Make me think!

Make me think!

Hardik Gandhi   January 30, 2018

the design of complexity

Until recently everyday objects were shaped by their technology. The design of a telephone was basically a hull around a machine. The task of the designers was to make technology look pretty.

It was up to the engineers to define the interfaces of those objects. Their main concern was the function of the machine, not its ease of use. We — the “users” — had to figure out how they worked.

With every technological innovation our everyday objects became richer and increasingly complex. Designers and engineers simply burdened the users with this increase in complexity. I am still having nightmares trying to get a train ticket from the old BART vending machines in San Francisco.

From complicated to simple

Fortunately, UX (User eXperience) designers have found ways to design beautiful interfaces that are easy to use. Their process can resemble a philosophical enquiry, where they constantly asks questions such as: What is this really about? How do we perceive this? What is our mental model?

Today, as a result of their efforts, we interact with wonderfully designed interfaces. Designers have been taming complexity for us. They make extremely sophisticated technology appear simple and easy to use.

From simple to too simple

And easy sells well. Thus more and more products are based on the promise to make our lives easier by using increasingly complex technologies with ever simpler interfaces.

Just tell your phone what you want and things will appear magically — whether it is the information on a screen or a package delivered to your doorstep. A gigantic amount of technologies and infrastructure is domesticated by brave designers and engineers who make all this work.

But we don’t see — let alone understand — what is going on behind the scenes, behind the simple appearance. We are kept in the dark.

You should see me whining like a spoiled brat when a video call is not working as smoothly as expected — all those interruptions and the bad sound quality! An experience which would have appeared nothing short of a miracle to people just 50 years ago and which requires the operation of a colossal infrastructure has become an expected normality for me.

We fail to appreciate and to empathise because we don’t understand what is going on.

So does technology makes us dumb? This question isn’t really new. Famously Plato warned us about the detrimental effects of writing — which we know of because he wrote them down.

The problem with “user centered” design

In his excellent book “Living with complexity” Donald Norman offers numerous strategies for how designers can harness the design of complexity to improve the user experience.

And there lies a problem.

I am increasingly wary of the term “user centered design”. The word “user” has a second meaning — “consumer of drugs”— which implies dependance, short-sighted gratification and a reliable source of income for the “dealer”. The word “centered” excludes pretty much everyone and everything else.

A holistic approach to complexity

As an alternative we should widen our perspective and ask questions such as:

Empowerment: Who’s having the fun?

Maybe being able to speak a foreign language is more fun than using a translation software.

Whenever we are about to substitute a laborious activity such as learning a language, cooking a meal, or tending to plants with a — deceptively — simple solution, we might always ask ourselves: Should the technology grow — or the person using it?

Resilience: Does it make us more vulnerable?

Highly sophisticated systems work flawlessly, as long as things go as expected.

When a problem occurs which hasn’t been anticipated by the designers, those systems are prone to fail. The more complex the systems are, the higher are the chances that things go wrong. They are less resilient.

A chronic dependance on a combination of electronics, artificial intelligence and a high speed internet connection for the simplest tasks is a recipe for disaster. It makes our lives more complicated, especially when we don’t understand what is going on behind the deceptively simple interface.

Empathy: What is the impact of simplification on others?

Our decisions have consequences for ourselves and others. A simplified appearance can make us blind to those consequences.

Our decision what smart phone to buy or what to have for dinner has a huge impact on other living beings. Knowing about the complexity behind such a decision can be of tremendous value. We need to know things better if we want to be better.

Embracing complexity

Simplification is a powerful design strategy. Naturally the button to make an emergency call should be as simple as possible. And yet, we also need further design strategies that help us accept, understand, and interact with complex situations in our lives.

9 Things Only iPhone Power Users Take Advantage of on Their Devices

9 Things Only iPhone Power Users Take Advantage of on Their Devices

Hardik Gandhi   January 25, 2018

For many, it’s difficult to imagine life before smartphones.

At the same time, it’s hard to believe that the original Apple iPhone, considered a genuine unicorn at the time thanks to its superior experience and stunning, rainbow-worthy display, released over 10 years ago.

Even though the iPhone is older than most grade school students, some of its capabilities remain a mystery to the masses.

Sure, we all hear about the latest, greatest features, but what about those lingering in the background just waiting to be discovered?

Getting your hands wrapped around those capabilities is what separates you, a soon-to-be power user, from those who haven’t truly unleashed its full potential.

