Tag: AgilizTech

AgilizTech Stepout2Play Hackathon 2016

Hacking the Agilian way, to build Stepout2Play

AgilizTech conducted a hackathon on 26 and 27 November 2016 to re-engineer the Stepout2Play site.

At AgilizTech, one of our initiatives is to combine our passion for sports and technology, and create new avenues for individuals to actively pursue their favorite sport. And our upcoming flagship product, Stepout2Play, is the one-stop shop for all things sport.

With this, individuals can stay tuned to the latest happenings in the world of sports, enroll into clubs and actively participate in sporting events.

The Stepout2Play Hackathon is one such event conducted by AgilizTech.

stepout2play-hackathon-2016-agiliztech-1

The Stepout2Play Hackathon 2016 Team

Over a two-day time-frame, our team of programmers, consisting of Shyam, Kishor, Agilan, Meghana, Smita, Guddu, Niraj and Gowtham, collaborated to re-visualize and rebuild the website. The event was conceptualized and presided by the MD & CEO, Ganesh Babu.

The Hackathon was immensely fruitful, as the team effectively strategized and achieved major milestones in development. Also, as the event stimulated the creative-thinking abilities of the team and enabled AgilizTech to actively pursue its innovation-based agenda, the Hackathon was an all-round success.

November 28, 2016 Application Development 1 comment

AgilizTech Annual Meet 2016: A day to ponder, rejoice and cherish!

On 20 Oct 2016, the AgilizTech family regrouped to celebrate the AgilizTech Annual Meet 2016 with great pomp and zeal.

The event held at Nandhana Grand, Koramangala, Bangalore, was attended by the extended family of AgilizTech – its beloved Bangalore employees, proud family members and the indispensable remote team from Chennai. The event was presided over by distinguished Chief Guests – Ganthi MathiNathan, Sumatipal Kotangale, Sundara Rajan and Venkata Subramanian.

Chief Guests (from Left to Right): Ganthi MathiNathan, Sumatipal Kotangale, Sundara Rajan, and Venkata Subramanian

Chief Guests (from Left to Right): Ganthi MathiNathan, Sumatipal Kotangale, Sundara Rajan, and Venkata Subramanian

CEO’s Keynote Address

Mr Ganesh, MD & CEO, AgilizTech, addresses the gathering

Mr Ganesh, MD & CEO, AgilizTech, addresses the gathering

Firstly, Mr Ganesh Babu, the MD & CEO of AgilizTech delivered his keynote address. He spoke about the company’s roots, its rapid growth, the status quo and the roadmap for the future. He was all praises for his employees and lauded and recognized their contribution to the development of AgilizTech.

Also, he unveiled the Company’s new branding and explained the significance of the new logo.

AgilizTech's new logo

AgilizTech’s new logo

Green to represent fresh thoughts, blue to represent trust, the arrows to mark continuous agility and progress, the interlinked chevrons to indicate collaboration, stability and a 360 degree approach.

The key message, that is, the DNA of the firm was noted to be “I Am You”, in which, the company recognizes itself as one with the customer. The CEO also said that, every employee should imbibe this message and implement it in their day-to-day activities, whether it be meeting a client, discussing with a team member, in conjunction with the company and with the society. The re-branding will be realized in November.

According to Mr Ganesh, the next steps to be taken by the firm to reach new heights  is to focus on stability, improvement and organic growth. The dapper, new look received praises from all quarters.

The Chief Guests too, noted the company’s progress and offered tips and invaluable advice on how to stay on the pursuit of excellence to grow and prosper.

Talents no more latent

AgilizTech got talent!

AgilizTech got talent!

Next was the talent show organized by the employees. The hidden talents of the firm were out in the limelight as singers, Meghana, Deep and Pooja dazzled the audience with their vocal skills. Not to be left behind, the skit team, consisting of Karan, Gurukiran, Aditya and Nikitha, put up a spirited and humorous performance and left the audience in splits.

Click here to view the entire album on Facebook.

And the Award goes to…

Next on the cards were the awards! AgilizTech honored the contributions of all its employees with awards and certificates. The function was full of reminiscing memories and acknowledging the hard work and efforts put in by all the employees. The family members of employees, too, were called on the dais to receive the awards and share the joy and pride.

Click here to view the entire album on Facebook.

Off to WonderLa!

In the second half of the day, the team visited WonderLa, the amusement park at the outskirts of Bangalore. The day was spent on thrilling land and water rides, having loads of fun and making beautiful memories to cherish and rejoice.

The employees have a splash at WonderLa!

The employees have a splash at WonderLa!

Click here to view the entire album on Facebook.

