Pencil is a free tool for sketching user interfaces. Since it’s a Firefox 3 extension, it runs on virtually all platforms.

The tool has many of the features you would expect from a decent prototyping tool like:

• Built-in stencils for diagraming and prototyping
• Multi-page document with background page
• On-screen text editing with rich-text supports
• PNG rasterizing
• Undo/redo supports
• Installing user-defined stencils
• Standard drawing operations: aligning, z-ordering, scaling, rotating…
• Cross-platforms
• Adding external objects

The only disadvantage of the tool is that it lacks bacis interactivity like creating interlinked pages.

The Pencil Project

For those of you who were eagerly awaiting the release of the flickr theme, the wait is over!!!

The Flickr Theme for Gallery 2.0 is now avaiable for download!

There are some features (e.g. comments, rating etc.) that I have turned off as i did not wanted them as part of my theme.

I am still working on the theme to include these features in the next release.
If anyone wishes to share some ideas, thoughts on this theme, please leave a comment below.

Download gflickr Theme

Update:
For those who wish to donate, can do so through PAYPAL by clicking the below button.

How do you define the term “usability” in the context of Indian IT companies? It has gained several meanings over the years there by clubbing non-usability related stuff like development as part of the UCD groups.

It’s always difficult to gauge the quality of UCD projects other companies get. One feels let down when they start comparing themselves with their counterparts in other companies. But the ground reality might be different!

Following are the questions I’d like to have answers to  to clear the misconception about “User Experience Design” group.

• How do other companies preach usability in their organization?
• What kind of projects to they get?
• Do they get a complete life cycle projects?
• Do a usability group in an Indian IT companies restrict themselves to User Research and Analysis and pass on the prototype development process to some other group within the company.
• Do they hire people having a good knowledge of usability or do they hire the ones with proficiencies in HTML/CSS/Flash, etc… and ask them to do certain usability related tasks
• Do they have a separate web development team that looks into development and is in no way related to the usability aspects of the project?

Answers to these questions would solve many misconceptions people have pertaining to a “Usability Group”