Mantra of successful apps - Simple yet engaging

I have been downloading and playing quite a few games lately and I started to wonder what is it that makes these games so addictive where as there are a million other games that just come and go. What I realised is that the key to the successful games such as angry birds, ninjump and so on is to keep it very simple so that it is easy to learn and start playing yet keeping it just hard enough to keep you engaged to try again and again as you always feel that you are just there.

I tried to extend this same idea to some of the applications that I use and I found that there is a similar trend. The applications are very easy to learn and become useful in a very short span of time yet they are feature rich to make you want to come back and use them every time.

Its the same for the android and apple devices - they are so easy to use they do not even need a user manual but there is so much available on the market place/app store that there is never a boring moment as you can go there and find something new to keep you engaged.

For all the app designers out there the idea is to keep the entry barrier so low that the user feels interested to try it out but then it is important to subtly introduce features to the user that will keep the user engaged and interested.

Motivation at the workplace

IT companies have a reputation of paying very well but they still suffer from very high attrition. Why is that so? I was watching some videos on youtube and came across the one below that validates my thoughts. Motivating employees is not just about paying them well...

2005 Singapore Identity Plan

2004 Singapore Identity Plan

 

Changing Education Paradigms

Deciding on the type of education for your child is a hard question. During my days of schooling there was only one type of education and that was focused on rote learning and the cane. But now the life and times are so different. The world has changed; the times are different; the different ways we are exposed to information is mind boggling.

Do we change with the times and give our children something different from what we had. During my school days there was nothing else to do other than go to school. There was no TV till I was in the 9th class. There were no computers till I was in college and there was not much activity to do as I was brought up in a small town – there were no malls, no activity centers, no zoos, no museums and frankly no parks worth going to. We went to school, did what we were told, learnt by heart what we were thought, wrote our exams, got caned if we did badly and the circle continued year after year. But in the end we all turned out fine leading comfortable lives due to the education we got.

But if we fast forward to now – I ask myself is it enough if I put my child in this same kind of education system so that she has a secure future because this system worked for me. But will it be enough? The needs in the future may be different. The tools available may be different. The skills required may be different. Following the same kind of education I had might not be enough to help her cope with the future. But the question is what kind of education will help her cope?

The video below talks about a similar problem with the current education system and is very interesting to understand the roots of the existing education system and why the author thinks that the current system will not work in preparing our kids.

Understanding Money

This is a beautiful article about "Money" - What Truly "Wealthy" people know about money.

There are some excellent thoughts in this article and one of the aspects in that article which I want to talk about is the formula

Wealth = Value Provided by Y * Number of Entities that Directly Value Y

(Where Y is the product, employee or subject generating wealth).

The key aspect for wealth in this formula is the value that is provided. At an organizational level or a individual level it comes down to the same thing. If you want to make money you need to have something that provides value. At an organizational level it is the value of the intellect the organization holds. If the organization does not innovate and keep ahead of the intellectual curve it will fall away and stop providing value. It is same for the individual - if the individual stops learning and stops innovating and keeps ahead of his peers in his ability to provide value then his wealth disappears.Once there is no value nobody needs the organization or the individual and that's when all wealth - financial, mental and physical disappears.

The Number of entities that directly derive value will automatically grow based on the amount of value you provide to them and the bandwidth you have to manage them. When you provide true value the entities that seek that value tend to find you faster than you wish for.

So the bottom line is to introspect and understand if each and every one of us at an individual capacity and an organizational capacity provide value. If we do, we will automatically become wealthy - financially, mentally and physically. If not overnight it will happen in time.

Yourschool - Create a website for a school in less than 5 minutes

Yourschool.in is a product that we have conceptualized and developed. The idea is to be able to provide a school a platform to create a fully functional, interactive website in less than 5 minutes. We have achieved this by incorporating the following into the product

• There is no installation to be done. Just register your institution on the website.
• You do not need to have any technical personnel to operate the website. All you need to know is basic computer knowledge and you will be able to post content about your institution.
• You can use the site from anywhere 24 X 7 and update the content as it is completely on the internet.
• No need of high bandwidth dedicated internet connection from your institute to operate the website. Broadband connections with a minimum of 256 kbps is enough to operate the website.
• You can change the information published at any time by yourself thus giving you complete control over the website with no dependencies.

Some of the features provided by the website include

• Change content on the website by yourself. All the information published on the website can be changed easily by the school administrator without having to interact with software developers.
• Provide logins for teachers and students. Each teacher and student can get his/her own login to the website. Unlimited number of logins can be created.
• Dynamic Photo Albums to showcase the activities and the facilities in the school. Unlimited albums and photos can be uploaded directly from your computer.
• Messages can be sent between parents and teachers. Using the messaging within the yourschool.in
• Post news about the school that is displayed on the homepage.
• Publish Documents and newsletters on the website. Choose whether the document should be publically accessible or only for logged in users.
• Change how the website looks by choosing a theme from our wide range of templates available. We continuously add new themes to this library from which you can choose.
• Publish a school calendar on the website with the list of holidays and events of the school.
• Visitors can send enquiries directly to the school from the website.
• Class Timetable - Publish the class timetable so students and teachers can refer to the class timetable any time
• Send SMS Greetings on birthdays to students, teachers and support staff of the school - An automated message goes out to the registered mobile of the user on their birthday.
• Send Bulk SMS Messages to all the users.

We have started a twitter feed where we are finding out when admissions are starting for various schools in Hyderabad.  Follow us on Twitter. To learn more visit the website http://www.yourschool.in or visit our blog http://blog.yourschool.in. All kinds of feedback would be greatly appreciated so that we can truly improve this product so that schools can create a more informative and up to date presence online.