So, what are you waiting for? Release that unicorn and let it run free like the productivity powerhouse it was always meant to be.

Here are 9 ways to get started.

1. Get Back Your Closed Tabs

We’ve all done it. While moving between tabs or screens, our fingers tap the little “x” and close an important browser tab.

With the iPhone, all is not lost. You can get that epic unicorn meme back from oblivion!

The included Safari browser makes recovering a recently closed tab a breeze. Learn more about the process here: Reopen Tabs

2. Smarter Photo Searching

Searching through photos hasn’t always been the most intuitive process…until now.

Before, you had to rely on labels and categories to support search functions. But now, thanks to new machine learning supported features, the photos app is more powerful than ever.

The iPhone has the ability to recognize thousands of objects, regardless of whether you’ve identified them. That means you can search using keywords to find images with specific items or those featuring a particular person.

Just put the keyword in the search box and let the app do the hard part for you.

3. Find Out Who’s Calling

Sometimes, you can’t simply look at your iPhone’s screen to see who’s calling. Maybe you are across the room, are driving down the road, or have the phone safely secured while jogging.

Regardless of the reason, just grabbing it quickly isn’t an option. But that doesn’t mean you want to sprint across the room, pull your car over, or stop your workout just to find out it’s a robo-dial.

Luckily, you can avoid this conundrum by setting up Siri to announce who’s calling. Then you’ll always know if you actually want to stop what you’re doing to answer before you break away from the task at hand.

See how here: Siri Announce Calls

4. Stop Squinting to Read Fine Print

In the business world, fine print is the donkey we all face on a regular basis. You can’t sign up for a service or look over a contract without facing some very small font sizes.

Thanks to the iPhone, you don’t have to strain your eyes (and likely give yourself a headache) to see everything you need to see when faced with fine print on paper. Just open the Magnifier, and your camera is now a magnifying glass.

See how it’s done here: Magnifier

5. Clear Notifications En Masse

Yes, notifications can be great. They let you know what’s happening without having to open every app individually.

But, if you haven’t tended to your iPhone for a while, they can also pile up quick. And who has the time to handle a huge listed of notifications one at a time?

iPhone’s that featured 3D Touch (iPhone 6S or newer) actually have the ability to let you clean all of your notifications at once.

Clear out here screen by following the instructions here: Clear Notifications

6. Close Every Safari Tab Simultaneously

iPhones running iOS 10 can support an “unlimited” number of Safari tabs at once. While this is great if you like keeping a lot of sites open, it can also get out of hand really quickly if you don’t formally close the ones you don’t need.

If you have more tabs open than stars in the sky, you can set yourself free and close them all at once.

To take advantage of this virtual reset, see the instructions here: Close All Safari Tabs

7. Request Desktop Site

While mobile sites are handy for the optimized experience, they can also be very limiting. Not every mobile version has the features you need to get things done, but requesting the desktop version wasn’t always the easiest process.

Now, you can get to the full desktop site with ease. Just press and hold on the refresh button at the top of the browser screen, and you’ll be given the option to request the desktop site.

8. Get a Trackpad for Email Cursor Control

There you are, doing the daily task of writing out emails or other long messages. As you go along, you spot it; it’s a mistake a few sentences back.

Trying to use a touchscreen to get back to the right place isn’t always easy, especially if the error rests near the edge of the screen.

Now, anyone with a 3D Touch enabled device can leave that frustration in the past. The keyboard can now be turned into a trackpad, giving you the cursor control you’ve always dreamed of having, the equivalent of finding a unicorn at the end of a rainbow.

Learn how here: Keyboard Trackpad

9. Force Close an Unresponsive App

If a single app isn’t doing its job, but the rest of your phone is operating fine, you don’t have to restart your phone to get the app back on track.

Instead, you can force close the unresponsive app through the multitasking view associated with recently used apps that are sitting in standby mode.

Check out how it’s done here: Force Close an App

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The iPhone is Dead

The iPhone is Dead

Hardik Gandhi   January 24, 2018

I’ve switched back-and-forth between iPhone and Android in the past and I’ve always felt the iPhone edged out any Android phone, but not any more.

I switched to a Galaxy S8 months ago and I don’t see myself going back to iPhone, even the X. The iPhone is dead to me. Here’s why.

iPhones don’t age well

On my iPhone 6+, most apps crash on first open. Apps freeze for 5–10 seconds whenever launched or switched to. I lose 3–4%/min on my battery and Apple Support insists that my battery is perfectly healthy. I went through “apps using significant power” and uninstalled most of them.

