Wednesday, June 29, 2011

.Mobi – Pencil - Mobile Website UI Prototype

UI [User Interface] is an important factor for a Mobile Website, just like any other Mobile Application. Of Course, Mobile Websites cannot have Flashy UI, as they use in Mobile Applications, but the web site needs impressive outlook to attract visitors. The UI should be simple, at the same time, functionally easy to use for a non-technical user too. Whenever I work for UI designs in Mobile Platform, I go with Prototype model in first stage. There are number of software tools available in market, but I used Corel Draw for long time. Recently I found one interesting tool called “Pencil”. It is a GNU General Public License Software, primarily helps for UI prototype designing to Desktop, Web and Mobile Websites / Applications.   It comes with free Stencils for GTK Widgets, Windows XP Widgets, Native UI Widgets and Sketchy GUI too. You can also create your own stencils group using ‘Stencil Generator’ menu option.  It is a very small application programs, loads very fast, and solves the primary purpose of UI prototyping easily. It initially came as a Plug-in to Firefox, now the standalone version is also available for free download.

Try it for your Prototype designing and share your comments.

You can download it from : http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx

Note: There is another software called “Pencil” - in the same name J, animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.

RT @_robin_sharma: People love...

RT @_robin_sharma: People love doing business with people who love doing business. #smallbiz #marketing #in

Tumblr hit with huge phishing ...

Tumblr hit with huge phishing attack. #security #social #blog #mobile #in http://bit.ly/jxEPhu

Project Management: 4 Ways to ...

Project Management: 4 Ways to Manage Your Budget. #smallbiz #quality #mobile #in. http://bit.ly/lBUSAY

Monday, June 27, 2011

I'm on twiends. Join me! http:...

I'm on twiends. Join me! http://twiends.com/me/gvmuthu

There's a gold rush on for mob...

There's a gold rush on for mobile app developers willing to retool their technical skills and adopt a new design mind-set. #Jobs #in.

Always define clear goals and ...

Always define clear goals and expectations for the assignment. But don’t explain how to do it. #Team #Management #QuickMBA

Well managed device is a secur...

Well managed device is a secure Device - Mobile Device Management Solutions is a new generation Enterprise Career Opportunity. #Career #in.

Any management can be reduced ...

Any management can be reduced to three words: people, product and profiles. People always come first. #team #management #smallbiz

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

How to - Improving the Scrum Practice


Daily Scrum meeting alias Daily Standup meeting is an important element of Scrum Process Practice. It is usually a 15 minutes discussion and it makes everyone to answer three basic questions. "What did you do since the last meeting?", "What are you going to do until the next meeting?", "What impedes you from being more productive?". The purpose of this rigidness is for making sure that daily Scrum is to help team members synchronize between themselves, not to solve problems.


There are few quick improvement ideas below.




  • Visual Progress Artifact board based discussion – ideally in front of the task board with the sprint and backlog.

  • Everyone should attend – because this meeting should be utilized as a wide communication bandwidth as possible.

  • Don’t take Notes – Take only micro notes by hand. Don’t use the laptop typing.

  • Concentrate on "What are you going to do until the next meeting?", "What impedes you from being more productive?" – to figure out what’s blocking the efficient work and who could help it.


The above mentioned simple tips can be good starting points or reminders. However, every team knows best how to adjust its stand-ups to serve them better. The important part is the goal, not the method.

How social media marketing is ...

How social media marketing is changing your business? Share your comments. #social #business #in

We've Already Reached 'Peak An...

We've Already Reached 'Peak Android,' Says Analyst. #marketing #in. http://bit.ly/j6eeoR

Thursday, June 16, 2011

6 hot IT jobs - Mobile tech ex...

6 hot IT jobs - Mobile tech expert, Enterprise mobile developer, Data scientist, Social media architect, Business arch…http://lnkd.in/7ciASD

Conflict Management – Key Gu...

Conflict Management – Key Guidelines for Managers, Tips and Suggestions. #Operations #Management #Startups #Profession…http://lnkd.in/a_7GvQ

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Advanced Twitter Tools

Twitter is becoming an interesting social media platform for many new communication tools. I did a research on it, few days back, for a new business discussion. I found some interesting websites – just sharing them here for your interest.

- TwitterLocal – This tool allows you to locate and follow posts of people based on different geographical locations.

- TwitterBuzz – It is one of the popular tools that is updated constantly. It tells you what’s being linked to the most on Twitter.

- Who Should I Follow? – This is a very helpful tool for newbie that gives good recommendations on who you should follow.

- TwitDir - TwitDir not only allows you to search for people, but also find statistics for Top 100 followers, Followed, Updaters and Favoriters.

- Twellow - Use Twellow to find users in specific industry that you are looking for.

Try these – I think these will help a lot for building and managing your own twitter groups.

Startup companies are having m...

Startup companies are having more potential compared to big corporate companies. I see a good attitude and meaningful effort. #Business

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Social Media – Customer Serv...

Social Media – Customer Service - Couple of weeks before I participated in an online group discussion on... http://tumblr.com/xwz2urppur

Social Media – Customer Service

Couple of weeks before I participated in an online group discussion on Social media based customer service management. Many organizations starts with social media in its marketing and communications, and as they began monitoring for brand mentions, they quickly discover they were intermediaries between the customer and the customer service department.
They are the most qualified to respond via social media, as they are the ones responding by phone and email.

There are few interesting things I noted in the overall discussion.

1. The person monitoring for mentions, whether they are in corporate communications or customer service, needs to know what to do with customer service requests when they find them. Make sure you have set internal expectations for response time.

2. If you already have established customer service response times, develop a social media response times too that fits within the culture of your organization. Make sure it is something that you can meet, because you want to post this publicly and set customer’s expectations for the response.

3. While customer service reps have always been on the front lines representing the company, if they will now be responding using social media, they need to understand the etiquette of the platforms. Some people can get a bit snarky when posting on social networks, and some of that grows out of the informal nature of the conversations. Informal or slightly fun is okay in your responses, however, they also need to be serious.

4. Your customer service reps can tell you the 10 most common questions asked by customers and prospects. Write a blog post for each one of them and use keywords in the titles so people can find them using search. This is the inbound marketing approach to customer service.

5. Simple responses to common questions can, and should, happen publicly. But real issues that require research or detailed conversations need to move offline. As soon as an issue is identified in this category, respond publicly with an email address or a request to send contact information via Twitter Direct Message. Other people following your company need to see a response, and the customer with an issue may require a response that is longer, and not appropriate for public channels. Frequently, customers who have raised issues using social media will post a positive comment once the issue is resolved. The ongoing perception that your company cares about its customers and wants to solve customer issues is important. If this is not true, using social media will be a challenge.