fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Creating a Vision & Mission
By: Roger Norton
Tags: Vision, Product, Startups, Strategy, Mission

A Vision and Mission is too often regarded as meaningless because there is no clear connection between them and current actions or priorities. However, when this relationship is created it can create a shared goal for a startup or product can significantly help align your team by clearly articulating what you’re working towards. Keeping the end in mind and showing how that connects back to today will help your team make better day-to-day decisions in addition to seeing how their actions are feeding into the larger strategy.

Here’s a template that can help create this:

I use this template as a starting point to help map the relationship between Vision and Actions.

1/ Vision

Describe the world that you are building towards. Describe how you plan to improve the lives of your customers and how the world will be different if you succeed.

2/ Dragon to Slay

For that vision exist, what “evil” needs to be vanquished? What wrong are you making right or frustration to remove for your customer. This is the nemesis that you rally against.

Note: at this point it helps to do a sense check that the Vision and Dragon aren’t incredibly niche or just plain silly. How would your customers describe them?

3/ Mission

This is the outline of what you’re going to do as a company to create the new world that your Vision outlines. What does your company need to be to achieve it?

4/ Master Plan

There will be some milestones that you need to achieve in order to become what your mission describes. The Master Plan outlines the stepping stones to get you there.

Tesla’s 2006 Master Plan is a great example. In Musk’s own words:

“1. Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive

2. Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price

3. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car And… 4. Provide solar power. No kidding, this has literally been on our website for 10 years.” So far, so good 15 years later. There’s one for SpaceX too.

5/ Six Month Goals

Once you know the big steps, it’s time to break the first one down to outline your team’s priorities for the next 6 months. What are the next steps to achieve step 1 in the Master Plan?

6/ Focus Area

This final step I’ve found helpful to help your team prioritise tasks when they dive into action mode. This will be a theme or area of your business which is the most important to focus on for the next few months. This could be: “create a tech foundation”, “find the best growth channels”, “Rapid Growth”, “Build partnerships”, “Technical debt”, etc.
From you…
By: Nazish Munir
Tags: Happiness, Vision, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Short Story

An accident happened, two weeks ago…

I was informed that her leg was broken…

She is confined to bed for 5 months with plaster now…

I visited her last week…

The monsters, running wild inside of me, are silent now…

I wonder if they are shocked like me ,watching her contented face with bright smile as ever….

What is wrong with her? Why is she so calm? Why doesn’t she complain?Why doesn’t she say “why me?”? Why?..

A strong girl with big heart chasing dreams, yes that’s her. My friend…

The girl, whom I never saw sitting in one place for more than 30 minutes, is now in bed for five months even then she is so well composed?..

“I am grateful”, she said, “ only my leg is broken, nothing more severe happened.”

People say, “Oh, the poor girl have become static now.” No, She is not…

She has started living within me...

Directing me, whispering ..

“You can run, walk, stand, sit,

You can go to washroom ,wash yourself, change the clothes, offer the prayer,

You can sleep the way you want, even vibrate your legs out of tension,

You can fold your legs, you can curl your foot fingers,

You can move …”

I wonder if this list is ever going to end…

What is she talking about anyways? I never saw myself in that way ever…

Thinking about it…

Am I not the luckiest person in the world who is blessed with a whole healthy body?…

Had I ever been thankful for this ?…

Always considering my problems the biggest. Why didn’t I consider the blessings I am blessed with the supper biggest?

I am gifted..

And my mom says the better way to say “thank you” is to use the gift...

From you …

I have changed.
Razor Oracle Network to integrate XinFin’s XDC blockchain network to enable DeFi use case
By: Divij Sood
Tags: Blockchain, Oracle, Defi, Partnerships, Razor Network

Razor Network is delighted to announce the integration with XinFin’ XDC Blockchain Network. This integration will add usability to the XDC blockchain, particularly in the burgeoning DeFi space.

Razor employs the PoS consensus algorithm and guarantees that nodes behave reliably by enforcing strict penalties in case of fraudulent or prohibited behavior. Razor Network has no single point of failure, which minimizes the risk exposure of users.

The oracle is the most critical piece of infrastructure for any decentralized finance project. With this integration, developers on the XinFin XDC Hybrid blockchain will always be assured that they can access external data with the highest security and speed.

XinFin is a network of networks that connects various distributed ledger technology (DLT) and traditional backend systems together to facilitate a more seamless and cost-effective global trade finance experience for all parties. The technology is cross-chain compatible and scalable. For example, XinFin [XDC] Network is highly compatible with other blockchain networks like the Ethereum network, lowering the gas fees to nearly 1/1000th and enabling two-second transaction finality.
Polkalokr partners with HAPI
By: Team Polkalokr
Tags: Oracle, Escrow, Defi

Automated token distribution for security oracles.

