Is it more important to have great design or to have the best technology?

Today we are overwhelmed by the advancement of mobile technology aimed at engaging us into a virtual life. Individuals and organizations are being constantly awed by the length, breadth and depth of mobiles available in the market today.  Everyone uses the word technology in their own context today often causing one to wonder whether it is really the technology that advanced or those subtle things that makes technology look great. Free technology is available to anyone and everyone seems to think the technology is attraction while in reality it is not. Brands are creating their own design with the aim of attracting new consumers and retaining the old ones who have affinity to the brand.
 
Design is the key to unlock new technologies and with every new technology comes the flexibility to offer a better design. Design involves careful examination of the consumers being targeted and differentiator between what exists already today – be it cost, technology or user experience. A perfect example is to compare the mobile phones produced by three major telecom giants in today’s world – Apple, Nokia and Samsung. Apple is latched to its technology and differentiates through unique and innovative design features attracting its consumers. Not everything in life is free, but many great iphone apps are. When you find good software for free, we take it. Examples are Siri and Pass book that come pre-installed with every phone to attract the consumer base. Design is Apple’s strongest selling point and we all know it. As long as it makes continuous innovation in software design and produces great apps, Apple is always a hit.

 Nokia on the other hand tries to offer its robust technology as selling point to customers. The recent decline in sales tells the direct story that technology alone is not enough for a product to be a hit. We all know Nokia is a pioneer in mobile technology and still leads the list of overall mobile patents for the period 1995-2012. In spite of all these efforts and mobile patents Nokia is still losing its grip in a world where design can alter conventional thoughts and increase the expectations of the consumers worldwide. The truth is inevitable, without design, technology is handicapped and lost.

Samsung did what Nokia could not. It was losing the battle and was about to vanish forever when they regrouped and focused on what was the right thing. They got their design right. Breaking from their legacy handset model, they offered technology wrapped under a very neat design, changed the look and feel of its product hitting the consumers who liked the touch and feel of the new product. A lesson that all of us can learn from Samsung and its never too late.

It is always wise to have a better design at hand and spend time on programming instead of working around inevitable problems that arise to poor design. Design is used as a process to help business meet functional needs using the advantage of technology. A good design will add value to a business and increase its performance by designing for greater usability and customer experience. Good design helps generate positive responses and meets the needs of most complicated markets or segments to reap benefits to clients. Design plays a key role even in changing the perception of a solution or product and reinforces the need of the product being created.

Finally, a good design can be used to turn a vision into a reality!

On Road to GSU

When I narrate my intriguing tale of driving to people around me, I hear them saying 'I am completely impressed', 'How did you manage to do it', 'omg you are awesome'. I am an owner of a second hand Hyundai Elantra. It makes me really proud to have achieved something in such a short span of time. For all of you wondering what my story is, I bet most of you reading my article can relate to my experience.

I hail from the southern part of India. It's one of the most busiest metropolitan cities in the country. Unlike in the US where motorcyclists are not a common sight on roads, one can see motorists everywhere on the roads in India. It's humanly impossible to classify peak or off peak hours for traffic. So driving a two wheeler or a four wheeler can be really frustrating because of the traffic. Its packed with motorists, cars and heavy vehicles at any time during the day. It would take at least one hour more than the estimated time to go anywhere in the city. Owning a car is a luxury and not many families own cars.

I thought learning driving would help me someday and decided to take driving lessons. Driving test in India is not as hard as it is in the US and within a couple of days I took the test and got my license too. But I didn't have a car at home so I couldn’t put my driving skills to practice and I lost touch in driving for close to 3 years. I thought I would never get a chance to drive again but I was wrong. I came to the US a month ago and I got to know that Americans are car-loving people. I realised that it's impossible to navigate without a car. Car is a bare necessity here and you are stuck forever if you can't drive.

I have always been an independant person and it sucked big time to be dependant on my husband for every single thing. I felt the sooner I start driving here, the better it would be as even the nearest grocery or the clothing store is not at a walking distance. I was not very confident to drive at least in the initial few days. So I would sit on the passenger's seat to observe and learn all the rules of the road and the driving etiquette. I was really amazed by how organised everything was on the roads - No honking unless something went wrong, no overtaking, speed limit defined on every lane, the road signs marked on the road, right of way,etc. Driving seemed really easy then.

