A commercial city in the state of Karnataka with a heavy focus on the computer industry.

My last visit was in Summer 2007

Tourism:

• Brigade Road
• City Gardens

Found on the North end of Vypeen Island in Kochi.

Half an hour by car from Marine drive, Ernakulam (one hour by auto riskshaw)

A variety of homestays and hotels are available

Map:

http://www.cheraihotels.com/map.htm

Introduced by by the Chinese explorer Zheng He.

Can be found on Fort Kochi Beach in Kochi, Kerala, India.

Contextual Design (CD) is a user-centered design process developed by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt. It incorporates ethnographic methods for gathering data relevant to the product, field studies, rationalizing workflows, system and designing human-computer interfaces. In practice, this means that researchers aggregate data from customers in the field where people are living and applying these findings, into a final product.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contextual_design

Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN: 1-55860-411-1

Contextual inquiry is a user-centered design (UCD) method, part of the contextual design methodology, that happens up front in the product development lifecycle. It calls for one-on-one observations of work practice in its naturally occurring context. During or after the observations, discussion ensues wherein users’ daily routines or processes are discovered so that a product or website can be best designed to either work with the processes or help to shorten or eliminate them altogether. Contextual inquiry comprises preparation, evaluation, analysis, and design phases. >>> Read More

The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design is a postgraduate school and consultancy based in Copenhagen which focuses on the area of Interaction Design, and is a recognised leader in the field. It was launched in 2007 in an attempt to establish a full-time 2 year Masters course in the field. >>> Read More

Cascading Style Sheets

Most widely used version:

CSS 2.1 (Supported by all popular browsers currently  in use in 2009)

Future Version:

CSS 3.0  (Supported by Webkit Browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari.)

My CSS Services and Portfolio website

http://css.stevejbayer.com/ is under construction as my css services and portfolio website

 Available in Webkit powered web browsers such as Apple Safari and Google Chrome.

Sources:

http://www.css3.info

  >>> Read More

Design Ethnography is a set of data collection and analysis perspectives, assumptions and skills that can be used effectively and efficiently to understand a particular environment, or domain, of people for the express purposes of designing new technology products. Working from the data one forms models of the environment explicitly considering the peoples' relationship to other people, space, time, artifacts, activities and nature. The models, graphically represented, are used explicitly to derive and test product concepts. >>> Read More

Design strategy is a discipline which helps firms determine what to make and do, why do it and how to innovate contextually, both immediately and over the long term. This process involves the interplay between design and business strategy, forming a systematic approach integrating holistic-thinking, research methods used to inform business strategy and strategic planning which provides a context for design. While not always required, design strategy often uses social research methods to help ground the results and mitigate the risk of any course of action. The approach has proved useful for companies in a variety of strategic scenarios.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_strategy

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. >>> Read More