Archive for September, 2010

litl webbook: Smart one this

I just landed at the litl Webbook homepage while following some links—and it instantly caught my attention. Really impressed by how they are using the existing physical model of a laptop and extending it for other uses.

litl webbook

Another interesting bit I noticed was that it is going to have it’s own OS called “litl OS”. They say it’s a webOS and nothing gets stored on your local hardware.

You’ll notice that a search box has replaced all file management because today we don’t drag files around as much as we search for them. Gone are menus, folders, and icons. Instead, we show you your web content neatly.

As with most webbooks that I’ve seen in the past, I’m afraid that this might be another halfbaked toy—but their approach to things is definitely making me look forward to it.

Concept: Nokanta Clock

Having spent the last few months without a job, I have been setting up my own schedule and spending the days, more or less, as I pleased. On days when I would have nothing better to do, I spend time getting annoyed at the fact that I don’t have a set daily schedule. At this point I sit down and jot down a rough, hourly allotment of tasks to be followed over the next few days. It would almost always be on the following lines:

  • 9am: Wake up
  • 9:30am: Breakfast
  • 10am-1pm: Computer time
  • 1pm: Lunch time
  • 2pm-3pm: Doodling time

… and so on

Following this would make me feel a bit at ease, but the luxury of leisure would eventually make me lose track after a few days. Eventually, I sat down and came up with a solution. I decided it was a lost effort to try and change the no-schedule daily life. So, I decided to change the clock.

Nokanta Clock Concept

The idea was to go through the day in a more leisurely manner, but still not feeling lost. (you might even want to read that as—trying to come up with a clock that would serve as the best excuse of losing track of time itself)

The Nokanta Clock (“kanta” in Hindi means “clock needle” and in Punjabi means “hour”) at a glance is meant to tell you how much of the day has passed. Giving you ratios of the day passed vs day left, instead of the hourly time. Of course, rather than making me follow a regimental schedule, this clock would allow me to go on through the day without having to worry about the lack of a schedule.

As an end note, it’s evident that this would not work in a time-based-deadline work environment, but it’s one of those things that I would really like to have on my wall at the office.

Usability & the Users

It’s been 3 months since I landed in Singapore and more than anything else, I’ve loved the company of the folks who hang out at HackerspaceSG. Last Saturday we got together for a GeekCamp Singapore—and it was great. Taking a slight divergence from Web Design/Development, this time I focussed my entire talk on usability and usability feedback mechanisms. I’ve updated my slides with the relevant links (do let me know if I missed anything ) and you can now download them from here.

Screenshot for Usability and the Users

I had a great time and I hope everyone else did too!

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Navjot Pawera (aka Nav)

UX, UI, Product design guy. These days, I'm working on creating new stuff at Bubble Motion. I am a silent partner at ExtraThought - a user experience design consultancy. I also curate the IXD Sessions in Singapore.

You should follow me on Twitter here.

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