Saturday 21 September 2013

First look at the UI designed by our team, SNALK.


It was created on HTML, with links to show how we felt the UI would be the most user-friendly under the various labels or folders!

More coming up right now! :)

On a forgetful note, we will be uploading all our ideas on this blog in the next few days, so don't just forget about SNALK immediately! :)

Logging off for the day, with our final post...the Timeline...
credits: the talented Needa Jamil. :)

Thanks guys for following us, and going through our, probably menial posts. Kudos to the team, great job guys, I sure did enjoy a lot!

Jusqu'à la prochaine fois
So we are pratically there with creating the UI... All that remains are the academic paper, and the  video, which is being handled solely by this guy, Kushagra, our animation artist...



















And the audio, by Aditya...







 
Here are some of the character designs for the final video..


Some rough storyboards are also underway. 
We will keep uploading bits of our ideas every hour from now, so stay tuned...

It looks like a long night ahead for us. As we prepare for the last 8 hrs of the competition.
I am off to take a break, its dinner for me!

Loy
Team SNALK.








MINI CHALLENGE 3: The Video

Well this is how we "WORK"! :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbHaamPRwlI&feature=youtu.be
95%
the animator: Kushagra Kushwaha
credits: Aditya Parihar
MINI CHALLENGE 2: The Blog

The basic idea was to simplify the email, and prevent an overload of information. The email though originally created to provide a simple asynchronous communication mechanism, however has grown sophisticated over the years. From calenders and to-do-lists, to in some cases, the entire office work is being carried out via the email. However, in all its sophistication, the email is hardly simple, or user-friendly for that matter.

Our target is to provide easy access to all the necessary features that we feel an email should provide in one window with easy, user-friendly access to all of them with just one click.

We began by reading the prevalent surveys which discuss the human mentality towards the existing form of the email. We analyzed the problem, categorized the primary issues that users feel an email service provider lacks, and embarked on designing an interface which will will provide these features. The idea developed by brainstorming for an idea which will provide the easiest access to the features, and contain the easiest facility to cycle between them.
The idea looked like this:



This was before breakfast. Next we began designing the basic interface, on HTML and Adobe Illustrator. Although the primary appearance is similar to the prevailing email service providers, we have customized the icons. We initially had decided to create a new website to provide independent email service to clients, but later realized to be too cumbersome and complicated. So, instead, we are designing a new User Interface for Google Mail, providing easier access to the multitude of services that it provides. The challenge is much more difficult than we anticipated, and the progress, is slow, but definite!

Once the basic design for the UI is complete, (hopefully really soon) we will be uploading photos of the design, and videos of the production!
Presenting a collage of all the members, immersed in their work...


Friday 20 September 2013

MINI CHALLENGE 1:  References

Our source of inspiration and reference is from the page http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/meet i.e. ,The new Microsoft Windows 8 "A better way to work and play"... With its new large icons and cross interface across smartphones, tablets and PCs, the new Windows version is probably the most user-friendly yet. Its less cluttered, faster, easier to cycle between apps, and simple. And since the primary problem with emails is information overload, we thought what better than to design the UI in the principles of Microsoft's large icons. Since, to reduce the overload, we will need to organize and synchronize between multiple folders, we also need to be able to cycle between them with ease.

Another idea, to contain no pop-ups or advertisements in the UI, originates from a discussion between Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin in the movie 'The Social Networks'. As they aptly pointed out, the users want to view their mails, and complete their work, not view advertisements!

Cheers to the these pioneers!

Team SNALK
ALL THE HARD-WORK...

I said we had been slogging since 5:30 in the morning, but I had nothing to show for it. Well here are all the photos...

The "creative" board, with all our scribblings... The nice elegant handwriting is mine the terrible sribbling are by Kushagra. :P

gren, orange, pink, yellow - what we think should be present in our design.

Analyzing data, providing information to the user...

Yes, our mail add-on will have an alarm!!

...and keyboard shortcuts too

Ozchi24, on the laptop...the team, debating the future of our project...

I look strained!
Me the blogger, sitting gallantly on a table top in the corner, blogging...


And the fatigue is beginning to sink in already...being college students we usually have late nights...

That's all for now folks, I will be back in half an hour, with more updates... :)








The Beginnings...

Its 10 am, the day of the Ozchi24 challenge, and we have been slogging for 4 hrs already! Yes, we started at 5:30 in the morning! Its a bright sunny morning, a little too hot for September, and the room is bustling with activity.
So far...
The challenge has been posted, I yelled! It was 5:30 am IST. It took us nearly 2 hrs to analyze the problem and the all the data provided. This involved going through all the research papers, using all the apps that are already available in the market, and brainstorming for an idea that will take in the best features across them and putting them into one cool plug-in whose functioning we will be designing and later in the day post here. So keep visiting...
Developing the Idea...
We designed our own "creative" board.


Its basically all the ideas we are thinking of implementing, (obviously all of them might not be included...) and how they should be present.


And then the entire team gets grumbling stomachs, so we leave for our breakfast...

Kushagra has handed over the blogging reins to me. He is now the team's official video-maker, and me the blogger.

Abhraneel aka Loy.

stay tuned for photos of the animation artist in action...


Aditya doing the work



Needa 



Sidhant


Abhraneel


me blogging ( Haha i like the view )



INTRODUCING THE TEAM

Now is time I start with the blogging  properly. As this is the first time I am trying my hand at blogging, I had no idea what I was doing earlier.

We have summed up our work and gone through the resources that will prove necessary for the design we will be making.

Amidst our progress, let me also introduce my hard-working team and myself. :D

First up, the Worm, Needa Jamil

Known for her capacity to work all the time, tiring herself out, she is the solitary girl present in our team and more than anything that we need ;) cheers for you Needa . Now stop blushing while reading this post

Next, we have our confused camera, Sidhant Goyal

The guy was the last person to end up in the meeting and is probably the most confused person is the team. Taking up the job of presenting the visuals and photographs , he seems very conscious of what I am writing in his intro .

Then the Guy with the most reasons, Abhraneel Sarma

Off to his room at the moment to attend the nature's call, the guy is the localite Assamese present here in Guwahati. (Oh yeah ! we are from IIT Guwahati :O ) Quite apt when it comes to having diplomatic views and putting right solutions at the right places and troubleshooting the problems to a greater extent. Enough bragging, keep up the good work mate :D

Mr. Slash and burn, Aditya Parihar

Listening to rocks, guitars is like a fantasy for this guy. Working hard for this challenge the guy is a real push that we require to be a complete team.

5. The Overwritting-Blogger : Kushagra Kushwaha(me)

I have no damn reason to praise myself but yeah am really involved doing up this blogging work.
And speaking frankly, Ozchi24 is turning out to be a real fun here :)

So there it is, my team, SNALK, a real bunch of eccentric individuals...

The team Snalk is all on work . Ozchi24 is going to be real fun ;) a whole new experience... 
Team Name : SNALK
Institution : Indian Institutes of Technology Guwahati, India
Contestants :
1. Abhraneel Sarma
2. Aditya Parihar
3. Needa Jamil
4. Sidhant Goyal
5. Kushagra Kushwaha