Words Going Green, via Dictionary.com

St. Patrick's Day is passing by, and in time for that Dictionary.com published a list of words used to describe hues of the colour Green. As fascinating as that was, I wanted to see the colours side by side, and for that I started Google searches and used ColorZilla, a colour picker I use with Firefox to aid in website design. I switched to the image search tab on Google, and a lot of the words produced close matching colours, as you might also see from the shades picked out below.

Click on the colour names below to see the interesting history dictionary.com has dug up!

Emerald

Chartreuse

Kelly Green

Olive

Hunter

Paris

Harlequin

Hooker's

Celadon

Jade

Mint

Myrtle

Citron

Brunswick

Shamrock

User Experience Notes from Twitter

I wonder if there are enough opinions on Twitter of various products and services, starting from this one by Sarah Silverman:

Amazon I love u but just b/c I bought a trash can doesn't mean i need all ur latest trash can news. I got one. I'm set
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) December 27, 2013

Or this:

WhatsApp is down. #ThanksZuckerberg
— VIKAS (@ivikaspawar) February 22, 2014

#thankszuckerberg is usually a friendly place in general however.
 

A bit too generic, but true nonetheless:

You don’t know what a bad software experience is until you’ve had a good software experience.
— Chris Pirillo (@ChrisPirillo) February 27, 2014

And then I land on the #UXFail, which has more ways to avoid UX Fails than actual fails, like this complicated mess:

Hm… "No"? @Dlink #uxfail pic.twitter.com/wqn1MPBakT
— Sven Kaemper (@svenkaemper) March 12, 2014

Or this lack of communication:

Why does @SlideShare have no support channel? How are users supposed to report issues? #uxfail #rageface
— Kelly Ann  (@designspoke) March 11, 2014

 Proper customer support can of course go a long way, or lead to books like What Would Google Do? or such tweets:

I just called 132058 for tech support for @msau windows 8. Operator spoke in a rude tone and suggested I contact manufacturer @Sony #fail
— Nurse Ivan (@mat_thommo) March 12, 2014

Pick Me! Highlights of a day going through resumes

Unlike the last time where I had our HR person sort out a spreadsheet for me from the CV/Resumes we received for our Design team, I took on the task myself this year and I am not using a spreadsheet yet. The situation is a bit different this time, where we really want to pick people who will show leadership from the start, unlike last time where we had planned to train people up.

Personality
Its unusual to see many CVs where the personality of an applicant is showing through, or showing through in a good light. I am looking for a spark from a piece of paper and in some cases, it was very apparent, and to achieve that, the formatting: the choice of types, colors and layout, and the choice of words can go a long way.

Formatting
For some time now, I was wondering why no one tries to make a CV that breaks the mold of the black on white, tables and grids, and this time around we received one which did so. Using colors and watermarks, and styles derived from Web 2.0, that applicant made an impression on me. I could criticize the overall design, like the use of the applicant's face outline as a watermark and other things, but, seeing the attempt was enough to make me think this one might be someone worth paying attention to.

Words
One obvious issue is the really poor choice of words and typos. It can start from not modifying the "Objective" section of your CV from the first time you made it, so that when you apply for a web development team, your objective doesn't say you'd like to cure cancer with robotics. Other people, partly due to the cultural traditions possibly, include too much in their "Personal" section - e.g. - "Height: 5 fit" (yes, 'fit'!). The worst typo however is CAREER spelled as CARRIER. Another application said "Expected Salary: Handsome", which I didn't know what to make of. Do I get a handsome salary, or does my boss? Does this applicant deserve the same?

Focus
One applicant however impressed us in this regard. This particular applicant's list of experiences and expertise had all the keywords that I had in mind. Whether this applicant actually made the effort to understand what the team does and what we're looking for, I can't say for sure, but I would be pressed to believe it was so! On top of that, there was a very confident smiling photo, where usually I am looking at the grim expressions and awkward head positions of passport photographs. I don't know if a standard was set for CVs to include photographs, but I don't think those passport ones really work.

All in all, my work is not done yet. Next comes the interviews and tests to make sure they're the right people, the right fit for the team. Wish me luck!

   tips 

• Check your application time and again to make sure you are covering all the bases.
• Have a template, but modify it for an application to address their requirements
• Its worthwhile to have a few people you know are good with English, to review your CV before sending it out 
• Spell check!
• Spend some time on the formatting to create a readable and impressive CV

How do you like Google Plus so far?

A friend of mine believes that a lot of sites and companies are now using the g+ button more than the f one that has taken the online social sphere by storm since its inception. Who will take over as the king here, I don't know.

What facebook had over the others (at the time Hi5, Friendster, MySpace, etc) according to me was their simple interface. I disliked MySpace totally for the lack of ease-of-use, and Hi5 and MySpace was okay. Facebook has shown its agility in trying out things and improving their interfaces very quickly (discounting a few bad experiments). It would be anyone's guess that Google would not fall behind in that! The current Gmail interface is useful and the G+ interface got a makeover recently too. However, I am not too happy with it!

Most of what I go over next will refer to this diagram below, where I've marked the areas on the Google Plus page as Main Area, Chat, Circle/Not-in-Circle, and Choices. Click on it to view a larger version.

Focusing on the Main thing
My first point of discomfort, is that the main area sits on the left. Many websites center their content, as that aligns more with where the viewer is probably sitting. With widescreen-equipped laptops, this gets worse. With the Cirlces-bar on its right, combined with the Chat portion, the main area seem to occupy very little space here. The Chat part is static - it doesn't scroll, but the Circles bar does. So, once you scroll down a little, there is an emptiness beside the main area. That makes me wonder, exactly how important that bit of information about who is/isn't in my circles actually is to the user. In the Choices bar, you have an option to edit your Circles, and this info could easily go in there, or in the notifications panels.

Choices
I also wonder if the Choices bar could've rested better on the right hand side. One of my theories is that since I use the  mouse or trackpad with my right hand, it feels like I am going a long way to access those options. (I wonder if its the opposite for left-handed computer users. Never really noticed. A bit disgraceful that I didn't).

A Shuffle?
One recommendation, would be to shuffle things about a bit:
 Choices  - Move to just left of the Chat bar
 Circles - Move to the far right, but modify it too - Coming after the next image.
 Main - While doing the shuffle, why not make it a bit wider?!

If the left hand list of circles could be used to filter the feeds from all the contacts, then that'd be a nifty little feature. This is a quick shuffle to see if the usability of the plus interface can be improved. Use of colors here could also emphasize the options on a single post, or the area where the feeds are coming. The use of subdued colors is a bit too much on the page.

Usability is just one aspect of a software. Unfortunately, if we think of Google Plus as being up against Facebook, many other factors need to be considered. Plus doesn't put advertisements around us, but the ones on Facebook aren't actually a bother. Facebook has lots of Apps - is that a plus?!  Then if my friend is right, Plus is finally getting the backing of the online community. Thats the number one thing in this market. As I was telling another friend, if all my friends decided to hang out in Cafe A, its no use if I ended up in Cafe B!