On top of all of this, it was recently discovered that Apple is intentionally degrading the user experience based on your battery quality. Yes, they’re releasing a software update to give transparency to users and reducing the cost of a battery replacement (which is on a months-long backlog — more on Apple support later), but it feels like planned obsolescence and they’re just trying to avoid losing a class-action lawsuit.

The video app is busted. Many times I record a video and all I see is a zero-second-long black frame saved. I’ve given up on taking photos because the camera app takes forever to start up and has seconds of shutter lag.

This phone worked just fine three years ago. The minimal benefits of the previous iOS updates are far outweighed by the horrible user experience it’s created.

I have the original Moto X (from 2013) and it still runs buttery smooth.

AppleCare and Apple support are incompetent

This isn’t related to my previous iPhone, but it illustrates the lack of quality of Apple.

Recently, a bottom rubber foot on my MacBook came off. It was still under AppleCare so I took it into the store, my first time to the Apple Genius Bar. They told me that AppleCare wouldn’t cover the replacement because it was cosmetic. How the rubber foot isn’t part of the laptops utility is astonishing. When you typed on it, it would wobble. To fix it, the entire bottom chassis had to be replaced, which would cost $250.

I told the Apple rep that I was surprised and I’d call Apple Care later. I asked him to file a ticket for tracking and he replied that he had.

Later, I called Apple Care and they assured me that the replacement was covered. They also said they didn’t find a ticket in the system from the Apple rep that I had spoken to earlier. They told me I would have to go back into the store to get a rep to look at the physical laptop again and verify the foot was missing. Frustrated, I asked them to call the original store I had visited to confirm. They agreed and and eventually confirmed it.

Before this, I had asked them to send the part to an Apple store that was closer to my house and not the original Apple store that I had visited. A week later, I received a call confirming the part had arrived at the store furthest away. Surprised, I asked them to send it to the other store (which was ~15 miles away). They said that they’d have to send it back to the warehouse and then the other store would have to order the part.

A week later, the other store finally receives the part. I visited the store, they took my laptop, and I waited a couple of hours to replace the bottom. The rep came back with the laptop telling me that it’s ready. I inspected the bottom and the rubber foot was still missing. Confused, he sent the laptop back. The rep returned five minutes later with a new chassis, fixing the rubber foot. So not only had they some how not repaired the bottom originally, in reality it only takes a tech five minutes to repair it, not hours.

The cascading incompetence at Apple support was mind blowing.

Related to the battery issue above, if you try to replace your battery you’re facing months-long delays. On top of that, you have to mail your phone in or take it into a store, with both options facing the risk that you’re without a phone for as much as a week. Who can really live without their phone that long? Is this incompetence or intentionally meant to drive people away from replacing their batteries?

iPhone’s hardware design feels dated

Even the iPhone X feels dated compared to the S8. This is much more of a personal opinion, but the S8 feels damn sexy in your hand. When I watch a movie, the true blacks of the OLED screen just blend in to the body. It feels like a bezel-less phone from a science fiction movie. Whereas the iPhone’s design still separates the screen from the chassis with bezels.

More objectively, even thought it was released after the S8, the screen on the iPhone X isn’t as good. It’s lower resolution and it has more bezel.

Here are the specs: Galaxy S8–5.8-inch Super AMOLED, 2960 x 1440 pixels (570 ppi pixel density), 1000 nits, 83.6% screen-to-body ratio vs iPhone X — 5.8-inch 18.5:9 True Tone OLED, 2436 x 1125 pixels (458 ppi), 625 nits, 82.9%, screen-to-body ratio.

Plus, iPhone X has that notch. As a developer I abhor it. As a user it’s annoying to have wasted space when, for example, I’m browsing the web.

Price

Not only is S8 a better phone than iPhone X, it’s significantly cheaper. I just bought my S8 and a 256GB SD card for less than $700. The equivalent iPhone X would have cost me $1,252, plus another $10 for a dongle to use my headphones. That’s nearly the price of two S8s.

Android and S8 has better features

Where to start? Here’s an incomplete list in no particular order.

