UX Learning

When I started building my product, I had no clue about user experience. Sitting with customers, listening to their pain points and watching them use products is learning. I am still far from being perfect, but getting better every day. 

Some Takeaway:

  1. Similarity: We humans avoid cognitive overload. We are lazy and dislike doing things in a new way unless it is mission-critical. In building our product, we should keep this in mind. We use Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram et all every day. We are aware of how a calendar, close, forward other actions happen, we can use the same flow. 
  2. Don’t’ make me think: If the default is not obvious, I am not going to take action. The standard example: push and pull written on doors. Opening a Wine bottle.
  3. Least clicks: On the application, If I have to take many clicks to reach the desired page from where I am, it is painful. 
  4. Add helper texts: Do not assume your user knows it all. They are not using or glued to your product as you are. Add helper text, pointers at places where it will be helpful.
  5. Focus: Giving too many buttons, too many actions to take is frustration. We should restrict it to one or two actions on every page as a focus area.
  6. Incentive: Remind your users on about his achievement for his or her action on your app. They have to feel they are getting something valuable out of their invested time.
  7. Minimalism: Multitasking is a disease, it kills productivity. Giving too many options to do one thing will confuse and make the user run away from our product. It will become a distraction. 

Thanks to Yashvant for making me write this post. 🙂

money

It’s always about money.

People will lie to you.
People will leave you.
People will fight with you.
People will make you vulnerable.

You cannot blame them, the era of consumerism and hoarding has redefined the meaning of life and happiness. It is not their mistake, marketers are winning and our consciousness is continuously sedated.

Philosophy

One of the key learning from reading philosophy has been: There are only a few things in your control, be it life and work.

We are living in uncertainty, we have no idea about how our peers, customers, loved ones react.

We have to keep working, walking the path of virtue and enjoy the journey. The moment we go for a destination or expectation trap, we are finished.

One of my all-time favorites has been Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, I have shared a few dozen books of his to my peers.

We are surrounded by negativity and pain, people will pick on you. If you get affected by it, you have lost the beauty of this life.

“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people but care more about their opinions than our own.

— Marcus Aurelius

“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, “He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.”

― Epictetus

authors

For the last 6 months, I have been reading one or the other books of Ruskin Bond. I took justbooks membership to read mostly short stories and fiction.

The more I read Ruskin, the more I find myself in one or the other story of his. It is likability and similarity which drives me to read his books. From stealing guavas from the orchids to playing at water streams I have had all.

Apart from Ruskin, I am also attached to Khuswant Singh, Satyajit Ray, RK Narayan, Mark Twain. The more I think the more I realize it is because there writing has been the story of a common man.

Most of these authors are dead but their legacy will continue enlighting us.

women

Being a woman in a patriarchal society like ours has never been easy. The duality of ours praying women as mother Kali/Laxmi at the same time ill-treating wife, mother, sister is a daily occurrence.

We forget the reality that its mother who keeps a child in her womb before he comes to life. It is easy to forget the contribution of wife, grandma, mother in shaping who we are now. The belief, positivity and showing the success path, they should get equal credit for everything.

The repressed society where every step, movements of a woman is constantly gauged by society, just living in it is a big thing. Why a mother, sister has to still prove her capability for promotion, jobs more than other sex? Why is dowry still such a thing in our society? Why having a girl child is not equally celebrated as a boy?

Even these days, women have to go through a forceful wedding, killing personal aspirations.

Blessed are those who have got a company of women as mothers, sisters, grandmoms, partners, colleagues: I owe a lot to them in shaping me, as a teacher, guide, mentor, friend.

This world is created for everyone, why still women have to fight for equality?

Me and my mother.

parents

In the busy world of communication, we are always glued. The destination has shortened, the relationship has shrunk. We have gone social with everything, our best possession of being with parents in their older days have gotten impossible.

We can blame it for migration, an opportunity for work and all. If we are not giving everything to them: love, respect, attention once our kids will grow, they will apply the same on us.

question

Sometimes we have to question everything: decisions, situation et all. Asking questions makes us more aware of ourselves.

We either get too comfortable with us or forget who we were before. Asking questions does not mean being our biggest critique but minimizing future disasters by knowing what in the past did not work.

Productivity

We are living in an era of productivity porn. We are turning into an Android, measuring every action of ours: walking, eating, drinking.

How are we different from a lab rat?

I see people sermonizing about how important is productivity, what to eat and what not to eat. We humans being a social animal and being part of the herd have fallen for it.

Sometimes I wonder if this era of gadgets, smartphones have made us dumber. We have gotten into the virtual dystopia measuring everything.

How many of your followers on Instagram or Twitter cares for you? How many of them will listen to your pain patiently?

This virtual currency is not going to get you a good night’s sleep, nor the hyped mattress, smart sleeping device or some song.

If you are not observant about your thoughts, not realize that only a few things are in your control, you will keep falling and buying these.

founders

Off late talking to lot many founder friends. One major question which pops us what could go wrong: money, idea, market?

Again and again, the answer was: founders giving up too easily.

Running a startup is like venturing into uncharted territory, the outcome is not defined. A lot many founders get into it for the hype, a lot many for the thrill throughout the journey.

The thought of giving up and moving on is quite common after all market is loaded with cash to fund your next big idea.

Building a successful company requires at least a decade and it is like a marriage. The commitment comes with radical self-belief to go against all the odds.

Choose the right partner in crime and team members to work as a team with the right incentives.

maximize

We are living in a world where everything is about maximizing. Be it productivity, wealth or happiness. We are so lost in this race that we end up sailing in many boats at the same time.

In the early days, we self gloat our productivity. As we progress, managing many fronts get difficult. We end up like a headless chicken running everywhere and trying out everything.

Our human mind has limited resources focusing on one thing until the end is what takes us to the end of our journey.