I wanted to search a particular mail that I have received from a client. Since there were several mails from him which were threaded by Gmail because of the same subject, it became difficult for me to identify it. This is where I missed “tagging” feature the most.

“Labels” can form the outer layer for mails whereas “Tags” can act as a sublayer thereby narrowing your search results. The users can then get to see all the TAGS associated with that particular label and easily search the mails they want.

Incorporating the “tagging” functionality will not only improve the overall interaction of searching the mails in Gmail, but will also help in quickly identifying the mail from the bunch.

Update:
Interestingly, Glattli has come up with a unique way of tagging your mails using del.icio.us. You can view the complete screencast at his website.

Though this is a temporary solution, I hope gmail does incorporate the “tagging” feature permanently in its future releases.

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.

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.

DevaShard will be distributed in the US, UK, Hong Kong, India and Singapore and the winning artist’s name and institute of study, if applicable, will be listed in the book’s credits. The selected artist will also have their profile included on the Fluid Friction website as well as the chance to display their artwork at theupcoming CGF-X exhibition in Hong Kong (www.cgf-x.com).

The top twenty character designs will be unveiled on the Fluid Friction website and from January 7 -20, 2008, the public will have the opportunity to narrow the selection to the final three by voting for their favourite design. After the voting period, Fluid Friction will select the winning character design to be
included in DevaShard. To find out more about the new comic book series, visit us at www.DevaShard.com.

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.

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”

We named her TWISHA which means “BRIGHT”. Born on 23rd of July, she’s a cusp between Cancer and Leo zodiac signs.

She’s so adorable that I could not stop my self from taking pictures of her as I did not want to miss out on any of her expressions.

I have dedicated an Album for her which I update every week.

CSS VISTA
CSSVista is a free Windows application for web developers which lets you edit your CSS code live in both Internet Explorer and Firefox simultaneously.

It’s really been a long wait for me to get my Ashokã pillar, (the Emblem) back. I had left it at my previous organization, and never really had time to visit it again as I then shifted to Pune. I finally got it back on my recent visit to Mumbai.

This piece of wood is very dear to me. My friend Bhooshanalso has a similar Ashoka Stambh which I had then bought from Bangalore.

I am glad it’s back to the place where it belongs. Sitting right up there on my desktop!

UPDATE:
My apologies for not mentioning names of my colleagues who remembered to return the ashoka pillar. Thanks Radhika, Pranati and Reuben!

Can see the smile returning back to your faces now ;)