Nano Expressions?

I have been pondering on writing a post on User self-expression for quite some time now…only that I was not getting the right start. Finally I got it when this term ‘Nano Expression’ cropped up in my head ( and now I realize why I should have written this post before Auto Expo happened, however people who are on my G-talk would vouch that I had put the term up on my status message long before Mr Ratan Tata showcased his little marvel.)

The credit for getting this term in my head goes to Saarthak the RJ on Hit Radio here in Delhi and the usage of the term is for chat messengers and community websites.

The status messages present the best form of user self expression that one can think of. Ever since Gtalk and Yahoo etc. gave the functionality of writing a text status message in place of the standard; Available, Idle, busy etc, the users have become completely self expressive.

From displaying age old quotes, to announcing a new post on one’s blog, to wish friends on various occasions, to expressing what’s going on at the work place…people have been smart in using the space provided for status messages.

Taking the real thing forward, we all are now aware that Social networks are a raze and one of the biggest reason for it is that they give ample chance for User Self-expression.

The superiority of Facebook and Myspace has been debated a lot but Myspace has always been considered better because it lets the users have more control over their pages, giving it a freedom-loving personal appeal that continues to this day.
Friendster, never got that. But Facebook has now opened the floodgates to allow extreme user self-expression by making a lot of functionality changes and promoting widget and application inclusion by users.

There are a lot of features that one can put in this category that I call ‘Nano-Expressions’, for instant:

The Profile names and nick names
The Status messages
The Mood messages
The Profile Urls
The Scraps
The photo comments
Tags

Every one has a poet and a writer within us and given the slightest of chance, we express…that’s so good about us humans!!!

Sexy at Sixty! Why Not?

When I started this Blog, my idea was to write on topics that covered various aspects and Features / Functionalities of web products. So can I write an the Independence Day Post?
Why not?India being a land of festivals and occasions, it gives the marketing and design teams in all Internet companies to establish a connection with the audience of varied interests and needs. I have seen, and have been part of, promotions ranging from Rakhi to Valentine’s Day and Diwali to New Year’s Day and many more. I remember once during my Indiatimes days, we discussed the possibility to auction the largest bouquet of Flowers, online, to create a world record!

So, I thought let me see what the designers across the country have been up to, on this Independence Day! It was heartening to see that most sites have decorated their homepages to express their joy and freedom.
The Shopping verticals of Indiatimes, Rediff and Sify did not carry any significant Independence Day related offers although the portals had subtle design depictions of the tricolour. Ebay India’s special promotion somewhere low down on the homepage did not make any sense.Google and Yahoo are always good at modifying the logos for any occasion, and this time it was no different.

Travel sites MakeMyTrip and Yatra offered special deals, which was heartening to see. MMT depicted the Indian spirit nicely prompting people to take a long Independence Day break. Ixigo, the travel search aggregator’s logo design was neatly done.

Sites in the Networking and User Content domain looked all ready and there for the occasion. BigAdda homepage looked great but Orkut was very creative. Peaking of special offers, Sulekha is running an Independence Day best blog contest.

Pure-play classifieds sites did not seem interested in the Independence Day! Matrimonial sites, Shaadi, BharatMatrimony, and Jobsites, Monster India and Clickjobs were celebrating. Naukri looked complacent with even the new product Brijj not showing any signs of celebration!

However, the expression that impressed me the most today was the headline “Sixty, Getting Sexier” in the Times of India, that I have titled my Independence Day post, likewise. And yes, the Idea of writing an ‘Independence Day Post’ was given by dear friend, Vivek Rastogi ‘Chacha’ (not Nehru!).

Victory for Bollywood ?

The two things that have the biggest potential to equally rock and shock India are Bollywood and Cricket. On Tuesday afternoon, the Indian team beat England and Sanjay Dutt got a six year jail term. It did not take much work, on the TV remote, to see which one was hotter; the Indian team's win or the Jail term!

Well, TV channels, barring a few like NDTV, have a sheep mentality. What I was waiting for was the next morning newspapers. I wanted to see which of the two events takes the prime spot in the newspapers, the next morning.

On Wednesday morning it was pretty clear that the BCCI has indeed been successful in making Indian cricket a not- so- happening entity in our lives. Although the HT had the 2 rightmost columns on the front page mentioning the Indian victory, the more circulated TOI had no space for the 'win' in the first half of the front page!

Indeed its a victory for Bollywood. Whether its also a victory for the Indian judicial system, is another matter.

My Soul Patch!

This started when we first decided upon roping in Mr Pijush Datta to be our design consultant for Extramarks. This guy is a typical Ad agency ex. One feature that stands out, the moment you see him, is his facial hair. He wears this small patch of beard under his lips.

The second time Pijush visited us I decided this beauty spot could adorn my face too.
So there I was within, a week’s time I had this beauty spot on me. My wife liked it and my daughter was thrilled as it grew and started showing prominently on my face. To my surprise even our chairman complemented me for being stylish!

As this beauty spot became prominent confusion crept in. Some one called it a ‘goti’, some couldn’t name it and I started calling it‘stubble’. In my quest to look for an end to this confusion I took refuge in the internet.

This beauty spot is called a Soul Patch and Google throws about 556,000 for soul patch beard in 0.10 seconds. A Soul Patch is a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin as per the Wikipedia

I also know now, that it has a close relation with music as The Soul Patch came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s and was a style of beard popular with beatniks (a member or follower of the Beat Generation) and jazz artists. Jazz trumpeters in particular preferred the soul patch because it provided comfort when using a trumpet mouthpiece.

The patch has been famous for centuries. William Shakespeare sported a Soul Patch beneath his famous moustache and there is an Annual world championship in 12 Beard & Moustache Categories.

D.H. Lawrence rightly said "How beautiful maleness is, if it finds its right expression"……….the pictures below are a perfect example :-)