All-in-all, the AgilizTech Annual Meet 2016 was a grand success. It was a fruitful and fun-filled day for AgilizTech as it took another step towards the path of growth and development.

October 24, 2016 Awards & Celebrations 3 comments

Dear employees, let’s grab the cleaning supplies, it’s Ayudha Pooja!

Perhaps, in Indian mythology monkey business means a good thing. The vanar sena played an active role and helped Rama defeat Ravana, and add yet another holiday to the Indian calendar – Vijayadashami / Ayudha Pooja, celebrating the triumph of good over evil.

Actually, monkey business means time-wasting activity. One of the biggest reasons of time-wastage at work is workplace clutter, which also affects productivity.

We are unable to locate important papers, critical files and vital emails on time. Add the dust and grime, our work atmosphere is clogging our brains! So how do we ensure that productivity triumphs over clutter? Simple. While we tidy our houses for Ayudha Pooja this year, let’s spruce up our office too!

Workstation


We reside here for around 7-8 hours every day. And on most days our desks look like bomb sites! Scattered papers, month-old sticky notes, long-forgotten whiteboard markings, the odd knick-knacks and the half-drunk coffee cup.

“If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

Einstein’s question is food for thought indeed. Well, HERE’s WHAT NOT to do!

via GIPHY

Here are some Dos:

  • Invest in a binder where you can store loose paper
  • Ensure that sticky notes are routinely discarded.
  • Use ‘To Dos’ in Outlook and track tasks efficiently.
  • Wipe photos, whiteboard and other knick-knacks
Let’s create our own quote! – “A clean, well-organized desk is a sign, of a planned and orderly mind.”

Hardware

dirty-system

The once sleek, shiny laptop is now covered in grime. The squeaky clean mouse is greasy. The yummy evening snacks of masala vada and samosa had to cause some casualties.

Dos:

  • Use a laptop cleaning kit to banish the dust and get the sparkle back on your laptop.
  • Avoid eating while using laptop, as crumbs get stuck between the keys and on the mouse.

 

Gadgets are every techie’s pride and joy. Let’s maintain them properly so that they serve us well.

 Email & Files

Often we click the file download button multiple times – sometimes out of frustration, sometimes by mistake. Result? Your Downloads folder is a nightmare! It is like Harry Potter’s doubling curse come to life!

Dos:

  • As soon as you download a file, assign it a place on your system. Create an appropriately-named folder and paste it there. This is mandatory when the file is visual or audio. Text-oriented files can be searched easily, but the other categories would require intensive efforts.
  • Periodically clean up the Temp files. Temp files mean just that, temporary. Don’t let them become a permanent guest on your system.
  • Allocate time for system cleanup. Ruthlessly delete old and unnecessary files. If you have a copy on the cloud, even better, as you have backup. Remember. Your mantra is – Sift. Delete. Repeat.
  • Put Outlook to good use and get on top of your overflowing inbox. Use Rules wisely to ensure proper categorization of your mails.
  • Unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters and mails! And if you absolutely need those, then try unroll.me

In the end, Work is worship. And we need to sharpen our work tools too. This year, let’s carry the spirit of Ayudha Pooja to our workspaces, and invoke the blessings of the divine.

Happy Vijayadashami everyone!

October 6, 2016 Awards & Celebrations No comments yet
3 Pschology Tips for Better UX Design

3 psychology tips for better UX Design

Imagine a situation in which you want to window-shop ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles). You are quite sure of your budget, make and model. You decide to browse online and visit a few websites.

Suppose you visited the sites shown below:

arngren-net-vs-amazon-com

                                arngren.net                                                                                          amazon.com

Which site would you prefer? Amazon right?

Why? Quite simple. Arngren.net is cluttered and unappealing. Maybe, it has good deals, but the navigation is a nightmare.

The first site causes information overload. In Amazon, however, there is proper categorization and additional options of filtering. This is simple cognitive psychology at play, a concept called cognitive load – a situation where a lot of memory capacity is used to make sense of the information presented, and this affects the user experience. Psychology is the study of behavior. So, it’s vital to understand human behavior when we create website designs, and aim for high utility and usability.

This blog covers three psychological concepts that can be applied to design UX better.

Hick’s Law

When a person has to make a decision, the greater the number of choices,
the more time it will take to decide.

 

How is Hick’s law applicable to UX design? It helps to estimate the time it would take to make a decision in an interface’s user menu.
Consumer takes more time to decide due to abundance of choices

Ambiguity due to abundance of choices

When users are overloaded with choices, they take more time to select. So, most firms now conduct A/B tests to understand the effect of too many choices on UX. Here’s a Medium article by Digital Product Designer, Kristof Orts on the UX and Hick’s Law connect.

