Factors InternationalI have been keeping busy these days with the User Centered Analysis and Practical Usability Testing workshops at Human Factors International (HFI). The course is very extensive and I hardly get time to spend at home these days. But I am happy that I have found something which I can pursue with great passion. These training sessions are enabling me to better understand the needs and the strategies that are currently being employed to design GUIs.

The User Centric Design course is an extensive one which deals with forming design strategies. These strategies are based upon some studies and surveys which the stakeholder (owner) undertakes before he embarks upon making a full fledged website. The study of design goals and other such criteria enables to better understand the tasks and thus design a better user experience. The Practical Usability Training course deals more with formative prototype testing and interviewing the affected user groups to understand their mental models when they view specific websites. Of course, this is a very shallow explanation that I have given here for both the courses but you can visit the website for more details on training and certification.

We have a large audience this time attending both the courses from all across the country and especially from the bigger Indian IT companies. This accentuates the fact that more and more organizations have started to look at usability as a very important factor for designing web and software applications.