FACE MASKS – ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION MAY NOT BE A BAD IDEA!

In the context of COVID-19 spreading across the world, people started to wear the face masks as a measure to prevent themselves from others the likely contact of the virus. Experts in the medical field suggested that folks who have symptoms of the virus must wear the masks to prevent the spread of it but if one does not have them, then there is no need to wear the masks. Independent of how the spread happens, I believe it is not a bad idea to wear the face masks if one has the viral symptoms or not so that they may not spread the virus and may not get contacted by it from others (at least where the facial area is masked, particularly the nostrils and the mouth). Because not everyone is tested, it is difficult to know if one has the symptoms relative to the virus or not. So as an abundance of caution, it is not at all a bad idea to wear one in any case. Of course, the masks must be available and if they are in short supply like in some places, their availability must be prioritized for those in need most, like the medical personnel and those who for sure have the viral symptoms.

Progenitorivox

Why do we have prescription drug commercials? Who decided this was a good idea? I enjoy the dumb names, but that’s about it.

This post may cause irritation to the eyes, upset stomach, an unusual amount of pondering, and in extreme cases, even death.

Why Does the Presence of Rain Imply Bad Weather?

Rain rain go away, come again some other day. But why? Why do people despise the rain? Sure, it’s usually colder when it’s wet out and it might be harder to do some outdoor activities, but the complete disdain and gloominess that some individuals experience when there’s a light drizzle outside is beyond my comprehension. What’s wrong with going for a run in the rain? You’re hopefully going to get a little warm by exercising so the cold shouldn’t bother you, and you’re going to take a shower once you are done (please for the love of god, take a shower) and change your clothes so you probably don’t care about your clothes getting soaked (unless you like going for runs in suede). Also, the implication of rain is generally fantastic; necessary water for plants, replenished reservoirs, growing crops. Yet we still reject such a natural and refreshing phenomenon as being bad. Why can’t we enjoy rain? Why not enjoy the calming sounds of the rainfall? Why not revel in its aftereffects such as rainbows and petrichor? Why not enjoy the change in scenery? Why must we hate on rain?

Tongue Cleaning

Hygiene is one of the key things to prevent health issues and diseases. We see mandatory “wash your hands” signs for restaurant workers in restrooms and hear a lot about cleaning your hands thoroughly for food handling etc. In the mouth hygiene area, I have not seen the same passion to keep one’s tongue clean. Have you ever thought of that?

I have heard of folks suggesting cleaning your tongue at the time of brushing teeth with the same toothbrush by brushing your tongue. That is gross and ineffective! People from India, at least a large section of the populace, use what is called a tongue cleaner. The tongue cleaner is generally tied to the toothbrush with a string or a clip at the ends so that you won’t miss the tongue cleaner when you pick up the brush to clean your teeth. Following teeth brushing you clean your tongue with the tongue cleaner – as simple as that.

Here is how a typical, effective and cheap tongue cleaner looks:

I am sure retailers, both online and brick and mortar, sell tongue cleaners but to get something like the one shown here, get one from an Indian grocery store or directly from India.

When you see on TV where folks with rather large, open mouths talking, you probably notice their tongues that show a whitish layer. That means their tongues are not clean i.e., unhygienic. Why not the passion for white teeth (hopefully, clean teeth) also include an advocacy for a clean tongue?

Lambasting Washington is an Insult to Washington and the Nation’s Polity

Every time a politician criticizes the state of affairs and how they would make it better, particularly at the national level (US national level, that is), all they do is lambaste Washington. They say, “Everything is wrong with Washington” or “Washington is corrupt” or “Washington is bankrupt in terms of fresh ideas”. Very well! What does it say of the politician who says such things on Washington, especially that they are seeking to be in Washington either as Congress Person or Senator or for that matter, even President? It says that they don’t have respect to the very institutions they are seeking to be part of.

But on a larger note, Washington is the father of the nation, for God’s sake! Give him some respect. Every time one invokes Washington as the center of power that is all things bad, one is not only bad mouthing the nation’s capital but also disparaging the first president of the United States. The irony is that such badmouthing is done even by folks who have cushily settled in Washington, run its business and are part and parcel of its life.

Usability – A Psychologist’s View

User Experience, more easily called UX, is in vogue these days and appropriately so given that complex products with new technologies are finding their way into user hands. So, UX needs to be good (compelling, as some might want to call) with these products.

No matter how hard we generalize an experience to be great for the user base, it comes down to individual differences that need to be factored in to determine what that experience is to a user. Of course, UX is never intended to be 100% compelling – ideally it can serve a bell shaped user base and claim success.

Before we go into these generalities, we need to understand what UX is. And then see how we can enable the products we design and build to provide a good experience to the user.

UX is not just relative to a product’s use but to all phases of its lifecycle (product lifecycle) such as awareness, acquisition, setup, learning, use and end of use/upgrade. However, when we evaluate UX, we generally look at the product use and determine what it was like and come to conclusions. The conclusions are more like usability conclusions rather than UX conclusions because the evaluation is isolated to product use.

Given that the use part of the product life-cycle is the most important from an experience perspective (because one has to live with a product for “some” time), it is not a bad thing to focus on usability. After all, not every part of the product lifecycle need be experienced by the same user. For example, I may be presented with a toy that was ready-to-use-set-up for me that I start to use right away. In this scenario, I have no context of the experiences relating to awareness, acquisition or setup. Someone else may have experienced those phases of the toy’s life-cycle.

Now to the product use experience, which we may call usability, kind of makes or breaks the usage. If I am frustrated using the toy it’s because I can’t revolve it, even though its core function is exactly that. Technically it’s capable of revolving but I just can’t make it do that for a myriad of reasons – it slips from my delicate hands, its knob too hard to push or simply I had no idea how to operate because there is no clue how it can be done in spite of my vigorous exploration.

So how to get this toy to rate high on usability? We can certainly tinker it to work the way we want but that can be dear. As designers and developers, we need to include usability as a core function in the design/development life-cycle of the product. This is different from the product life cycle I mentioned earlier. One is pre-product and the other is post-product.

The key to incorporating usability in the product design/development is to involve “users” early and iteratively test until you achieve a desired level of usability.

Advanced Recycling and Reuse in India When Growing Up but Now ……

I will let the picture speak for itself relative to the last part of the title. For the rest of the positive part of the title, the following should suffice which is extracted from a book I wrote:

Alex: We are in a world of recycling, reuse. We want to minimize the impact on the environment given our modern day consumptions and uses. You say when you were growing up, India was pretty advanced in this area?

Sri: Absolutely! The paper guy would come home to pick up all our old newspaper and pay us by weight for it. The bottles guy would pick up all our glass bottles and pay us. The street vendors would serve food in almond leaves and our spoons would be flat wood sticks. In wedding lunches or dinners, all food is served on banana or straw knitted almond leaves. Finally, in train stations tea used to be served in earthen cups. I will let folks listening conclude how these are environmentally helpful!

Alex: Very well said. Pick up the signaling button and make your next selection – you are in command of the board.