Polkalokr is partnering with security oracle provider HAPI, an on-chain cybersecurity protocol with trustless oracles to prevent hacker attacks. With this partnership, Polkalokr is protected by an added layer of security to ensure the safety of our users and their data.

Added security through oracles

HAPI incorporates a system of specifically designed decentralized Security Oracles that enable a consistent and up-to-date relay of data feed to the Mainchain. These security oracles tether to the outside world (off-chain) via API to the given database. This database consists of a myriad of data that oracles can extract. With the help of this extracted data, oracles then record the information onto the blockchain.

Partnering with HAPI means that whenever a possible hack is being carried out, Polkalokr will be alerted through HAPI’s security oracle feed, and can immediately take the appropriate steps required to eliminate any potential threats. The presence of this additional shield wall serves to protect our users’ assets, ensuring the security of Polkalokr’s platform and building trust in an otherwise amorphous environment.

Concurrently, HAPI will be using our token locking and distribution tech to ease the burden of manually dispensing tokens. Automating the weekly and monthly distribution of tokens removes the overhead from projects, enabling our partners to divert funds into development instead, and assuring investors that their tokens are safe and will be delivered on time every time.

“This alliance will strengthen our platform and increase the possibilities to achieve our mission to simplify tokenomics for a larger audience through “governance-as-a-service”. Adding HAPI to our platform will help us serve our users’ interest” — Imran Ashfaq, CEO of Polkalokr. “Polkalokr is an ambitious project with a lively and proactive community that strives to revolutionize and homogenize the distribution of presale vesting. We are thrilled about the upcoming partnership with our new partners and excited about HAPI further ever-expanding ecosystem. We hope that HAPI will be the stronghold of security for Polkalokr exciting and innovative solution” — Dona Mara, HAPI Co-founder

About HAPI

HAPI is a set of cross-chain smart contracts embedded into DeFi products that allow them to reach a new security level. HAPI’s Oraclizing and DAO system delivers SaaS in the DeFi environment that prevents hack attempts.

Website

Twitter

Whitepaper

Telegram

Medium

About Polkalokr

Polkalokr is the first all-in-one, multichain token locking and escrow platform with built-in privacy functionality. Its products, LOKR and SWAPR, help build trust within the DeFi space by removing the human element and focusing on governance through code, with a seamless, omni-channel digital experience platform.

One-Pager

Website

Twitter

Telegram

LinkedIn

Medium
My Overly Dramatic On Campus Placement Story…
By: Avinash Choudhary
Tags: Oyo, Placement, Oracle, Lyrical Storytelling, Eminem

42069 days into the placement season…

On a dark gloomy day I was evaluating my life then suddenly the phone buzzed…

“Applications are now invited for Oracle…” and I rushed.

The phone buzzed again,

“Applications are now invited for OYO…”

Ahhh shit here we go again…

It was time for redemption or was it going to be just another rejection.

The test link popped and the adrenaline hopped.

I was just ready but then the internet dropped.

I gave into panicking I can’t believe that was really happening.

But eventually it was loading and then I started coding.

God was coding through me. Ohh shit camera turned off please don’t sue me.

Somehow I made it to both the shortlists. I felt this time there will be a plot twist.

The interviews began, and luckily everything went according to plan.

48 hours and 5 interviews later, the anxiety level was at the other end of the meter.

Bois were on the call when the final selection list came, I was so nervous I couldn’t find my name.

Suddenly they all started to shout, I made it to both of them without any doubt.

In that moment I felt so alive, I wish I could have that moment for life.

At last I do know one thing though

Companies they come, they go

Saturday, through Sunday, Monday

Monday through Sunday, yo

Maybe you’ll get selected

Maybe you’ll get rejected too

Till then just sit and wait for your chance to blow.
The Lone Gunmen: What’s the Role of Donald Trump in the Travel Tech Space? | HospitalityNet
By: Simone Puorto
Tags: Donald Trump, Oracle, Shiji, Trump, USA

The Lone Gunmen: What’s the Role of Donald Trump in the Travel Tech Space?

The most controversial news of the week went almost entirely unnoticed, covered under a plethora of COVID-19 articles: Donald Trump issued an order to block the sale of the cloud-based suite of hotel management solutions, StayNTouch, to Chinese Goliath, Shiji, on the ground of “national security.”

According to the President, there would be “credible evidence [Shiji] might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” Now, Trump IS a hotelier; that we know, so we may think he’s still got an interest in hotel tech. Could be. Yet, something doesn’t quite add up to me.

The Silicon Valley is known for its democratic sympathies, yet, what you may not know (but you should), is that Oracle’s CTO and co-founder, Larry Ellison, is a fervent Trump supporter. Just last month, to name one, he hosted a Golf Outing and Reception fundraiser for the President, where guests (with tickets being sold at hundreds of thousands of dollars) could play golf and take a picture with the Nation leader.

Some of Oracle’s employees even launched a petition (now closed, but still accessible here and signed by 9,576 people ) on the ground that the fundraiser represented a breach of corporate ethics.

