Technology

Understanding Designers

November 11, 2015 Design Technology

I received yet another email today from a recruitment agency for a ‘UI Developer’ position, and lately I have begun to doubt the industry’s understanding of the difference between ‘designers’ and ‘developers’. It’s also discouraging when recruiters email you saying “Hey, I have this great position for you…”, only to be left disappointed when you go through the job description which clearly mentions programming skills as a prerequisite! Especially when my résumé or online job profile does not even mention the word ‘developer’ anyplace, I can’t figure out how those emails land in my inbox. Obviously there are some recruiters acting under professional compulsions and fulfilling a different criteria. But merely having an understanding or liking for a programming language doesn’t turn me into a developer. So I take this opportunity to explain about the Designers as I know them in some detail here. 

Designers imagine to create things, and developers engineer to make them work.

Designers apply visual talents in their methods to bring an idea to life while developers apply their mathematical acumen to make that idea work. Even if these roles appear to be similar for some individuals, it should now be clear from that simple description how their responsibilities and perspectives are poles apart. For instance, designers thrive on user insights, picking or rejecting ideas intuitively depending on what would and wouldn’t work for the product. Empathy comes naturally to them because without knowing who to design for they can’t begin to imagine and create visuals. Or even if they do create something just out of their imagination it may not work well with the intended audience in the market. This is quite different from the painters or fine artists who use their vivid imaginations, colours and forms on the canvas to express their inner feelings and thoughts. On the other hand when you empathize with your users you stand in their shoes to feel their physical and emotional needs and pains. Designers have an inbred mechanism which helps them translate those inert perceptions into tangible creations making use of design-thinking tools such as prototyping, iteration and design. When you remove these cherished elements from a designer’s inventory you risk losing the overall individuality of the product itself.

Why is a designer so important? Designers represent the uniqueness of the brand. They breathe, drink, sleep; basically exist emotionally with the brand while integrating it into their personality, and hence are able to imagine countless possibilities for the product. Having empathized with their product’s core value they are able to distill rationale through the quagmire of scrutiny. Good designers are an invaluable asset to the organization because they can transform a product’s narrative with their creativity and design leadership. So when designers are reduced to being just an ‘apparatus’ to fulfill short-term goals, it hurts the business objectives and sabotages the future growth of the brand conclusively. In fact, the best organizations in the world value the contribution that designers bring on the table. They are nurtured not just as employees but as the ultimate custodians of the brand’s ethos and sanctity.

Designers do not automatically become developers if they develop an understanding of how things work. In fact that signifies they are smart enough to cross over (empathy) and comprehend the challenges of the developers which is an advantage for organizations who are dealing with complex big-data and large IT transformational projects. It’s important to bear in mind that customers are no longer satisfied with systems that simply work, rather they are habituated to a continuous rush of apps offering delightful experiences. A user’s expectations to reach a certain level of gratification has already reached manic proportions which can only be delivered through a good design strategy. In a fiercely competitive industry riding on the theme of customer experience, designers are the only individuals who can technically connect the dots, unify the aspirations of product teams into a single sequence, and filter the undesirable perceptions to form a substantial product strategy. To expect them to do anything else but design is quite honestly, suicidal.

PlayStation Virtual Reality

November 7, 2015 Design Technology

The Paris Games Week (PGW) concluded last week and I watched the PlayStation media event.

What has fascinated me from the beginning with the PlayStation (PS) console is the ‘Uncharted’ (UC) and ‘InFamous’ titles. ‘Uncharted – Among Thieves’ was the first title (Part 2 in the series actually) that I got my hands on , and I was completely stunned with the gameplay and the graphics. It’s much like watching a movie actually. After that I have played almost all the ‘Uncharted’ titles to date. The much anticipated ‘Uncharted 4 – A Thief’s End’ was announced at the PGW to be released on 18-March 2016, it’s the last title in this ambitious series. The sadness over its culmination has overtaken the excitement from the launch. Guerrilla Games’ ‘Horizons Zero Dawn’ was good in terms of gameplay.

But the highlight of the event for me was definitely the demonstration of PlayStation VR. While Facebook has longterm goals for Oculus, Sony has already announced some terrific exclusive titles like ‘Robinson – The Journey’ for the VR platform, and many others. Looks like VR may finally become a mainstream reality soon and can’t wait to get my hands on it.

