iPad or EBook Reader - Which is More Efficient for Information Consumption?

Reading is just one of the means to get information. Its incorrect to compare iPad with EBook Readers as they both are different categories. Apple, as usual, has created a new 'category of one' with iPad. iPad is not a netbook, is not a laptop and is not exactly a tablet. This new category is slowly going to extinct EBook Reader category or will make it so niche that it will continue to exist as a rare category, just like the category of vintage car owners.

iPad Sunset Mag Cover Spec from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Which of the above would be your choice for consuming information?


While the EBook Readers are selling their unique selling proposition of catering to serious book readers with their easy-on-eye e-ink technology giving real paper feel and is so light in weight that its not strain to hold it in your hand. the world is rapidly changing the way its consuming the information. And reading is just one of the means to get to that information. We have information overload and we need a medium to consume that information faster and efficiently, and reading text is not that medium. Video on the other hand is fast becoming such medium. Roughly, the equation goes 1000 words = 1 picture = 10 second of video. iPad (and devices like that) will become vehicle of choice to consume information in variety of formats as it gives different options for format - video, audio, picture, text - for consuming information. Slowly, the population of serious book reader will migrate from EBook Reader to iPad for viewing (yes, viewing and not reading) the same books, but in a different and a more pleasant manner.

Truly Inspirational Work - Aravind Eye Care

Truly inspirational work targeting bottom of pyramid demographics (free eye surgeries or at most $2 when paid) and an efficiently run business. If you have 18 minutes to spare, I highly recommend to watch this video




Some highlights:
- "When you grow in spiritual consciousness, we identify all that is in the world. So there is no exploitation. It is ourselves we are helping. It is ourselves we are healing" - Dr. G. Venkataswamy (addressed as Dr. V) , who mortgaged all of his life savings, that too after retirement to start Aravind Eye Care.
- Dr. V's simple analogies behind executing such vision - if McDonald can train its employees all around the world to make burgers the exact same way, the same can be done with eye care and that's what Aravind Eye Care has done successfully.
- If ophthalmologists are less in number, make the process efficient to use the opthals time very very very efficiently....place the surgery tables side by side with patients ready to operate to avoid wasting surgeons time....nearly quadrupling surgeons productivity.
- provide a comprehensive end-to-end solution i.e. without providing free transportation, villagers will not come to hospitals for eye surgery. Providing free transportation to bring villagers to hospitals is equally important as operating on them.
- hire and train people to be eye technicians - 2 big side benefits: Firstly, it creates jobs and that too new category of jobs of eye technician. Secondly, eye technician reduces the load on surgeons by doing all the prep work - pre and post surgery.

How to Improve LinkedIn - Feedback and New Feature Proposal

I have written a document about my feedback for improving LinkedIn and new feature proposal.

Summary
This paper contains my general feedback about LinkedIn and new feature proposal along with new theme. I consider myself a normal user of LinkedIn. It also contains new feature proposal from a perspective of a normal user who would like to see LinkedIn help him not only network professionally, but also advance professionally. The paper has two sections - Feedback and Proposed New Features. Section 'Feedback' provides my feedback and user experience of the site as it is today. Section 'Proposed New Features' provides how I would want to use LinkedIn to advance in my career.

You can read the rest of the paper here

Product Design Part 4: Help customers buy into your offering.

IKEA might have a great sofa at a very reasonable price. But if I decide to purchase that, I have to start worrying about getting it delivered to my home. However, if IKEA comes up with a free delivery option, it could lead to increased sales. It is akin to Amazon's free shipping for orders above $25. The cost of free shipping adds to the cost of the product indirectly. But, this added cost of free shipping, will bring in more revenue in the long run.

For eg: Endless.com is an online store (backed by Amazon.com) that sells shoes and handbags. Historically, people are not comfortable buying these items online because of obvious reasons (reasons being size of shoes that fit your feet, texture of handbag's leather, and so on). In order to help people overcome the mental block, endless.com gives $5 back to customers if they choose next day shipping.

Thus, if you are innovating a product where you are faced with hand holding your potential customer to cross over the hump (read mental block for trying your new innovative product), then you HAVE to consider that as a concrete REQUIREMENT for your product design. The cost of hand holding your customer to cross over the hump has to be considered while designing your product. If it means shaving off certain feature of your product to give away free shipping, then so be it. Because, it is free shipping that is going to convert visitors to customers. Once, they become comfortable with the concept of your new innovative product, and they buy into your concept (which is utmost important) then you can start reaping benefits from that sell.