Another fact you may not know (but you should, again) is that, on March 1, Oracle and Shiji ended an almost-20-year-long partnership: “Effective June 1, 2020, all sales of Oracle Hotel and Food & Beverage software, hardware and Cloud Services in China shall occur through one of our other authorized China resellers, Hangzhou GreenCloud Software Co Ltd (“GreenCloud”) or Ai Wei Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (“Hospitality and Retail Systems China”).”

I may be paranoid, but the timing seems convenient, to say the least: with Shiji growing and expanding outside China at an extraordinary pace, the Chinese group is becoming a real menace to Oracle, already threatened by new, disruptive, cloud-native PMS, such as MEWS or Apaleo. Personally, I had my share of difficulties with Oracle when I published a long piece on the current state of PMSs and received some, well, let’s say “mixed” feedbacks from the company.

A journalist I had the privilege to know and work with on a few occasions, Phil Butler, wrote a heated piece on the topic and, even though I tend to be more cautious than him, especially when it comes to commenting on intricate stories like this one, I cannot help but be, at least, intrigued by some of his speculations.

Originally published on HospitalityNet.
Oracle Manufacturing cloud training by Industry Leading experts.
By: Nitesh Kumar
Tags: Oracle, Manufacturingcloud, Online, Maxmunus, Training

Oracle manufacturing cloud Streamline your internal and external manufacturing operations with Manufacturing Cloud, integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to optimize real-time decisions, while controlling costs and quality for a successful move to Industry

Lights-Out Automation

Using sensor data and predictive analytics, increase factory automation to the point you can run “lights-out,” saving costs and providing a consistent product.

Efficient Global Supply Network

Manage your internal and external operations centrally, execute locally, and scale to support your growing global organization in a sustainable manner.

Rapid Innovation Cycles

Better understand market requirements and increase prototyping speed with connected customer insights and Industry 4.0 technologies such as mobile, digital twins, and social.

Optimized Manufacturing Processes with Real-Time Actionable Insights

Integrate IoT and AI to drive business process and reduce operations costs and risks with data-driven decisions.

MaxMunus has successfully conducted 1000+ corporate training in India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bangladesh, Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Srilanka, Turkey, Thailand, HongKong, Germany, France, Australia and USA.

For more Information & details Contact us.

Nitesh Kumar

MaxMunus Solutions Pvt Ltd.

E-mail: nitesh@maxmunus.com

Ph: +91–8553912023

Skype id: nitesh_maxmunus
OCI Vault: Manage a Secret via CLI
By: Christoph Ruepprich
Tags: Oracle, Secret, Vault, Oci, Cloud

Photo by MIKHAIL VASILYEV on Unsplash

The OCI Vault can help you store secrets such as encryption keys, passwords , and more.

I won’t go into the details of how to set up a vault, as this has been done very well by Tim Hall.

Instead I’ll focus on how to use the CLI to manage a secret: How to create and update one, and how to get the secret in clear text.

As an added benefit, rather than just using a plain text example such as “Hello World!”, I’ll actually use a randomly generated, secure password created via openssl.

To get started you’ll need the OCIDs for the vault, its compartment, and the key.

The account to which you connect needs to have a policy to access the secrets.

A secrets administrator needs to have these three policies:

Allow group SecretAdmins to manage vaults in tenancy Allow group SecretAdmins to manage keys in tenancy Allow group SecretAdmins to manage secret-family in tenancy

A secrets user can have access to either all secrets in a compartment…

Allow group SecretUsers to read secret-family in compartment Sandbox

…or to a specific secret
Berry Data and GETEVERYNFT Reached a Partnership and Berry NFT Will Sell on GETEVERYNFT NFT Marketplace
By: Berry Data
Tags: Blockchain, Oracle, Partnerships, Bsc

Berry Data and GETEVERYNFT Reached a Partnership and Berry NFT Will Sell on GETEVERYNFT NFT Marketplace Berry Data Follow Aug 27 · 2 min read

On August 27th, Berry Data and GETEVERYNFT Reached a Partnership and Berry NFT will sell on GETEVERYNFT NFT marketplace. GETEVERYNFT aims to solve a major problem of transparency and trust between service providers and service seekers and as well as give NFT artists an equal chance of earning while doing what they love.

About GENNFT

DeFi ‘collabs’ NFT; Providing a decentralized non fungible tokens marketplace with minting & generating function. GetEveryNFTs will feature a yield farming platform for unique NFT holders and a Freelance platform for NFT artists and blockchain users.

Website: https://gennft.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/geteverynft?s=21

Telegram: https://t.me/gen_io

Medium: https://link.medium.com/4V6Y2lstSib

GitHub: https://github.com/Gennft/gennftcontract

About Berry Data

Berry Data is a transparent community-veriﬁed price oracle on BSC(Binance Smart Chain). Berry Data provides a trustless and decentralized alternative for off-chain data. Also, it provides the infrastructure for decentralized applications to query off-chain data by properly incentivizing miners to provide data.