• LastPass auto-fill. Sure, this is an app feature, but it’s impossible to build on iPhone. This felt like a game changer when I switched, shaving a ton of time setting up my phone.
• NFC for two-factor auth. You can use a Yubikey on an iPhone but it requires a dongle (like everything else these days).
• SD card slot. I ran out of space on my previous iPhone and had no way to deal with it other than buy a new phone or delete apps.
• Trusted locations for unlock. It’s a huge time saver to not have to constantly unlock my phone at home or in the office.
• Samsung Pay works on any credit card reader, Apple Pay doesn’t, which hamstrings its use case massively.
• The notifications are better. Interactions are great, they actually work, and the overall design is better.
• I don’t have to buy a dongle for my headphones.
• Androids unlocking mechanisms are generally faster than iPhone X’s facial recognition. And there are more options. And the fingerprint scanner feels better on the back.
• More battery saving options.
• GearVR.
• Built-in call spam detection. Call spam has been ramping up in the United States so this is very welcome.
• A free hardware button. Yes, that side hardware button on the S8 that’s dedicated to Bixby sucks at first. However, with BXActions, you can make it do whatever you want, like triggering the flashlight. Now I wish every phone had an extra hardware button.
• Google backs up your data. I’m thrilled not to have to use iTunes any more (which deserves a completely different post) or be forced to pay for iCloud.
• An option to keep the phone on if you’re looking at it.

iOS is suffocating

On Android, you can install apps that automatically update your wallpaper, change your entire app launcher (I’m using Evie) including a dedicated search bar, start Google Now by swiping up, handle your SMS. Also custom phone dialers, Facebook Messenger chat heads, Samsung Edge (surprisingly I like this feature). You can even download apps outside of the app store.

Did I mention that Google Photos actually always syncs in the background? Versus the iPhone, where you need to open it every 10 minutes to make sure it’s syncing. Custom keyboards are reliable, whereas on iOS they still crash randomly.

iOS doesn’t offer any of this because they restrict what developers can build.

Even if you eliminate all of the “power user” features above, I think the S8, and Android broadly, is a better choice for the average user.

Siri is still next to useless

Google is just hands down better at search, including things that you would imagine Siri would be good at by now, like dictation. I think everyone already agrees with this point, so moving on.

Apple doesn’t feel like Apple

Apple has generally been a fast-follow copier, perfecting features that that have already been released. Lately they’ve just felt like a slow follower that has the same or fewer features.

For example, Samsung devices have had wireless charging for a while now and Apple is just catching up with the same feature set. The charging speed is the same.

Samsung is also experimenting with fascinating things like VR and DeX. Are they perfect? No. But I also don’t believe that Apple is capable of swooping in and perfecting them now.

Apple’s “new and innovative features” aren’t impressive either. Animoji could be done with a standard camera, but they’re locked the the iPhone X. It’s pure marketing to sell more Xs. I’ve had force touch for years now and have never used it. And the list goes on.

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Introducing ‘Total, built by hike’ — Android refined to bring the next billion people onto Data

Introducing ‘Total, built by hike’ — Android refined to bring the next billion people onto Data

Hardik Gandhi   January 22, 2018

India has a population of 1.3B with 750M unique mobile users. Approx 350M are feature phone users with another 400M being smartphone users. With the data growth over the last 18–24 months we’ve seen the data users grow tremendously to 200M users. However, a massive gap still remains. Why aren’t all 400M users using data?

We asked ourselves. Why are the rest of the people not in this 200 million bracket? There are still many challenges that exist in the country to bring the remaining 1B online.

On top of that the entire experience of someone coming online is a very tedious 15–20 step process:

It was clear that to bring the next billion people online we would have to do something radically new. Could we take this 15–20 step funnel and collapse it into a few steps?

We think we’ve done it. Today we’re announcing a brand new product called ‘Total, built by hike’.

‘Total, built by hike’ is a refined version of Android targeted at simplifying the smartphone and internet experience for the next billion people. ‘Total’ lets users access essential services such as Messaging, News, Recharge and more even without an active data connection and paves the way for them to get on Data by providing packs at as low as Re. 1.

It has 4 key elements to it that combined together make the end to end experience extremely seamless:

1. News, Cricket, Recharge, Wallet & More < 1MB

2. Single Login for All Services

3. Works Without Data

4. Total Data Packs Starting at Re 1. Over 50% Cheaper than Market.

Total Data Pack Pricing vs Market

Over the last 6 months, Hike has worked extremely closely with telecom partners to enable the USSD Technology & Data Upsell on Total. Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel & BSNL are the telecom partners which cover over 42% of the telecom market.

