as I see it

Due to a very poor response to the polling last time, the results will not be displayed :P. Some PG got 71% votes out of a total of 7.
The post served the purpose it intended to though.

Let me now move on to the fifth episode of the HOI series : Samba !!

with advancements in technology, people want everything to be done by a machine, every work of theirs. E-Mails substituted postal mails, VOIP provides substitute to telephones and so on. Providing such services is no longer the only task. Enhancing the user interface, making services and application more user-friendly is what every service provider is trying to provide. And mind you it is not an easy task, you need sound skills in human-machine interaction (which is a vast subject).

Why do we need it ?

Well, there are many reasons. Firstly, there are usually more than one service providers providing a particular service. UI is one field where you can get past your competitor. Secondly, not every consumer is a techie. If a product is not user-friendly, how can you expect a lay man to use it. Lastly, expectations have increased. People want everything to be done with ease, a personal assistant to do all their work, so that they can release.

Consider the rotary dial phone, followed by keypads then touch screen with stylus.

It is the demand of the consumer that makes service providers to develop such products.

Any problems ?

Not problems as such, but people tend to get addicted to a particular feature in a gadget and try using it on others. Didn't get me ? I'll give you an example.
One of my friends was fascianted about voice dialling in his phone. You speak out a name and your handset calls that person. A month or two back he installed some new software on his computer and while configuring it there was some field where he was asked to enter his password.
Two of my other friends were also there in his room at that time (all fully aware of his VOICE DIALLING obsession). This person wants everything to be perfect yet simple to use (has also been fascinated about the idea of HUMAN COMPUTER interaction), so just for some fun all of us asked him to speak his password after a beep sound is played. Guess what ?

Ya, he looked into the screen and said "SAMBA" (his password). What makes it more interesting is that even the COMPUTER teamed up with us for some fun and GOD knows how, indeed played a BEEP sound.

How could he possibly do that ? With no microphone connected, with the software not claiming any such voice recognition why did he do that ?

Well, as I said, the reason is not one. Expecting the product to be USER-FRIENDLY and trying to use a feature of one gadget onto other. Guess there should be this universal set of features that should be present in every service and product so that such incidents do not happen in future.

Start polling !!