PS4 20th Anniversary Limited Edition

Go, Gone, Poof!

December 16, 2014 Technology

If you’re fretting and fuming over losing the chance to buy the PS4 20th Anniversary Limited Edition console today in Canada, I’d suggest DON’T! I am sure there’s a long line of Canadians doing just that over the last few hours. Sony commemorated 20 years of the launch of the PSOne by producing one great PS4 console design calling it the “PS4 20th Anniversary Limited Edition”, LIMITED in true sense of the word not just marketing gimmickry. Since the original PSOne was launched on 3-Dec or 12/3 they decided to produce only 12,300 of the PS4s worldwide. Just 12,300 can you believe it!! (lucky they didn’t go for just 123 pieces because that’d have been awkward).

The Japanese were the first to get their hands on this rare masterpiece on 3-Dec-14, and the Canadians today and I was keeping an eye on @PlaystationCA in the hope of some early news of this rare console launch. Here’s how I had hoped things would have worked – the tweet would have included a future date and a time when the link would go online on Sony’s online store, I would stay prepared with my CC and boom! But this happened today when I was away from my notebook for just 10 minutes only. Now I wasn’t told that the link would come and go *poof* within minutes. That’s insanity!

PlaystationCA Tweet

And I can’t even say I was “too late” because when I returned things had changed drastically in a matter of minutes! (I almost cursed myself “what was I doing in those 10 minutes?”)

PlaystationCA Tweet

 

So I resign to the fact that with just 12,300 units worldwide it was practically impossible to get my hands on one of them. Congrats to everyone who could buy it. Kudos to you. I am really envious, just so you know.

Here’s what I have to tell Sony though – you always disappoint me. Be it the incessant hacking of your servers (this has now become like an annual hacker party where everybody’s invited) where my privacy is compromised, or the multiple account ID issues on PS Vita/PSN. And now losing the chance of acquiring a masterpiece, a collector’s item which got you fixated on the launch date. Agreed you had to commemorate the launch of the console but getting serious about a number (12/3) that practically makes no sense WORLDWIDE when you consider the colossal gamer community Playstation has! (the ones who supported you by buying your PS consoles and titles for 20 long years!). It’s so pitiful to know that you had to celebrate this memorable gaming moment with your fans with only 12,300 units! Tsk tsk.

Gaming – What’s Hot, What’s Not.

July 20, 2014 General Technology

It happens quite often, I’m in a game shop looking for a title and I cannot wrap my head around which title I should buy! There are tons of titles for PS3 to choose from which makes my job difficult. 4 things that help me get what I want always:

Game Reviews
First and foremost I head over to IGN to see what the experts have to say. IGN has a pretty interesting rating system that helps in making a choice, but please remember that gaming is all about personal preferences much like movies are. Always go with that gut feel while reading the review. However ratings give you that inside look as to how a game feels helps you in making an informed choice. There are other websites that offer review based ratings such as Metacritic. Also Wikipedia is another awesome choice for a one-stop-shop gaming knowledge.

Story
It’s not always the boom-booms and the melee attacks that make up for an entertaining title. A story also contributes in making the game more interesting and immersive. I have always been an Uncharted series fan throughout, to me it holds all the entertaining values that an ideal game should have. Not to mention the cinematic experience typical of an Indiana Jones movie. After aren’t games are supposed to entertain us? Pick a game that has a good storyline so even if you are tired with the gameplay the story doesn’t let you down. If you are bored to wits’ end you can always go back to play that amazing story and relive those moments all over again. With Uncharted it’s always like acting in a movie as Nathan Drake! Trust me on that.

Gameplay
Speaking of gameplay, it’s about interacting with the characters using an external peripheral such as the game controller or the Move controller (PlayStation). For instance in ‘Uncharted-Drake’s Fortune’ when Drake walks on a log you have to tilt the controller sideways in order to help Drake maintain balance or he falls down into the stream below and dies. In the Killzone series the controller has to be moved in a circular motion to unlock a door, just like you would open a safety vault. This clever tactic of using external peripherals to control the game’s story brings lot of intrigue to the game making it interesting to play, hence the gameplay is an important factor in choosing a game. The game controller or the Move controller also has the ability to vibrate at certain points during the game which adds to the immersive value of the title. Of course you can’t know the gameplay for every title before buying that game unless a friend tells you or you read it online.