Berry Data is an oracle system where parties can request the value of an off-chain data point and miners compete to add this value to an on-chain data bank, accessible by all dApps on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The inputs to this data bank are secured by a network of staked miners. BERRY utilizes crypto-economic incentive mechanisms, rewarding honest data submissions by miners and punishing bad actors, through the issuance of Berry’s governance token, BRY, and a dispute mechanism.

Website | Twitter | Telegram | Medium | Documentation
Import Data in Near Real-Time from Snowflake to Oracle Cloud Database using Airbyte
By: Shadab Mohammad
Tags: Oracle, Snowflake, Oci, Replication, Migration

Introduction

In this post we will use Airbyte, one of the most exciting Open source ELT tools in modern data engineering to create near real-time replication by fetching data from Snowflake to a 2-Node Oracle RAC Database on OCI. Please note Airbyte is a Extract-Load and Transform (ELT) tool and not a ETL tool like Airflow which can do DAG(Directed Acyclic Graphs) executions. There is a significant difference between ETL vs ELT.

This is an ongoing series of posts on deploying and using Airbyte for data engineering use-cases. The deployment guide for Airbyte on OCI is already available here. This setup is a production grade setup to send data from Snowflake being used as an Upstream source to Oracle DB as downstream system.

Airbyte is still in Alpha release and currently does not have an authentication scheme or support for HTTPS and TLS/SSL certificates. But the tool is amazing for modern data engineering use-cases, but with those features missing the adoption for enterprises would be difficult as HTTPS and SSL certificates are a must for any organization which wants to create a data pipeline on it’s critical data. To overcome these limitations we decided to ensure this architecture for Airbyte can be used in a Production environment. We had to harden the Airbyte instance using Lets Encrypt SSL certificates and Nginx which acts as a reverse proxy. The Airbyte instance is running with a Private IP and is not directly exposed to the Internet. Once this hardening is completed we will build the Snowflake to Oracle replication with Airbyte.

Airbyte can be used for multiple source and sinks, so you can build similar near-real time replication for a variety of different data streams on different clouds or from one cloud to another cloud.

Architecture

The stack has the below important components, it is a mix of Network and IaaS components on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure which will host Nginx and Airbyte. For the Nginx deployment we will use OCI ARM based A1 instances and for Airbyte we will use a AMD E4 Flex instance. Both these instances are available in the always free tier. Sink will be a 2-node Oracle RAC cluster on OCI fetching data from Snowflake as Source.

OCI ARM A1 Instance — Nginx and SSL Certificates OCI AMD E4 Flex Instance — Airbyte on Docker OCI DNS Public Zone which has Domain Management and the A-records are added here VCN (Virtual Cloud Network) — 2 Subnets , 1 Public subnet hosting the Nginx VM, 1 Private Subnet running the Airbyte Docker container Oracle RAC Database — 2- Node Oracle RAC DB deployed in the same Private Subnet Snowflake — A Snowflake 30-day Trial Account which auto-provisions a Demo DB
Measuring user experience of web design with UX Points
By: Sergei Golubev
Tags: Website Design, Design, UX, User Experience Design, User Experience

We all like to critique design of websites. Yet we struggle to give many examples of what well-designed ones look like. Surely things aren’t all that bad, and Apple’s website isn’t the only one to look up to?

I’m really excited to launch my new project — UXmeter — it’s like Tinder, but for finding the hottest website design in town: uxmeter.com. It showcases top website designs from finance to sports ranked purely based on UX design using universal scoring system called UX Points.

Rating accessible to everyone

The designs are rated directly on our website by both industry professionals as well general public — everyone is welcome.

UX Points system to measure user experience

Your rating is turned into UX Points — a universal score generated based on the answers to 5 simple questions you agree or disagree with:

Looks nice — it’s visually appealing to me Helps with my task — I’ve successfully completed what I wanted to do Easy to navigate — it takes just a few steps to complete my task Loads quick — I don’t have to wait long for it to open on my device Content is accessible — I could easily read text on small and large screens in my language, images and videos look sharp and have captions

Website designs for you to be inspired by

The highest-rated designs appear under Top Website Designs — plenty of good examples of real-world design for you to be inspired by and to learn from, compared to unrealistic “bells and whistles” mockups on Dribbble and Behance.

‘Design-off’ to compare web designs

You can find out which of the two website designs is rated better and why in what we call ‘Design-off’ — to see how a particular website design compares to another one.

What’s your favourite design? Share at uxmeter.com
LinkedIn Agency Aces Contest — UX Case Study
By: Prasad Vijaykumar Marewar
Tags: Usability, Case Study, User Experience Design, User Interface, Interaction Design

Objective

To increase awareness about LinkedIn among the agency audience.

