user-experience on S Anand

Creating user friendly 404 pages

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 12:00:00 +0000

The laws of simplicity

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Packaging

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Packaging can make a huge difference to products. It really hit me when I saw this bottle of Heinz’s ketchup. My two big problems with normal ketchup bottles are: (a) the sauce spills to the side of the bottle and sticks to the cap, and (b) it’s tough to pour the last bits of sauce – you have to hit the bottle a lot.

Now, I didn’t know I had these problems. But when I saw this bottle, it hit me. You keep the bottle upside down – so it’s easy to pour the last bits of sauce. And they way the nozzle valve is designed, the sauce doesn’t stick to the cap. Perfect! Since then, I don’t buy any other ketchup bottle. Even if I WANT ketchup, I don’t buy it unless I get this bottle. Packaging made be brand loyal. (Caveat: I’m not REALLY brand loyal. I’d buy any ketchup with this packaging. But only Heinz has it right now.)

The same thing with honey. The same packaging with honey gives me a third advantage. I can drink a bit of honey directly by holding up the bottle over my mouth and squeezing it. Plus, I don’t need a spoon. Because of this, my consumption of honey has shot up to 1 bottle of honey every month. Further, I have started spreading honey over ice cream these days. Note: packaging changed my eating pattern.

So, impressed by all this, I wandered around superstores, exploring the innovations in packaging (mainly in food). I will shortly blog about that. In the meantime, here are some innovative packages introduced around when Heinz’s inverted ketchup was.

Comments

reshma anand 25 Nov 2006 10:20 pm: most shampoo and shower gel packs have this ‘inverted bottle’ concept. it would be interesting to know who got it first. other examples which come to mind, which seem (so commonsensical in hindsight) are the parachute oil jar with a wide mouth and milkmaid in the form of a squeezy tube. there was also a ketchup advert on air in uk, showing ketchup through a squeezy tube some months back. maybe that packaging could have you brand-flirting again.

Why Google Reader

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 12:00:00 +0000

I switched to Google Reader as my blog reader (I was using Mozilla so far). The reason was simple: speed. Thanks to the Google site’s speed and keyboard navigation, I can read blog entries 10 times faster. Now there’s a unique proposition for Google that a lot of people are missing: that their site loads a whole lot faster than others. It makes a huge difference to the whole browsing experience.

Comments

Dhar 24 Oct 2005 9:38 am: Anand, check out Groovy.
Dhar 24 Oct 2005 9:38 am: Sorry, it should be Goowy
S Anand 24 Oct 2005 2:26 pm: Quite an app!

London Marketing Soiree

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:00:00 +0000

I met Leonard Payne, The Priest, Andrea Casalotti and Scott Caplan at the London Marketing Soiree. Quite a diverse bunch of people. Leonard quoted Seth Godin on something neither he nor I will never forget.

They say, if a website is well designed, people will find what they want. That’s not true. Think of the visitors as monkeys, wearing a ‘Big Red Fez’, going itchy on the keyboard. What’s the one thing on the monkey’s mind?

Where’s the banana!?

Comments

S Anand 13 Jul 2005 10:02 am: See more at GeekDinner.

Computer crashes

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 12:00:00 +0000

What do you do when your computer crashes? Hit it? Yell? Sweet talk to it? Deep fry it? Take a break?

Droogle

Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:00:00 +0000

Droogle. Drink recipes.

Comments

Jetru 24 Mar 2005 5:04 pm: Doesnt look like the XML feed is working…
Deshi 24 Mar 2005 6:17 pm: This is one lousy blog!
Genmys 25 Mar 2005 1:49 am: Lassi features as South Indian drink. Obscure results for Butter Milk
ritzkini 25 Mar 2005 8:13 am: Bandwidth Limit Exceeded.The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.Apache/1.3.33 Server at www.droogle.ca Port 80(25/03/2005-at 1:45 PM IST)
Shamit 26 Mar 2005 4:41 am: It is getting a bit cluttered …
S Anand 28 Mar 2005 3:20 am: Yes, it is, rather. Will see what I can do about that.
S Anand 30 Mar 2005 7:23 am: Fixed the XML feed.

10 best intranets

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:00:00 +0000

10 best intranets of 2005 according to Jakob Nielsen.

Southwest Airlines tries to be humourous

Sat, 28 Aug 2004 12:00:00 +0000

Southwest Airline’s effort to be humourous.

Southwest … have [my business] because of low fares, and force-marching their employees through comic routines will do little to affect my choice of carrier. They are, however, wasting their “research” dollars and undoubtedly humiliating their employees. I suggest they stop.

While the phrases themselves were well-crafted specimens of humor, delivered with carefully practiced inflection of the voice, the eyes of the pressganged comedians were cold and dead.

Ant-like ad

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Spotted this ad on Business Standard. It was at the bottom of the page, and initially, I thought it really was an ant crawling across my laptop. Incidentally, catching the ant is not all that easy. Took me a minute. But once you catch it, it stays put.

Business Standard no longer has an ad with an ant crawling across the bottom of the page.

Rant on HP customer service

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Rant on HP’s customer service. Long, but interesting. I read it end-to-end. It’s curious, how impersonal a big company can get. via Metafilter

Laymen want documentation they understand

Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:00:00 +0000

Programmers: learn from this. Laymen want documentation they understand. (Wish someone told me 5 years ago.)

The Web is boring

Thu, 28 Mar 2002 12:00:00 +0000

It’s true. The Web is boring. I am increasingly bored. Can’t somebody come up with new paradigms?

Interface design on the Web

Tue, 06 Feb 2001 12:00:00 +0000

Web usability. About interface design on the Web.

Ads when idle

Fri, 01 Sep 2000 12:00:00 +0000

AdReady has a neat idea: pop up advertisements near the mouse pointer, when the mouse is sitting idle. Cool. But I don’t want anything popping up when I’m reading! Besides, since this is an easy idea to copy, I doubt they should have it as their USP.