A word of praise for PMC, the municipal corporation of this city. PMC's effort to use SimCity Societies gaming to provide a vision for the masterplan of this city may be questionable. But PMC's support for 'Existing Landuse Survey' (ELU) by various citizen's groups is laudable.
The exercise was undertaken as a part of two day workshop on citizen's participation in preparation of Development Plan (DP).
The workshop was conducted under the initiative of of the 'National Society for Clean Cities' (NSCC). It was facilitated by the Centre of Development Studies and Activities (CDSA) http://www.cdsaindia.org/.
The participaton was about 100 strong in groups of 10. Each group was given a part of the city map. The groups conducted a survey to find out what exactly existed on ground as against things shown on the map.
The effort was to educate the citizens of the process of verifying the ELU survey. The PMC has promised a citizen's role in ELU , being conducted by an arm of the PMC.
This is one masterplan that would be eagerly awaited. Pune being one of the most Industrialized hubs of the country with a large community of IT industry and professionals. It is also the hub for Automobile manufacturing in India. Pune is located in close proximity with Mumbai in the western part of the country. The maserplan is of more importance because of the failure of Bangalore to keep up with the infrastructure requirements...Bangalore being the other major hub for IT industries along with centres like Hydrabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
Way to go !
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Citibank on a roll
Citibank has finally responded by suggesting a slew of browser settings.
The setings once caried out, makes the complaint form work. But it still does not address the remaining problems.
For instance, the security tips link on the Log-in page still does not work.
I've tried acessing their online facility using a licensed windows XP with fully updated IE7 with default settings (with JAVA enabaled) and a JVM installed on my machine.
It brings us back to the fundamenal question... that of usability issues.
How will a lay person know the special browser settings to make their very simple functionality work ?
By the way, the complaint form has the phone no. field with the STD code field as mandatory. But there is no field for a mobile phone no. What if I don't want to use a land line no. !!!!
How long before Citibank identifies the real problem with their developers ... that of a lack of understanding of Usability issues.
The setings once caried out, makes the complaint form work. But it still does not address the remaining problems.
For instance, the security tips link on the Log-in page still does not work.
I've tried acessing their online facility using a licensed windows XP with fully updated IE7 with default settings (with JAVA enabaled) and a JVM installed on my machine.
It brings us back to the fundamenal question... that of usability issues.
How will a lay person know the special browser settings to make their very simple functionality work ?
By the way, the complaint form has the phone no. field with the STD code field as mandatory. But there is no field for a mobile phone no. What if I don't want to use a land line no. !!!!
How long before Citibank identifies the real problem with their developers ... that of a lack of understanding of Usability issues.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Citibank Bloopers - testing yet
Well ! to continue with the Bloopers saga !
here's the latest response from Citibank.......
"This is with reference to your email dated May 20, 2008.
We thank you for your valuable inputs.It just makes our job much more easier to ensure that the website is a user-friendly one.
We have forwarded your suggestion to the concerned department to take up the issue and make the necessary amendments.
We assure you of our best attention at all times.
Sincerely,
Officer - Customer Care "
Let's see what happens next :-) !!!
here's the latest response from Citibank.......
"This is with reference to your email dated May 20, 2008.
We thank you for your valuable inputs.It just makes our job much more easier to ensure that the website is a user-friendly one.
We have forwarded your suggestion to the concerned department to take up the issue and make the necessary amendments.
We assure you of our best attention at all times.
Sincerely,
Officer - Customer Care "
Let's see what happens next :-) !!!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
CitiBank Blooper Revisited - test1
This is to acknowledge Citibank India's efforts to rectify bloopers on its netbanking interface ( as stated in their response ). Since the first blooper post on this blog, citibank has responded by addressing the issue over a period of 15 to 20 days. The change it has finally effected can be seen on the home page.
But the change is limited to the home page, where a parallel link of 'citibank india' ( as mentioned in the previous post) page has been removed and the 'citibank India' page converted to the home page.
The effort still shows a lack of understanding of usability issues. For instance, the 'GO' button is the one you have to click to go to the log in page. This link, besides being inappropriate is also accompanied by the ':::LOG IN:::' text next to it written in a jump menu. Interestingly the jump menu has no menu and obviously has no links. It is used only to write text.... Somebody out there is definitely mocking the basic assumptions of interface design.... 'caus it ain't no path breaking design.
Other bloopers that continue to exist include:
1) form handler for complaint form not working.
2) Security tips link not working.
3) Confusion with two inboxes ( apparently one inbox is for help desk the other is for business mails from the bank. which I continue to get on my gmail ID, so it always remains empty !!)
... and many more hillarious ones !!!! keep enjoying
But the change is limited to the home page, where a parallel link of 'citibank india' ( as mentioned in the previous post) page has been removed and the 'citibank India' page converted to the home page.
The effort still shows a lack of understanding of usability issues. For instance, the 'GO' button is the one you have to click to go to the log in page. This link, besides being inappropriate is also accompanied by the ':::LOG IN:::' text next to it written in a jump menu. Interestingly the jump menu has no menu and obviously has no links. It is used only to write text.... Somebody out there is definitely mocking the basic assumptions of interface design.... 'caus it ain't no path breaking design.
Other bloopers that continue to exist include:
1) form handler for complaint form not working.
2) Security tips link not working.
3) Confusion with two inboxes ( apparently one inbox is for help desk the other is for business mails from the bank. which I continue to get on my gmail ID, so it always remains empty !!)
... and many more hillarious ones !!!! keep enjoying
The following example highlights the root problem : point your mouse on the 'GO' button. If you know how to see the script on the link at the bottom left of the browser, it'll show the following' javascript:test1() .... that I believe shows the attitude and practices within the organization.
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