 

 

 

Takeaway: Keep It Short and Simple. Don’t barrage users with choices and multitudes of decision. A clean UX demands that the user finds the whole experience unambiguous and effortless.

Form Fatigue

Suppose you are at the fag end of a call with a support executive, when you’re requested to fill a feedback form. You agree to it and upon clicking the link find a long form, consisting of 10 questions with 4 answer options each. How motivated will you be to complete the form? Since you aren’t going to reap any benefits out of it, and the task will consume much efforts and time on your part, you might not fill the form. This is because of Form Fatigue. The benefit accrued by filling the form is way lesser than the time taken to do it.

 

User experiencing Form Fatigue

            User experiencing Form Fatigue

 

Takeaway: Avoid lengthy forms. If the length cannot be altered, make it interesting. Here’s what designer Andrew Coyle suggests.

 

Selective Disregard

Have you heard of the term banner blindness? You too would have indulged in it, many times.

Banner blindness or banner noise is when users disregard irrelevant content on webpages. According to this study by Infolinks, 86% of consumers suffer from banner blindness. The users have seen so many ads, that now they just do not pay attention to the ads. They have cultivated selective disregard for these sections of the webpage. Read here on why banner ads are dead.

This behavior is not limited to banners. If the user has been doggedly using only one section of the webpage, then any change in any other section is not observed at all.

86% consumers suffer from banner blindness

Banner Blindness is a form of Selective Disregard

How do designers combat selective disregard? Have you seen sites, wherein a side pop-up ad would block the screen for a few seconds and would then slink away? This is an emphasis ploy of designers, which still annoys users. So what do you suggest then, you ask?

Takeaway: Do not over-emphasize. Limit design to show only the bare essentials. Use emphasis carefully and only when it is actually required.

 

To make UX a delight, it is important to understand how users think and what will make their journey on your application or website easier. Cognitive psychology is an important aspect to consider before starting with UX design. After all, technology is supposed to make human life easier.

September 19, 2016 UI / UX No comments yet

AgilizTech harnesses Neo4j technology for safer Social Media experience
Social Media has taken the world by storm, with around 2.3 billion active users. Facebook, the social media giant, alone witnesses a steady traffic of 1.09 billion users every single day! But did you know that out of these, a whopping 83 million are fake profiles?

While some of these fake accounts are used by crafty businesses for their marketing gimmicks, others use them for ‘special’ purposes. Many of us have been contacted through ‘Chats’ and ‘Pokes’ by at least one of these fake strangers. And sometimes these interactions morph into something serious. We are not talking about the social media love affairs that are glamourized by Bollywood. It is time to have a look at the darker side.

The Darker Side of Social Media
In this video, Coby Persin conducts social experiments using fake Facebook accounts on tweens and teenagers. Watch the victims throw caution to the winds, and meet strangers in unsupervised conditions! An instance closer home. A few months ago, Kusum Singal, 30, was found murdered at her flat in Bangalore. The culprit was her social media ‘buddy’, a man she befriended online and invited home. The man visited her, demanded money and when couldn’t have it, killed Kusum and robbed her house.

What is it that makes us believe in total strangers? What makes us invite such dangers into the sanctuary that is our home? A spirit of spontaneity and adventure maybe, which boomerangs on the unsuspecting. Can we do something to filter out this menace that lurks in our social accounts?

The answer is yes.

Predicting Social Personalities
We at AgilizTech proposed a way to sift out the fakes from the genuine. At Neo4j GraphGist’s Winter Challenge, our team (consisting of Shyamraj Sampath and Prabhu Raam) presented a unique resolution, using the Neo4j technology. A solution that allows behavioral pattern analysis of social media accounts. If an account displays suspicious characteristics (as depicted in the picture), it is brought under the scanner.

Identifying Predatory Tendencoes

Source: Creative Commons

Once the analysis is complete, a score is awarded to the profile, thus divulging the ‘friend’s’ real intentions. If the score is high, this fake profile is flagged and the concerned authorities are notified with a request to monitor and take suitable action. The idea received accolades from the panel of judges and was touted as a creative response.
You can learn more about this solution at the GraphGist site. The predatory tendency identification model is an evolving one, and there is definite scope for improvement. As new characteristics are uncovered every day, the model gets strengthened, thus tightening the hold over online predators. We are open to suggestions from the good Samaritans online and value contributions to make social media safer.

While social media gives us some great moments, it is vital to tread with caution. After all, ‘All that glitters is not gold’.

What do you think are some measures that can prevent such social media frauds?  We would like to hear from you in the Comments section.

June 2, 2016 Analytics No comments yet
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