See How Total Works

Chat on Total Without Data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhWKMRAFyJ0

UPI on Total Without Data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jspzf1uaXQ

Get Rail Info on Total Without Data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpm0FoIDpGM

Devices — Intex & Karbonn

Intex and Karbonn are the first Smartphone partners that will carry ‘Total, built by Hike’. Total will be available on 4 models across Intex & Karbonn. The devices with Total are:

• Intex Aqua Lions N1
• Intex Aqua Lions T1
• Intex Aqua Lions T1-Lite and
• Karbonn A40 Indian.

The devices are scheduled to hit the shelves starting 1st March 2018 starting at a price point of Rs 3,000.

Closing Thoughts

We’re excited by the potential of Total, built by hike to impact millions of people in India as well as other developing nations. ‘Total, built by hike’ propels digital inclusion and furthers the national agenda of financial inclusion as well as socio-economic progress. It works well for service providers as it gives them access to millions of people who can use their services offline.

To be one of the first to experience Total, built by Hike,

5 Best Technology Trends to Watch Out For In 2018

5 Best Technology Trends to Watch Out For In 2018

Hardik Gandhi   January 17, 2018

Pricekart.com

Every New Year brings around a buzz of excitement in the world of technology. And with 2017, being a year full of innovations and surprises, the expectations for 2018 are set to the highest standards as well. Technology trends keep evolving and changing over time. They determine the way we live, work and move ahead towards the future. Of all the technology trends that come into the market, only a few manage to set a milestone. Keeping that in mind, here is our list of the 5 best technology trends to watch out for in 2018.

5. Bigger and Clearer TVs

pricekart.com

With the concept of 4K televisions just sinking in, companies are already here with the next best resolution for TVs. Companies like LG, Samsung and Sony have already come up with their concept for the 8K TV. LG displayed its first ‘88-inch 8K OLED TV’ that comes with 33 million pixels at the CES 2018. And while that wasn’t enough, the company also showcased a ‘65-inch Rollable TV’.

The Rollable TV will feature 4K resolution and can be rolled in a tube form and carried around in a box, making it a portable TV. Similarly, Samsung launched the first ever modular TV called “The Wall”. It is a 146-inch modular TV that can be resized to any size that the user requires. All these innovations make a trend to definitely watch out for this year.

4. Wireless Charging All Around

It is not the first time wireless charging has been spoken about or adapted to charge devices. But this trend is certainly going to be seen everywhere, on most devices this year. Wireless charging works by placing the smartphone on a Qi-compatible charging mat. The mat plugs into a wire from an outlet to supply power.

However, this year might also see over-the-air wireless charging. This will work by delivering power to the devices over the air. Power can be transferred to devices that are at least two or more feet away and can reach up to 80 feet. Over-the-air wireless charging could be used for charging devices like smartphones, smart speakers, smart watches and wireless keyboards.

3. AR Over VR

We have seen Virtual Reality (VR) being one of the most trending technologies of the previous year. Virtual reality headsets help us immerse into a 3D environment that does not really exist. But this looks like the year of Augmented Reality (AR). The entire concept of AR revolves around delivering immersive experiences without having to shut yourself from the real world.

Augmented Reality shows a better version of the real world by overlaying virtual information on top of it. Using computer-generated images over the user’s real-world view to enhance everything the user feels, sees and hears, is what augmented reality is all about. Companies like Kinmo, Kodak, Carl Zeiss, Sony and even Netflix will be introducing AR to the technology market this year. This technology trend could come of great assistance in everyday life.

2. All-in-one Voice Assistants

Voice control is going to dominate 2018. Voice assistants determine the way we interact with computers. Google Assistant, Samsung Bixby and Amazon’s Alexa have already made their place by doing things that are asked of them. Things like playing the music, getting updates on the weather, and suggesting places nearby based on your current location, are things that we have already seen.

But voice assistants in 2018 will be able to carry out more than just the basic commands. For instance, information about your daily schedule, cooking recipes and other commands for your voice assistant to carry out will be added. Additionally, not just smartphones and speakers, these assistants will also be integrated inside televisions, headphones and even cars.

1. Ultra Thin Laptops

lg.com

Technology evolved from desktops to laptops for features like the portability and weight. And if that wasn’t sufficient, ultra-thin laptops are here to make their place. Acer recently unveiled the world thinnest laptop, the Acer Swift 7. The laptop is as thin as 8.9mm and sports a built-in fingerprint sensor. Likewise, even Dell launched its new version of the Dell XPS 13 laptop which is as thin as 11.66 mm. This makes it pretty evident that the upcoming laptops for this year are going to compete to be slim among all the other features.