Finally, one fine day I mustered the courage to step in the driver's seat. My first drive was to the gym. I turned the GPS on and I didn't face any major problems on the way. For close to 20 minutes until I reached the destination, my heart beat faster than I could ever imagine. I was ecstatic for a few minutes after I reached home. I called everyone and told them about my first driving-alone experience. Over the next few days, I felt way much better as I could do my daily chores by myself. I went to the nearby clothing, grocery store, gym and drove around to a lot more places that I have always wanted to go to by myself.

My primary intent to learn driving is to go to GSU from Alpharetta. My classes were starting the week from then and I had to practice driving to Downtown at least 2 to 3 times to find out where my classes are held and more specifically for the parking spots! I was okay during the practice
sessions as I had my husband to guide and help me with the routes.

Then came the nightmare! Though I was all set to drive alone, I had butterflies in my stomach when I stepped inside the car. I wasn't even sure if I would make it to the destination nevertheless, I didn't give up. I got onto the ramp and increased the speed from 40 to 70 miles/hour and I seriously thought I would get an anxiety attack. I had million questions on my mind such as can I stay inside the teeny tiny lanes, can I maintain the minimum driving speed, can I switch lanes without panicking, can I maneuver the car to the right and take the right exit, what if I miss my exit - will I be able to find my way out, can I find a parking spot, will I be safe walking from the parking spot to my class at 10PM. I literally freaked out and started sweating profusely. It felt like driving on the longest stretch of Highway ever. Half way down the highway, to my surprise, the music from the tuner calmed me down a little bit. I started humming to the tunes and felt more relaxed. I was on I85 and the number of lanes and the roads appeared massive. I know I have been on I85 twice before but still it gave me an unfamiliar feeling. My eyes assumed that they were seeing these buildings and lanes for the first time and I wasn't even sure if I was on the right route.

I heard the GPS yelling at me to bear right and take the exit 249A. I had to see the back view mirror, the side mirror and turn around to check the blind spot too. I didn't know if I would be able to combine all these actions within 2 seconds. I turned on the right indicator but none of the other drivers seemed to care and give way. I couldn't stop the GPS keeping me aware of the number of miles the exit is away. It was like a sign of warning and my heart skipped a beat everytime it reminded me of that. A couple of seconds later, one man was kind enough to let me go to the right. I still had two more lanes to switch to on the right and I somehow managed to take the 249A exit. One of the toughest things I had done in my 1.5 hours of driving to GSU was to take the right exit. I relaxed for the second time after I took the exit but I still had a lot of work to do. I had to find a parking space. The GPS kept rerouting for all the wrong turns I took. How I wished GPS was a little faster while re-routing. It would say rerouting and it seemed like forever. I was on the left most lane and it would ask me to take right. OMG! and finally after taking a tour in the downtown because of missing all the turns it asked me to take, I found a public parking space opposite to T Deck.
I turned the engine off, I got off the car and breathed in some fresh air. I felt so much better but I was already worried about my drive back home. Putting aside those thoughts, I paid attention to go to my class as the entire GSU campus is still a labyrinth for me. I get lost everytime I have to find my way somewhere! As I walking down with a map in hand, I prayed that I should get back home safe from downtown, take three but not one exit - 251A and then 87 and then exit 11.

Now, after driving for 6 times to and fro last week for my classes, I am confident to drive on N/S400. Its still nerve wracking to take the right exit and find a parking spot.  I didn't want to take chances to find any other parking spots for the first few days. Until now, I have parked in the same public parking space opposite to T deck even though I got my parking permit and Budget card from the Student Centre last week. Next week, I am planning to park in one of the GSU decks and I am hoping that I will be able to find the entrance for these decks as the GPS always takes me to the destination that in downtown that has a detour sign or a road in construction sign.