Project Overview

Creating a contest targeting the LinkedIn users & agencies to increase the awareness among the agency audience. The contest should be engaging, user friendly and should look visually appealing. The contest included question and answers for which every right answer will help contestant in earning points. The winners will be announced post the contest. Contestant will also be encouraged to earn more points by inviting their connections to the contest via LinkedIn.

Project Deliverables

- User Flow

- Wireframes (User Journey)

- Visual Design

- HTML

- CMS Development

My Role

- User Flow

- User journey wire frames

- UX Support to Design and Dev

Duration

4 Weeks

Defining User Flow

The user flow provided here gives better understanding of the templates, scenarios and functionality. Before, I begin the flow these three scenarios gave me an approach for designing flow.

1. “Before the Contest”

2. “During the Contest” and

3. “After the contest”

This has helped me in designing the user flow. The templates are mapped accordingly as per the scenarios.

I have used UI Tile cards for creating user flow in order to get the sense of how the template will look like.

Each stage has a call out and brief information explaining the template. Below is the sketch diagram for User Flow.
Anchors Aweigh — Scavenger Hunt Game App
By: Katelin Schmutz
Tags: Case Study, UX Design, User Experience Design, User Experience, Scavenger Hunt

The Challenge

Our team of two designers and four developers was tasked with the challenge of creating a scavenger hunt app. We had 4 weeks to accomplish this and it needed to be done remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The following considerations would need to be incorporated into the product:

To begin the research process, we posted a survey and conducted individual interviews. During an interview, one individual revealed, “I feel like I would only want to play in a scavenger hunt with my friends, but maybe that’s the introvert in me. I could see it being cool for college groups.” A survey responder said, “The community behind the scavenger hunt can make or break the game. If the social aspect is unwelcoming and the teams are not balanced, it loses its appeal.” We all strive for human connectivity and that desire applies when playing games as well. If the amount and quality of socialization isn’t balanced well with the objectives of the game, the entire experience suffers as a whole.

Some of the app’s graphics.

The Solution

Our team created Anchors Aweigh — a scavenger hunt app where friend codes can be shared, clues are followed, tasks are undertaken, proof is submitted, and games can be customized to the creator’s specifications.

Hopes and Desires for the Game

After doing some investigating, we discovered that there were some other scavenger hunt apps out there and they all had different features. One was visually appealing but required the user to navigate to a desktop webpage in order to create a scavenger hunt. Others seemed enjoyable at first but were missing key features that made the experience shallow and lowered the replay value. As a team, we discussed how we wanted to incorporate some of the features that we liked from all of them, address the desires/concerns from our research, and also meet the requirements listed to us initially.

To find out what makes a scavenger hunt enjoyable and what factors to account for when creating one, we needed to talk to those with experience.

A few of the questions we asked were:

If there is a time frame that you are competing against, does that invigorate or detract from the experience?

What kind of strategic prompts or clues do you prefer to guide you through a scavenger hunt? (Examples: riddles, landmark hints, lyrics, sentimentality, etc.)

Do you prefer scavenger hunts that you carry out solo or hunts where you are with a group of people?

An interviewee who had extensive experience with scavenger hunts expressed to me,

“The true joy is making the game myself. I can express my creative side that way and not have to worry about the stress of the game.”

In regards to creating a game, a surveyor mentioned, “I enjoy clues that are like a good mystery novel. The answer has to avoid being obvious but feel inevitable once you figure it out. I believe this is the hardest part of making a scavenger hunt.” Over 20% of surveyors said that they would prefer to participate in a virtual scavenger hunt, likely due to the current global pandemic.
An introduction to UI/UX: Everything I’ve learnt so far.
By: Kayode Ayanleye
Tags: Product Designer, User Experience Design, User Experience, User Interface Design, User Interface

Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels

Design is not just what it looks like… Design is how it works. — Steve Jobs.

How UI Design is different from UX Design.

It’s very easy to get confused with the similarities and differences between user interface design (UI) and user experience design (UX).

Sometimes they are used interchangeably, and while they are interrelated, they are actually two different skills.

User interface design is simply the design of the look and feel of of the interface that a user interacts with in a product.

It is also the design of the visual elements of a product. Visual elements includes the buttons, toggles, icons, navigation, colors, typography, .

Simply put, it is the design of how the product looks.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

While on the other side, user experience design (UX or USD) involves the interaction between the user and the product designed.

It is design that understands and meets the specific needs of the user. Needs such as efficiency, usability, accessibility, intuitiveness etc . As the name implies, it involves the experience of the user while using the product.

Simply put, it is the design of how the product feels.

Photo by pixabay from Pexels.

User interface design involves the use of softwares such as Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch.

For user experience design, the tools of trade includes paper and pen, Balsamiq, Google form, Polldaddy for carrying out different assignments from wire framing to user testing.

Conclusion:

User interface (UI) and User experience (UX) design are more or less two sides of one coin. They are interconnected and often overlap in use. They are skills that can be learned differently, or together.