Fanboy
Honestly if there weren’t exclusive titles like Uncharted, inFamous or Killzone on the PlayStation it’d have made life boring. That’s not to say there aren’t good titles available on PS3 but you get my point – it’s called fanboyism. It’s what makes you buy titles regardless of what the world says because you enjoy playing them the most. One of the deals for me for buying a gaming console was the availability of a vast library of exclusive titles and PlayStation made the cut for me. Uncharted and inFamous are my most beloved game titles and whenever a new edition is released I pick it up without hesitation. Unfortunately both these titles have moved to PS4 now.

YouTube
Another brilliant way to help you choose a game title is to watch the gameplay. Nothing comes close to experiencing the real stuff than to head over to YouTube and see the walkthroughs (or watch a friend play). I cannot imagine any game title that doesn’t have a detailed walkthrough or a trophy guide uploaded on YouTube, the gaming community needs to be thanked for this a zillion times! Not only do these videos help you choose a title – the graphics, storyline, audio, etc. can be vividly captured and reviewed, but they also help if you are stuck on a difficult story level or busy harnessing trophies. Take full advantage of this priceless medium.

Price
Speaking of price, if you are just a casual gamer the cost of a game would matter to you a lot. Games can be a costly affair and brand new titles range anywhere from C$50-70. Most games are left untouched after you play them once while some of them are left incomplete because you lose interest mid-way and gather dust on the shelf. The best part about gaming is that the fun value or the excitement is not diminished if you buy traded games. And if you are not a serious gamer this will matter to you a lot in the longer run. I prefer to buy used titles at EB Games and I have never been disappointed with the quality they offer. The difference in price can be a lot as compared to a brand new title but it also depends on the life of the title – older titles cost less than more recent ones which are traded. Pay a visit to an outlet and start browsing the games, you never know which title will hit the target for you. Also if you are holding on to a game title that you haven’t touched for many months and is lying around the house, unless if you are really a collector of titles give it up for trading and share the joy of gaming with other gamers. They will bless you for your righteous deed.

Happy gaming!

Life Disconnected

July 18, 2014 General Technology

Internet just isn’t any technology. Needless to say in today’s world everything and anything runs on the power of the Internet. When it comes to me I eat, sleep and drink on the Internet. So when this service was taken away from me I thought I wasn’t alive. For 4 long days! And this was an unprecedented situation according to Bell (my ISP). Also unprecedented for Canada I suppose?

The Fibe TV network which I am a proud subscriber delivers TV/Internet/Phone through the same connection at no extra cost. In other words TV runs on Internet bandwidth (but it doesn’t count towards my actual download) and the phone too but it uses very little power. However if the Internet goes down, it takes the TV along with it, but the phone is spared.

I immediately logged a ticket with Bell and they promised to send someone across within 24 hours (12-5 PM the next day). I waited and waited the next day and the technician doesn’t turn up. So I call them up to seek answers. I am told it was a server issue and an area outage which will be resolved by 3PM the next day (but no response on why the technician did not turn up). So 48 hours without TV/Internet, I was suffocating to say the least. The burden of guilt that I was carrying for not having checked my emails for 2 long days was bearing on me. Finally I lost patience on the 3rd day and got on a marathon 3 hour call! (yes, 3 hours). I wasn’t hanging up until I got my answers. And answers was all I got.

I was told that the technician was never booked to come to my place, the dashboard was empty. I was in no mood to book another appointment for Saturday, and by the time I finished waiting and talking to the tech support, the Saturday slots were full and Monday was the only likely day to book an appointment for the technician to visit my place.I was so anguished that I wanted to move out of Bell and opt for another viable ISP in the area. I was so sure that in the time that the technician will arrive to solve my problem the new ISP will gladly accept and service my request for a new connection in 24 hours!

Finally an L3 loyalty/billing supervisor got on the line with me and things started to take turn for the better. Not only was I compensated for the downtime, I was given credit for the trauma which I faced and a technician visited my place today instead of Monday to solve the problem. The problem was attributed to a firmware glitch for the modem. The Internet is back and I am back to breathing normally. Yes, the service was far from satisfactory, the customer care lost credibility while booking an appointment and not sending someone at all, but am I glad I am back in business online. I have no further comments to make to Bell except for requesting to provide prompt service the next time I face a downtime.