While I have been talking about how daunting my driving experience has been so far, I would definitely miss something out if I forget to mention the fact that I am actually starting to enjoy the drive on the highway to GSU. I am sure in days to come, I will be an expert to drive anywhere in a maze like Downtown or the longest stretch of a dense wood forest or a highway!

Vote for a better tomorrow!

The Elections in India are round the corner and I see myriads of posts on social networking sites requesting people to vote for a better tomorrow. I am a very patriotic person and it kills me when I think of the fact that I am not in my country to vote. I hope and pray that everyone understands the value of their vote and votes for the best leader.

Voting day - a holiday or a vote day?
A friend of mine volunteered to take up the tasks of a election officer in one of the polling booths. He was really excited to do it. He was given a webcam to shoot the proceedings in the booth and ensure that there are no voting scams. I called him up in the evening to ask him about his experience and he sounded really agitated. He told me that it was a nerve-wrecking experience as a group of people came into the polling booth to vote for the second time on the same day. My friend took a bold step and informed the Head of the polling booth when this group were about to cast their votes the second time. As a proof for his act, he played the video of that particular group walking into the booth earlier that day.

When he told me this story, it made me wonder - how do people cast duplicate votes? How are they even allowed to enter the polling booth when they have already cast their votes. Another thought struck like a lightening to me - Are these people using the votes of people who don't vote?

I switched on the Television to eager to find out about the polling statistics. A reporter was interviewing youngsters who openly agreed that they didn't cast their votes. These kids who just turned18 blamed the corrupt politicians as a reason not to vote. They say that they do not want to waste their vote on a non-performing candidate. Some of them said 'if the candidates are good, we will surely vote for them'. If I had been the reporter, my next question would have been 'If each one of you is going to think that voting cant bring about any change, what will happen to the future of our country?'  and Are you aware of the 'No Vote' option? I can guarantee that many people don't know about this option.

I completely agree that merely conducting elections doesn't prove that we have an effective democracy to boast about. Every year we have close to 50 million new voters. If these new voters change their mind about voting, it would definitely bring about a significant change. Many people don't even apply for voter cards and reason out saying they don't want to be a part of the filthy corrupt system. My question to them would be 'If you think it is filthy and corrupt, why don't you do something about it?'. It would take 10 minutes of your time to get to the polling station to vote.

We should exercise our democratic right as voting is a responsibility to our country. Every single vote counts. Think well before you vote and remember the 'no vote' option. It's time to rise to the occasion and vote for a better tomorrow.

I have, have you?

Confessions of a Shopoholic

Day after day the credit in my bank account is diminishing. I am terrified to open the My Account Summary page via e-banking because I don't want to see my dwindling account balance.

The following questions popped up in my mind when I thought about my shopping habits -
Am I addicted to shopping? Can I stop myself from going on a shopping spree every alternate weekend? Does shopping make me happy? Can money buy happiness?

I find myself shopping more when I am stressed out, sad about something or feel lonely. I use shopping as one of the stress busters and an effective way to minimize sadness. It helps me to be in more control of my environment. But is this the right thing to do? Am I avoiding confronting the problems by using shopping as one of the easy ready made solutions? May be that is why it is called 'Retail Therapy'.

My First Blog - Part I

It’s been one year and 7 months since I came to Hyderabad. The journey has had its own ups and downs but it has been really wonderful so far. It has moulded me as an independent, ambitious, impulsive, reliable individual.

Let me start with how this journey started.

Back to college days

During my sixth semester in college, every student was either preparing for campus placements or GRE.

June 2^nd - The day I got my first job. I got campus recruited in CTS and I felt on top of the world and was blissfully happy. Everything looked beautiful and I felt like I have achieved something really big. The moment I received my offer letter which luckily happened to be on the same day, I was on cloud 9 wearing rose tinted glasses.

My parents were waiting for me at the door and it felt really nice to see their happy faces followed by phone calls from all my close friends and relatives. We had dual placements in college. And I had a chance to get try for another company but I wasn’t really interested. I was like any other college student and dint really bother about anything at all after getting placed. Exam day was just like any other day. I never really bothered to attend classes.

