In case you haven’t seen it, please invest ten minutes of your time to complete the 2008 A List Apart survey so that we can build a snapshot of our industry.

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

Please take the survey and encourage your friends and colleagues who make websites to do likewise. The world is watching.

Yes! Trekking which went horribly wrong few weeks back!

Weekend is the time I normally spend with my family. But past weekend, I decided to go for a trek to Mulshi (some 35 Kms from Pune) with my collegues. On reaching Mulshi, we thought of taking the other route where we had to cross a small waterfall.

We started climbing the rocks, helping each other out on our way up. Just then, I placed my foot on one of the rock which was a bit slippery. I lost my balance and fell straight on my face! The fall was so bad that it created a 1/2 inch cut on my upper lip. I was immediately taken to the hospital where I received 10 stitches on my upper lip.

But now that I am back, sharing with you some of the pictures I took while on our way to Mulshi.

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”