Designers that are involved in both the interface and experience side of the product are called product designers.
Lessons learnt from my first UI/UX design introductory class by “Olusegun iyanu”
By: Olusegun Iyanu Oluwanifemi
Tags: User Experience Design, Product Design, User Interface, Side Hustle

Lessons learnt from my first UI/UX design introductory class by “Olusegun iyanu”

How interesting I found myself learning two words that have always give a definition of my own too based on how they sound, User Experience “ the experience of the user in using the product” and User Interface “ the interface the user comes in contact with when in contact with a software product or service”. In this class organized by Side Hustle Internship I have come to a more in-depth understanding of this words, now I know User Experience design is a human-first way of designing product while it encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with a company product or service rendered, now I know it’s bridges the gap of interaction between a company and their customers/ consumers. while User Interface design is not just all about the look, but also the feeling, presentation and interactivity of a product, bridging the Gap of interaction between the User and a digital product or service carrying along the position of every icons, spacing between icons, imagery inserted into icons, all just to brings out a good feeling in all User and bring about positive experience for the user. So now I know the two words works hand in hand just has they are written down as UI/UX.
UI and UX — SIMPLIFIED. Ever heard of UI/UX and gotten all…
By: Judith Anosike
Tags: Product Management, Design Thinking, User Experience Design, User Interface Design, Internships

Consider how you feel when you use a software application for the first time and everything seems great — the navigation bars, the swipes, the scrolls, the clicks etc. That’s a function of the User Experience design.

How about the color schemes, icons and buttons, typography, spacing and imagery you love about it? Yeah — this one is a function of the User Interface design. Simple right? 😀

UI is simply the look, feel, presentation, interactivity and functionality of a software product while UX is the interaction of a user with the product.

While UI seeks to create an interactive interface ,UX is about making it easy for a user to accomplish their desired task when using the product. These two terms go hand in hand and can be interdependent. The goal of UI is to attract a user’s attention and keep him glued to your product rather than seeking alternatives while that of UX is to identify and solve the user’s problem.

In order to achieve this goal of satisfying a user, it’s very important that the right problem is solved for the right user and this can be done with design thinking. Design thinking is just about problem solving.

Let’s get to the Key phases of Design Thinking.

Emphasize : This is about identifying the users' problem and knowing exactly what they want. You can do this by interviewing them or observing them.

This is about identifying the users' problem and knowing exactly what they want. You can do this by interviewing them or observing them. Define: After identifying the problem they face, you will need to analyse all the data collected from your findings. Group them by similar insights and figure out the connections between them.

After identifying the problem they face, you will need to analyse all the data collected from your findings. Group them by similar insights and figure out the connections between them. Ideate: Here, you generate solutions to the problems by sharing ideas with your team members. Filter them and select the best options for implementation.

Here, you generate solutions to the problems by sharing ideas with your team members. Filter them and select the best options for implementation. Prototype: This can be done by sketching on papers or using software tools. It is a simple process that can be learnt and requires no experience in software development.

This can be done by sketching on papers or using software tools. It is a simple process that can be learnt and requires no experience in software development. Test: Test your solution with the same users you interviewed. Be careful not to defend yourself when they complain or make suggestions. Notice everything, do not try to sell; Remember, they are the users of your product and your goal is to make hem satisfied.

There are a number of tools UI/UX designers make use of. Some of them include: Sketch, Axure, Invision Studio, Framer X, Figma, Marvel, Balsamiq.

Now you’ve known about UI/UX , It’s no longer ambiguous right?
Carviva-Castrol Oil e-commerce website
By: Akinyemi Vek
Tags: User Experience Design, User Research, Design

Research

Competitive Analysis

I took my time to search online for inspirations and gaps amongst existing e-commerce websites, focusing majorly on parallel competitors including jumai, eBay and jiji as they offer a similar service to a similar audience via a similar channel. I did this in order to understand how their solutions have helped meet their prospective user needs.

Our Key Findings

I found out that all the products included a search box in the landing page to simplify searches. I also found out that only jumia simplified the purchasing process so users do not have to click continuously before proceeding to check out. Thus, I decided to include the search feature, the cart feature as well as a primary and secondary button in the hero section in order for users to make a decision as regards purchasing a product immediately they visit the site.

Jobs-to-be-done statement

After taking note of our key findings, I took out time to write out jobs-to-be-done frameworks method in order to understand whether users truly need the solution I am planning to design. I ensured that my jobs-to-be-done statement included the user’s situation, the user’s motivation and an expected outcome.
Green Strategy ORM
By: Akinyemi Vek
Tags: Research, User Experience Design, User Experience, User Interface, Web Design

Research

Domain Research

I took out time to search for inspirations from trendy and professional website designs paying attention to their colors, typography, layouts and the design principles employed.