That was the time when the whole world felt the pinch of recession and there were rumors floating around about companies like CTS/TCS saying they would call campus recruited students really late and students have to wait for more than 6 months to get the joining letter. My mom and one of my very close friends literally tortured me to prepare for IBM interview. And so I prepared really hard for the interview and cracked it. There was one big difference between IBM and CTS. In CTS its one among 250 and in IBM it was one among 30.

I was waiting for the call letter from IBM just like others did and that was a real long wait. And finally I got the call letter from IBM asking me to join on july 2^nd 2009. It was a very short notice of 4 days and I had to get everything ready by then. I had to do all the shopping and packing. I am a shopaholic. So I was really excited and went on a complete shopping spree. It burnt a hole in my mom’s purse. I bought anything and everything, I dint really mind to look at the price tags of the clothes I bought. And my sweet mom never said NO. She accompanied me to all the stores for all the 4 days. I am sure her bank balance would have decreased by three times the original amount.

Time to part

Though I was bubbling with enthusiasm of going to a new place and the freedom I would get by staying away from home, I felt terrible on the night before the day I had to leave. Thoughts like I have to go to a new place, meet new people, join a MNC etc etc. were running in my mind and one sad part was that none of my friends got recruited in IBM and I had to make new friends there. I couldn’t accept the thought of leaving my home sweet home. Silent tears rolled down my cheek at the very thought of leaving home.

And it was the time to part from mom dad sis. it was a bad day. I felt a little better to have my friends around at the train station. My parents came along with me to hyderabad to help me to find a place to stay and be there until I get comfortable. I gave a big good bye hug to all my friends and other people who had come to see me off.

Hyderabad city is like any other city in India except that people spoke only in telugu or hindi. A Big thanks to all the broken hindi I learnt in 10^th grade. I somehow recollected all the common words used in hindi and managed to speak to the localites here in hindi.

One of my friends helped us finding the best stay in a place named Madhapur. There were two other girls with me. We stayed in the hostel. This was my first time away from home. I was kind of excited to stay with friends and enjoyed the time away from home until I came face to face with reality.

My First Blog - Part II

Transition from a student to a working professional – the most difficult situation

2^nd july- My first day at IBM. Mom and dad came to drop me at work since they were leaving the same day evening. I bid adieu to dad and mom and that was an emotional moment. Tears filled my dads eyes and the look on my dads face was invaluable – a proud dads look.

We were asked to wait outside for a while and that was an eager wait. We had an induction session and introduction section. We had to fill a lot of forms. The process was never ending. It was a mixed crowd - people from different states and different age groups. 

We had training for 36 days unlike the other MNCs which had training for more than 6 months. There were 11 students in my batch. I was the only odd man out in the crowd. Everyone was studious and geeky. Omg!! Nobody would even ask for breaks during the training. Student life was so different from Professional life. No breaks, room full of geeks, coding through out the day, listening to what was being taught etc. this would go on and on. It was a real tough task to sit for 9 hours with a room packed with nerds.

It was a routine life for nearly two months. work-> home-> work. Then I realised this is not what I should be doing and I do not fit in this place. I am yet to find out what my real interests are. I am in the process of finding out what I really want to do. I would do anything else instead of working for an IT firm. It makes me lazy and I really do not know where I am heading and what my next step is. life just goes on without any excitement or something challenging.

I used to go home once a month and those were the two days I used to have proper food. Bad food at hostel and cafeteria in office. Whenever I used to get home-sick I used to go to Chennai the following weekend or go on a complete shopping spree. Shopping always made me feel better. Thanks to the good stores and the little money which IBM pays me every month.

Somehow I managed to clear the training exam and finally joined my team at another IBM office in Hyderabad. My Manager informed me that I would be working for O2 Ireland Client and in Testing Domain. I was not given a choice to choose neither was I given a chance to. I got a call on the day I completed the training and I was asked to join the very next day.

