Archive for the ‘books’ tag
Why do we like beautiful things?
Donald Norman has three tea-pots. One is an impossible tea-pot. You simply can’t use it. The other is a chubby, artistic piece that looks beautiful. Third tea-pot is very different. You tilt it and lie it on a flat surface – first to make tea, then to ensure that it does not get darker than your taste.
All three tea-pots are unique and Don loves them.
Which tea-pot does he use for his morning tea?
None of these. He makes his tea just like all of us, using standard utensils.
Functionality and Design are not equal.
Then why do we like beautiful things? A product / website that looks attractive, seems better. High design value is considered to be a symbol of high quality.
Why does that happen?
Because there are deep emotions associated with design.
Go ahead and read about emotions of design. Emotional Design is one of Donald Norman’s bestsellers and is indeed a pleasure to read!
Why do you like beautiful things?
Organize your books collection – without tearing yourself
I love books, I read some of what I collect! I may go from one book to another without finishing it. I love coming back to books I read earlier. Two weeks ago, I bought 26 books in one shot. The largest purchase of books I ever made. I was fulfilled!
My library case is already filled up and I needed a way to organize the books I have. I had tried with a spreadsheet earlier, but I wanted something better this time. I did not even want to type in all titles and details myself. That would be too much of work! I would rather read a book in that time!
Enter Books! A MacOS X application that can read barcodes using the inbuilt camera on my MacBook and fill up book details! Just what I needed! (It’s Open Source too)
Books - Add a new book screen
I used it and I can describe the experience in one word – Delightful! I was so happy with the ease, I have already shown the app to my family. That’s unique – does not happen for a lot of apps!
- It correctly detected ISBN for most of my books.
- I did not have much luck with 13 digit ISBN – though detection worked, I was not able to find book information from Amazon/others.
- Especially so with Indian publishers. For many, I had to enter the title and pull info manually.
- I wish Gujarati books had ISBN too! Would have made it so easy! (I inherit a huge collection of Gujarati books from my dad
- In just two hours, I could add about 90 books to the system! That was cool!
Books - Main Screen