Mood board:

I discovered that 80% of the selected websites I visited employed overlapping in their designs, they also made ample use of whitespace and finally they were also every deliberate with typography.

Therefore, I decided to be intentional about creating a a design that has an aesthetic usability effect.

Defining problems as opportunities

Taking note of how user experience design is centered on the user, I decided to make sure that I keep in mind that I am not the user and how that I must make sure the users are at the center of every decision I make. I decided to carefully study the reviews on the current website of Green Strategy ORM in order to take note of who the users really are and what they actually need rather than get carried away with what I think or feel the user needs.

I also decided to identify and cluster similar experiences together.

With the reviews in mind I created 3 How might we questions:

1. How might we help users find our website much more easy to use so that they can easily navigate to different pages in the website effortlessly?

2. How might we emphasize relevant information about our website so that users can easily understand what our website is all about?

3. How might we provide a delightful experience to our users so that they can have a memorable time interacting with our website.

Information Architecture

With these how might we questions in mind, I decided to re-structure the navigation system of the website so that users can access what they need from the website effortlessly keeping in mind Hick’s law in design which states that the more choices users face, the longer it will take them to make a decision.

On the current website I discovered the navigation was arranged like this : contact us, articles, social media strategy, organic SEO, web design, graphics and videos, blogging, package pricing. I decided to prioritize some navigation links over others and I placed the services navigation links first, pricing came after and finally the contact us page. With this new navigation structure, the user will be able to easily locate what they want as well as decide what action to take on the site.
A Store with A Soul ——Design. Experience design · Samsung mobile…
By: Liang Ce
Tags: Service Design, UX, User Experience Design, Retail Store, Samsung

Engineering the experience

People want to explore freely, but they also need guidance because they don’t know how to experience the phone.

We designed a prototype of a mobile phone tutorial application but found that it can merely be some extra vivid introductions. In user tests, we found people can only operate according to the established process which is a big limitation for users to explore. Thus, some participants even assumed that our prototype is an interactive advertisement on the phone.

This made us think about our main task again — not just informing customers of how good our mobile phones are but allowing them to explore and master their own experience with friendly accompaniments — “hey, try to use it like this, there may be a surprise.”

Dual-screen system

We decided to keep the phone intact but complement the experience with a dual-screen system. This is a smart and considerate system that can know what you are going to do and then show proper information to assist people to discover more excitement.

There is another screen next to each phone for the user to operate. No matter which screen you are manipulating, the other one will correspondingly show relevant content to help you get an in-depth experience.

When a user is using the mobile phone, the system can recognize what he is doing and recommend relevant information on the big screen such as function introductions, special mode, and usage tips. If he finds a new feature on the big screen, he can also find a tutorial that tells him how to find and appreciate the feature on his phone.
First try at UX design.
By: Rakshith N
Tags: Design, UX, User Experience Design, User Experience, User Research

I’m a graphic designer and an illustrator stepping into the world of UX design. Yesterday, I wanted to try and understand the basic principles and the process involved in User Experience design. For this, I started out by watching videos on Youtube and read a few articles on Medium. After noting down a few key points, I set out to try and learn things my own way i.e. by Reviewing.

Here is the basic UX process carried out for majority of the products.

Understanding the problem

Research

Planning

Visual Design

Development

Testing and Quality assurance

Product launch

Each product also undergoes the cycle of

Design

Prototype

Test

Validate

To ensure maximum usability and convenience.

Review process

First, I selected an existing android mobile application (UberEats), then I made note of the user’s Needs and Wants for that application to be launched in the market.

Next, I wanted to understand the userflow or how the application would guide me throughout the process (Order food). I took screenshots and started wireframing every screen I came across. For each screen, I listed out the contents of the screen, what was that particular action on the previous screen took me to this one. Then I made note of the pros and cons of that screen and also the key element(s) of that screen.

These images show the wireframing of few screens related to onboarding, delivery details, restaurants, menu items and basket. The contents of the screen are listed on the right along with the userflow, key elements and actions.

This exercise gave me a great insight on how the userflow works from the beginning till the main objective was completed. I learnt about all the screens that were required to make the application, the number of screens it took me to complete the main objective of ordering the food, and the number of actions performed by me (like typing, tapping and scrolling) to complete the main objective and also other tasks (like how many times I had to tap to move from the main screen to the edit profile screen). By doing this analysis, I learnt that by reducing the number of user interactions, the convenience is increased, and by providing the right number of options, the user doesn’t feel restricted due to less options or confused due to more.

Thank you for taking time to read this article. Please show your appreciation and encourage me on my UX journey.
Case study: Redesigning SBI YONO Mobile Experience
By: Shourya Dubey
Tags: Design Thinking, Case Study, User Experience Design, User Experience, Redesign

What is YONO? 🤔

The State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest bank in India with over 420 million accounts and is also one of the biggest corporations in the world.

YONO is an integrated digital banking platform offered by SBI to enable users to access a variety of financial and other services.

