Books : Currently reading ” Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne. This book talks about ” How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” and “Positive Health”

Cool Stuff: Here’s an awesome animation thats worth a dekho.

Screenless Phones : Talking Caller ID is one of the cool features of this screenless phone designed for the blind.

Yoga : Making slow but steady progess with Yoga. 18 rounds of Surya Namaskara everyday seems to be working against the temptuous Bangalore weather, keepin me active. Off late, I try and finish eating dinner before 7 PM and drink atleast 2 litres of water a day. Free Yoga ebooks

UX 2.0 : The latest Morae/Tech Smith white paper argues that with the evolution of Web 2.0, the fields of design and usability will continue to merge… Take a dekho at Tech Smith’s white paper in PDF format.

Gonna go far
on my Santro car

Finally got my brand new Hyundai Santro Xing XL delivered last week!
Took it out for a REAL SPIN last night. 12 o clock in the night seems to be a great time to drive in Bangalore.

Many people i know have bought news cars. Sign of India Shining yeah?
Jammy just got a brand new Maruti Swift. Just like me Param recently bought a Bright Siver Zing. Niteesh who already has a Santro just bought a cool Jeep. To kill his engine, he’s gotta pulla a plug out. (Sounds like vintage stuff, innit?). Prasanna too just got his Xing. Amit recently got his Maruti Swift. The sporty Ford Flair (4.69 lakhs) and Maruti Swift were the other options I considered.

Post Car-Pooja at Jaya Nagar 4th Block Ganesh Temple

The Flip Side 1: LIFO :
Read about ‘Last In First Out’ thingy in one of my management subjects, last semester. Here’s how LIFO affects my life.
I have to park my car inside the house, AFTER my landlord parks his in the night. And then, i have to park it outside the house first thing in the morning. This means that i have to wake up at 5.45 every morn! I have late-night calls almost every weekday.

The Flip Side 2: Car Wash :
Even though, i have a nice ‘car cover’ and covered car-parking at work, I still find the Bangalore dust settling comfortably on my car. Hate to see a new car dirty. This means i have to wash my car everyday. Somebody once told me that any kinda cleaning activity gives peace of mind. And i want to believe that this is true. Washing one’s car is a great excercise by itself. Alternatively, I can pay 400/months bucks extra to outsource this activity.

The Flip Side 3: Car Parking :
Sun’s Car Parking slots at Divya Shree Chambers on Langford road usually get filled up by 10.30 AM. This means that i have to be IN by 10.30 AM and leave after 10 PM.

DESIGN PROBLEM

Think there’s ample scope for all these Product Designers to comeup with a built-in Smart Car Cover and built-in Car Wash Design.

- The design must let the driver easily cover (and uncover) his car in no time.
- Must be cost effective.
- Must protect the car from dust, heat, rain etc.,

- This apart, I also want a Digital Petrol Level Indicator

CLEVER Car
Is it a Car? Is it a Bike? Its CLEVER! (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport)
- CLEVER is a 2 seater designed to reduce traffic congestion.

Golden ratio: A/B = 1.618 = Square root of 5-1 divided by 2

Example in Human Body :

A = Length of the Lower Arm
B = Length of the Upper Arm

Consumer Product Example : iPod MP3 player

A = Length of the Lower part ( from the end of the display area till extreme bottom)
B = Length of the Upper part ( from extreme top till the end of display area)

Any other examples? ; )

Technorati : Design | Product Design