Product Design Part 3: 'Getting used to' factor

So what is "getting-used-to" factor? If you want to get some task done using a software product, you just know how to do it as against to navigating your way through toolbars and menu items to figure out how to get a task done.

In case of consumer software product where the switching cost is almost zero, if the product is not easy to get used to, it would become an obstacle for reception of the product by consumers. If you are building a product that is a 10x better version of competing product that users are currently using, how easy are you making it for them to switch to your product. For eg: if you developing a state-of-the-art email client, will your users be able to come up to par with being familiar with your email client in less than 2 minutes after installing the product. If not, most likely users will form a first impression of your product that it is not easy to use and will simply continue using whatever they were before installing your product.

So, if you are making a product which will replace an existing competing product, one of the important criteria to keep in mind is the 'getting-used-to' factor. In this case, getting used to should be seamless.

Product Design Part 2: Iterative deliverables

Conventionally, product requirements are gathered by soliciting users for requirements. If the user is solicited for requirements, he will only be able to come up with some imaginative thoughts, but those might not necessarily be his real requirements.

Instead, give user a pilot product to use. Now you may ask how do you come up with a pilot product. Its a catch-22. Here is where you will be creating your differentiation or creating a new market altogether. You have to become a keen observer of the problem that you are trying to solve. Once you have intricate knowledge of the problem space, you can start to answer that by your pilot product. It is this pilot product that you provide to your users. Once the user has a tangible pilot product to play with, he will be able to point out shortcomings. Real requirements will only surface when he will be provided something tangible to play with. Here you should tap into the basic nature of us humans and that is we are experts at pointing out negatives in any walks of life. Give the user your prototype product, and he will easily be able to come up with a laundry list of shortcomings in your product. These shortcomings are your product's real requirements.

Thoughts on Product Design

In coming weeks, I'll be writing a series of blog postings on the topic of 'product design'. Being in software industry for almost a decade now, I have come across software products fitting in the range from 'mediocre' to 'blow your mind' kind of products. I've also have avid interest and keen eye on design for non-software products too. I have always liked to import ingenious design ideas and get inspiration from them to apply it in the context of my work. I also like to debug the design thought process that goes behind great products. I'll be sharing my insights from such experiences in weeks ahead. Below is the first of ten part series of postings that I have planned.

Product Design Part 1: Keep Context in Mind. Let bigger picture define the smaller picture.

Let me ask you a simple question about designing a chair for kids in age group of 2-4 years. Should a kid's chair be designed to bear 50lbs or 200lbs? And no, I am not referring to designing chairs for obese kids who are weighing 200 lbs. This question is purely from a design standpoint taking into consideration the context in which the product, in this case - the chair, will be used. The logical answer to this question is a kid's chair should be able to bear about 50 lbs of weight because a kid of age 2-4 years would normally weigh in that range. But, if you take a step back, and see the usage of the chair in a bigger context, the answer would be 200lbs. Let me explain why. If you question the overall context in which the chair would be used, you would discover that the kids chair will not only be used by the kid himself. It would most likely also be used by an accompanying adult (parent, teacher, elder sibling). It would be inconvenient for the accompanying adult if the chair was not able to bear his weight. He would be either forced to kneel down to bring him to the level of the kid who is sitting on the chair, or bend from waist down. On the other hand, if the kid's chair was designed so that it could also bear the weight of an adult, it would make it so much more convenient. Had the context not been considered, the chair would not be able to deliver a 'wow' experience for an adult user.

While designing products, be it a kid's chair or enterprise software or whatever you are designing, it is necessary to extract the design requirements keeping the bigger picture in context. Context not only guides you to extract 'practical' design requirements, but it also protects you from feature creep. Any and every feature of the product has to make sense in the context of the bigger picture, the bigger context. Context helps you uncover features of the product that otherwise might not have been discovered with conventional way of thinking. This is as shown in the example of the designing kid's chair. Conventionally, a kid's chair would not have been designed to bear 200 lbs of weight. Only when you consider context, do you uncover such requirements. And it is such requirements that go into making products that deliver 'wow' experience to your dear customers.