Unfortunately I had no company – none of my friends were selected for that project. I got really apprehensive about going to a new place to join some random people. It was a bad start to a supposedly good day. I dint know the way to office and the auto guy drove me nuts by taking me to some other office. Nobody knew where the other branch of IBM is. Only then I knew why. It is situated on the top of a hill. Doesn’t that sound weird!!! IBM Office on a hill top. They had cabs downhill which would go uphill at regular intervals. I entered IBM office and walked through the aisle. I was a little nervous. I was left all alone the whole day. Very few people spoke to me it felt like I was in an isolated place. Only then I realized the importance of knowing a language. It is always easy to mingle with people who speak the same language as you do. It took time for me to accept the fact that everyone would speak only in telugu and not in English. Telugu sounded like greek and latin. I wouldn’t be able to involve myself in any of the conversations with my colleagues. And nobody around really bothered to speak in a common language. I would be a silent spectator in all the conversations. Painful it is!!

People around me were glued to their computers the whole day. They even hesitated to take time out for lunch. I managed to kill few hours on the first day and got back to hostel. I felt lonely, depressed, gloomy, isolated and what not !!! that was the first day I got home-sick. I just wanted to run away from Hyderabad and just quit working and get back home.

The same usual routine continued. We used to visit the most popular places in Hyderabad every weekend. My friends also joined me at the new IBM office. And it got a little better to see known faces. Days passed by quickly and so did weeks and months, people around got friendly and they took me along for lunch and involved me in conversations. I tried to learn telugu. I used to pay immense attention when others talk and I started to pick up the language very quickly.

My First Blog - Part III

Good times at hyderabad

I made new friends. We used to go out every single day. Party like crazy, go for late night drives, keep thinking where to go after work and ending up not going anywhere, eat at all the possible restaurants in Hyderabad. My roomie and I used to shop like crazy. Many thanks to her. Life would have been difficult without her. We used to spend every single penny we had. And lived like beggars at the end of the month.

We shifted two houses in the meanwhile. Shifting is one of the toughest tasks when u don’t get a chance to hire packers and movers due to financial constraints and have to do it all by yourself. The first house we shifted to was a real big one. This was when I learnt a little bit of cooking.

Cooking is always fun when you really like what you are doing. There are times wherein we used to spend hours and hours on cooking and just throw the end product in the dustbin. We ended up eating noodles or bread. A Big Thanks to the instant noodles manufactured by Nestle. When we are in no mood to make an elaborate meal, this comes in handy. But after a few days, due to the repeated consumption of Maggie, I completely started disliking the taste of it. I would never ever again complain about my mom’s food. Now I know what it feels like to listen to all that.

“Less than Ideal” times

My roomies were trying for transfer to Chennai and they had their projects functioning in Chennai too. So they got transfer letters without any hassle.

The very thought of having to stay alone made me depressed and lonely. I found it very difficult to get in terms with this. These are the times when you actually realize the importance of family and friends. It was like an unthinkable happening to me. I had feelings of frustration and helplessness and felt very week and isolated. Those were some of the worst periods in the story of my life.

There are times when I used to feel that nobody cares for me and I am invisible trapped in a shit hole. I felt that life is just passing by meaninglessly. I decided to get over the loneliness and the negative self talk. I involved myself in various activities. Other than going to office on weekdays, I used to see a lot of movies back to back on weekends, read a lot of books. I joined French classes to keep me occupied on weekends. I met new people there and had real fun learning a new language.

I used to attend classes regularly except the weekends I went to chennai. I used to go to one of my relative’s house late evening and have dinner there. Lunch was not in the menu at all. I shopped whenever I felt lonely. That sure gave me back all the excitement.

Living alone – A life time experience

Living alone is not as difficult as people make it to be. It made my nerves strong. Staying alone and staying with friends’ sure makes a lot of different. It has to sink in and that takes quite sometime. Once I got accustomed to staying alone, I didn’t want company. My confidence rose to peaks and absolutely loved it. I never searched for roommates. I had more time to listen and communicate with myself and became very independent. I could see the change in me over a period of time. It has made me a better human being. Becoming more matured, handling everything independently, managing money and time effectively, learning how to talk to other people, learning to cook, not talking about silly things anymore, not laughing for all the silly stuff, thinking and planning ahead.

Everyone, at least once in their life time must get a chance to stay alone and enjoy this worthwhile stay.