Why am I redesigning YONO?

I have been using this application for more than two years now. There are many setbacks that lead to Bad User Experience. SBI being the top bank in India fails miserably to provide a good online banking experience. I took this project as a challenge to apply my design knowledge and improve the experience of users as much as possible.

Design Brief 📋

Redesign the existing YONO app with a better user experience. Eradicate common problems faced by users and make payments using YONO smoother.

Overview of Case Study

This is my most extensive personal project to date. I have formulated this case study with the utmost detailing of my thought process. I have structured it from the initial to the final steps which I take while attempting design problems.

Before we dive deep, let’s take a quick look at the comparison of screens:
July 15, 2021 — Thursday. i woke up in the middle of the night…
Tags: Zen, Sleep, Body, Desire, Awakening

i woke up in the middle of the night. darkness anxiety. legs aching. had thought impulse read watch. i didn’t. i lay there. didn’t resist non-sleepiness. go to the feeling and accept it. sit with it.

what pulls pushes anchors you. what centers you. inspires you. what motivates you. what frightens you. what liberates you. what or who. more push than pull. or only thinking that.

what do i want need. have to give away. performance and being. send something to somebody out of the blue. do they get it. receive it or acknowledge it. received but not acknowledged.

there is going to be a time of it and maybe war. be calm and peaceful and alert. fluid quick and watch yourself. your blocks. where you dig your heels into.

the beauty of an error.

everything is everyone is everything again. all moving. there is pulling pushing standing idle. flow of your go going. not body/mind really. discrete. hands feet arms legs torso hips. breathing. attention. dreaming. what goes on its own.

zen is the body without organs.
Introducing #WakeTheMedia Discussion
Tags: Data, Language, Artificial Intelligence, Television, Awakening

I have ended up deciding to use my Medium account to discuss my plans to write 5 books that I call the #WakeTheMediaPentalogy. This is a series of books to discuss for the #TelevisionMedia to upgrade their technology. A brief overview of the 5 books is:

Book 1 (#WakeTheMediaSharing): My breakthrough book is a book to discuss the urgent need of the international community to upgrade the range of #SharingTechnology options so that the #CostOfLiving is lower so that governments can reduce their debts looking after people who need the governments help. I will be addressing why this technology requires the help of the media to accelerate the development and how the television media can make some money while helping the community at the same time.

Book 2 (#WakeTheMediaWaving): I am coining the term #Waving as a one word alternative to #UsingVirtualReality based on the idea that waving is short for #Wavelengthing and virtual reality gives you control of influencing your wavelengths as a 4 dimensional tool. This is a book about the need for the television broadcasters to start broadcasting virtual reality. I will be discussing my views on the politics of #DataCompression technology and why this is an exciting #DataCompressionOpportunity to break new ground in ways we can broadcast complex technology like Virtual Reality into peoples homes. I will also be addressing ways to use the same technology to significantly increase the number of broadcasted channels on television.

Book 3 (#WakeTheMediaHope): This book is about technology that will be focusing on the quality of the media’s technology in gathering good news. Many people today feel that the television industry is always slow in sourcing news. I will be discussing filtration systems for gathering news and advocating as to why the television industry has great opportunities in rebuilding it’s reputation as being fast at finding good news.

Book 4 (#WakeTheMediaListening): This book is about how the media looks after it’s celebrities and helping them build their careers better through television. This will be a book about building better business languages for celebrities to harness data on their follower to gain deeper working relationships between celebrities and followers. This can help the television have better retention of high quality celebrities.

Book 5 (#WakeTheMediaGiants): This book is about developing artificial intelligence systems for the television industry to interact with so that a form of #ArtificialIntelligence that I call #Giants can be built. Giants are a form of #AI which are #WisdomOfTheCrowd technology where statistics can be gathered on crowds to create independent identities called giants. #Giants can be used to accelerate the #SpeedOfNegotiation between crowds and organisations so that business can be more profitable.
Awake
Tags: Matrix, Life In The Matrix, A Glitch In The Matrix, Awake, Awakening

“Someday i will feed a snake, drink his venom and stay awake, with time all pain will fade…”

I am in the matrix, playing the matrix, behaving like one of them and having lots of fun. I see how rotten governments’, elites’, people’s politics, thoughts could be and i just enjoy watching them and accelerating my soul’s growth through the reality lessons i’ve gained through them. I am just chilling watching the 3D show.

I’ve been awake since i was born and since i died and reborn. I am the one tasted the death, tell me who could be more awake than the one who once was dead? The me is here to watch the show and do the light work in this dark, unkind world.

I used to be scared of the dark, now i am the daughter of the dark. But i am the firefly in the dark, devoted to be the light to the innocent’s dark life.

When i shine and beam bigger and bigger, all those devils just burn and disappear.

I am here to stay in my power, only and only my divine spirit and Angels can occupy my loving power.

I am awake, so awake…