Like the Flowing River: Sanjay Mitra Information Architect Kolkata sharing the moments ...

Once again a big dark murky silence, I myself do not remember when was the last time I sat down to write a blog on User Experience, Information Architecture or Visual Design. As if I was crossing past a big vacuum in laps of time. A year past maybe, well I am not sure since I don’t look back to my posts unless there is a real need of doing so. Nevertheless, what I was doing? Silently watching the transition? or transformation? Or, trying to take a shape that organizations envisioning? That big vacuum has left a big question to me.  What Next?  What is the single big next thing is going to happen or as an Information Architect, what should we try and adapt fast? There are too many things…Single responsibility principle is likely to abolish. Therefore, in writing this blog I am actually searching for an answer, leaving a question for everybody WHAT …? Is the single next big thing… a)    Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning b)   Augmented Realit...

Did you hear about Feedback Loop / Kerios/Trigger /Simulation/ and so on? They are just those words associated with psychology, precisely how human behave and how their Attitude does shape up, and what instigate to their habit changes. I have learnt they and they have made their entrance in UX too long back. Nevertheless, it’s never too late to learn. Now I always wondered what drives people toward action and let me tell you why. I am an Information Architect Living in Kolkata erstwhile Calcutta and I do UX to earn a living. Besides living that is my passion too, to know more about the fluids inside the brain. I wanted to know why and how the word SALE creates such a huge impact on us that we tend to buy randomly without any prior need. This is the time we should take deep dive down and unpack the hidden treasure. How? Psychologists would have loved to explain these and we may found thousands and thousands of line written various websites. They talk about   Rorsc...

how does audio can change the User Experience around us Let me now come to the main point - the experience vibe, how does this Friday Night Blue – services slipped inside the UX realm. Let’s accept (though, there is no denial) we all live in a world where all of us are connected to each other – digitally. We engage ourselves through a wide variety of services and devices. No big deal right, yes. But the big thing is when you are not quite into you, would you afford to search apps and instruct that damn device to take you back at normality. Do tell me yes! You need ‘Siri’ right, She is supposed to do everything a personal assistant would do for you. I wish if I had ‘Jeevs’ the immaculate and loquacious Reginald Jeeves , from P. G. Wodehouse series who is witty enough to handle any tumultuous situation and have a hands on experience in rescue act, whenever is needed. Ask Bertie! Audio and the User Experience so intertwined to each other, aren’t they? Let me tell you digi...

In the coming days as the trend goes , there are two things which is likely to boost up the search mechanism, one is Accent Folding functionality in search field  and the other one is faceted search. In the realm of usability this two would be the main hubbub and certainly would made an impact in the days to come (short period) . Accent Folding functionality in search field Accent folding functionality will help users in various ways. Softwares , apps or websites would just not be internationalized but with the easy support of Unicode they would appear as truly multilingual. Let me now explain how does this helps user to an extent and what’s so big about this commotion. Okay today `s users deal with data from everywhere, in multiple languages and locales, all the time. The locale they prefer is only loosely correlated with the locales they expect applications to process. Suppose you type “ caf ” thinking about the café in back of your mind. If you are an Englishman i...

Sometimes I wander through the jungle of net (I love to say it is jungle as because you) and I get to encounter many unexplored things and being a UXM person my job is to layout a clear paths along the roads. Now, these new things, be it trends, services or whatever form it takes demand a logical explanation from me. Then I try to explain them with all my sincerity, mediocrity and with the help of little limited knowledge I gathered as in working as an Information Architect in the last few years and I leave them to the user to jump on a conclusion and give their verdict on them.     Recently, in a similar occasion I heard the humming of this new trend Pervasive computing. The subject is in its infancy and certainly requires more impetus to be lighted among the front liners. Now I am trying to draw a basic inference based on my understanding of the subject, I don’t know how far justice would be made by that but as usually I am leaving them again to the audience court ...

Lives are streams flowing into the same river towards whatever heaven lies in the mist beyond the falls. Find Green, find joy in your life in the coming days.

A mood board is a sample board used to communicate the design intent. Mood boards are used at the earlier stage of a project to indicate the emotional and contextual aspects of a design concept. Designers use mood or concept boards to convey the overall feel of a project, putting together images, typography, choice of colours, themes and so on . It is very useful at the early stages of a project as a guide tool to show to clients for approval before proceeding further. Sometimes mood-board containing cuttings from magazines, photographs and printed screenshots to give an idea of what client would like or not. A selection of mood boards to a client to act as a catalyst to get things going. It is a method of getting ideas out of the client's mind's eye and pinning them onto paper/screen has to be good. Even if it's just a case of eliminating options, better to find out now rather than later! Mood boards are used extensively in Textile Design - where theme and abstraction...

Data visualization is a new way to tell stories or create experiences out of the very base matter of the web itself. Data visualization is the advances in technology at the presentation layer and the new found ability to tap into once hidden data sources that is enabling these new visual scientists to chart a new narrative course. The New York Times, which has always done stunning infographic work, is helping to push data visualization to a mass audience with its "Visualization Lab." http://vizlab.nytimes.com/ . Similarly, the Economist employs data visualization to graphically represent an ongoing conversation as part of its "Debate" series, which enables the user to track the developments and change in sentiment on a daily basis.( http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/140 ). The "Go" microsite (http://go.visa.com/ ) features seemingly random bits of data (16,438 people in Paris smiling back at the Mona Lisa) that the user can explore to ...