Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

I tried this on ninad.me, see the report below :)

http://www.typealyzer.com/

We're on our way to adopting agile practices here at Directi. I being on the UX side of things, know how a lot of usability related things get pushed out of the process because we want to be agile. For some reason, it almost seems like people think agile means FAST?.
Having said that, I think we're doing far more than most software companies do. I'll try and share some inshights on prototyping tools, process and methodos we use soon.

Today, Jakob Nielsen addresses a few Issues on this Topic, here is the summary:

Summary:
Agile methods aim to overcome usability barriers in traditional development, but pose new threats to user experience quality. By modifying Agile approaches, however, many companies have realized the benefits without the pain.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/agile-methods.html

Recently, while I was using the MS Excel to look at some reports, I noticed a small yet interesting change makd to the 'Sort & Filter' tool. Many times while observing users I noticed that the best of them get confused when choosing between Ascending/Descending to sort data. Its not a big deal and people don't even realize this. But when I analyzed the problem, I realized that this 'decision making' actually comes in between the user and his task to sort the data, its a context switch.

In the new Excel, they have removed all ambiguity and simply called the Buttons 'Sort A to Z' and and vice versa OR Sort 'Smallest to Largest' and vice versa for letters and numbers respectively.

Just keep it simple, Dont Make me Think.

Jason talks about momentum - which I have come to believe is one of the MOST important factors for the success of any project, why roadmaps are important, why specifications and projections are evil, and my favourite topic, words that are evil words for any software project.

Another thing I liked was the way his presentation was structured, 60 min presentation broken in 30 min of talk and 30 min QA.

I've been eagerly waiting to do up my new apartment, and have been on the lookout for great furniture ideas and designs. This morning I came across some beautiful coffee and side tables. check them out...

I gotta have the 'De Santis Coffee Table' (the one in black with white hand paintings). It costs $899.00!! *makes mental note: find someone locally who can create the same for you in less than half the price*

1. He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
   
2. He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
   
3. His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
   
4. His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
   
5. He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
   
6. He is left-handed - the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
   
7. He has read every Harry Potter book
   
8. He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
   
9. He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
   
10. His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
    
11. He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
    
12. He can speak Spanish
    
13. While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
    
14. His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
    
15. He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president - he didn't
    
16. He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
    
17. He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
    
18. He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
    
19. His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
    
20. He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
    
21. His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
    
22. He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
    
23. His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
    
24. He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
    
25. He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
    
26. His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
    
27. He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
    
28. He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
    
29. He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
    
30. He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
    
31. As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
    
32. His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
    
33. He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
    
34. He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
    
35. His house in Chicago has four fire places
    
36. Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
    
37. He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
    
38. He uses an Apple Mac laptop
    
39. He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300 SUV
    
40. He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
    
41. He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
    
42. He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
    
43. His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
    
44. He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
    
45. He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
    
46. He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
    
47. His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
    
48. His speciality as a cook is chilli
    
49. He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
    
50. He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
    
51. His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government