Creating A Period Friendly Workplace For Women

vyjayanthy

HR policies can actually accommodate national average days of rest based on medically relevant research findings and see when/if women are underperforming or have emotional outbursts during their periods. Days of rest need not translate as leaves but as days with lighter workloads. This will also benefit the organization, avoiding any chances of under performance owing to exhaustion. Syncing the person’s period tracker with the company’s attendance calendar can help HR personnel monitor this process formally. This will avoid misuse of such a provision if it is created and implemented. Read more here :

http://menstrupedia.com/blog/creating-a-period-friendly-workplace-for-women/

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Persuasive design for energy saving behavior through social gaming

Published in Desform 2012, page 35 -45. read here:

Click to access desform-2012-proceedings-v2.pdf

Sneak Peek:

Design Proposal: A Social Gaming Solution for Energy Saving As established through the above studies the internet makes it possible to monitor, control, regulate and inform about the Energy supplied and consumed. Leveraging this device capability and future web capabilities, a solution is proposed to encourage energy conservation behavior among users while using electrical appliances and smart devices in connected environments. Proposed solution is called ‘Wattever’. This is a multiplayer online social game that enlists players worldwide to save energy in using their connected devices and appliances. Users’ real world connected devices are mapped to a Green Plot in the virtual world.

Creating A Period Friendly Workplace For Women

HR policies can actually accommodate national average days of rest based on medically relevant research findings and see when/if women are underperforming or have emotional outbursts during their periods. Days of rest need not translate as leaves but as days with lighter workloads. This will also benefit the organization, avoiding any chances of under performance owing to exhaustion. Syncing the person’s period tracker with the company’s attendance calendar can help HR personnel monitor this process formally. This will avoid misuse of such a provision if it is created and implemented. Read more here :

http://menstrupedia.com/blog/creating-a-period-friendly-workplace-for-women/

What to appspect when you are expecting

This is one long journey.  What starts with those two mild lines in your home pregnancy test has a whole gamut of scans, nausea, advises and….and kicks.  There is such a metamorphosis in your body; it’s like going through puberty all over again. There are of course doctors and mid wives to guide you through this but it’s comforting and entertaining if you use your Smartphone to tag along.

I am an avid android phone user and have jotted down some nice apps based on my experience so far. Most of  these apps are available both on iPhone & Android. The story below is the journey from conception to 3rd trimester….

Before Conception

Preparation for pregnancy starts from the day you start thinking about it. Even remotely!  If you want to just have fun playing safe, there are some wonderful apps that help you do that. For tracking ovulation, I used this app called My days .

This app of course requires you to be disciplined about adding to a calendar every time you bow chicka wow wow. Trust me that works in your favor.  Firstly, makes you feel good about thyself, but the main thing is, you can get your LMP right. LMP – stands for last menstrual period, which is like the source code for most of the further calculations that will be made regarding dates associated with pregnancy, fetus development etc.  This also helps to narrow down on actual date of conception.

First trimester

Congrats…you are it.

You & your partner are on a high and are determined to go through this phase in a savvy, no nonsense way unlike your sloppy cohorts. Kate Middleton…Make way, this is my time to pull off those high heeled silhouettes with an amazing bump.

Reality check – this panache takes about 5 – 6 weeks to turn to pukathon. This is when your body seems to be adhering to just about every symptom mentioned by the ‘been there, done that’s’.  So it’s best to keep a check on these. Initially, I downloaded a plethora of apps, to track my symptoms. But by the time the nausea catches on, you understand it best to stick to 1(or 2 at max). I struck to I am expecting from med help. In fact it helps throughout the three trimesters. Helps you keep track of dates, appointments, progress & symptoms.

I lost about 1.8 Kg or 4 pounds (ok…I have an app that converts that for me ;)) during 10- 13 weeks. This app has a body weight setting that indicates suggested range corresponding to each week. It is possible to lose weight since you are eating lesser and also puking most of what you eat. It’s best to add what you are going through to the app’s daily symptom notification that pops up end of the day.  Just seeing a numeric representation of other women going through similar symptom makes you feel stronger.  It also has a cool widget that you can keep on your home-screen, where you can see a progress chart of baby’s growth per week. Best of all, this is measured in food sizes so you don’t have to deal with darned metric or FPS systems. 

Apart from pregnancy apps, there are corresponding apps you can use to aid your metabolism. My gynecologist advised me to drink a lot to keep well hydrated…and beer doesn’t count. Water your body app does an excellent job of reminding you at regular intervals. Also suggestions are based on body weight, so your expanding hotbod is accommodated.

Second trimester

These three months are bliss for both you & your partner. No CC cream can give you the glow that now your skin radiates (or not!). Good time for prenatal instagraming. This is when you are in mood for some knowledge seeking, and some apps can be your pocket Sensei. My husband & I were hooked on to My Pregnancy Today from baby center.

Best part is, this app is packed with amazing videos about what is happening to your body. All the data is clustered into weeks that correspond to certain fetal development process. Also this has an active participation of expectant moms in discussion forums. The app interface looks too ‘PowerPoint’ likes though, but maybe that is what makes it papa friendly compared to other over the top estrogen heavy interfaces.

If you already have appsessive compulsiveness, then you will see there in an acute shortage of good apps for pregnancy fashion, workouts, diets and games. Of course there are some apps in these genres but they still are nascent compared to above mentioned apps. I will try to make one this year  🙂

Third trimester

Ok …I am just a week into my third trimester and it already feels like I am taking the ring back to Morder… (translates ‘tough’ to non LOTR fans). You are getting bigger, have earned highest loyalty points for visiting the bathroom …and started feeling the kicks! This is the most amazing feeling I have felt so far into the pregnancy. So I decided to document it. The apps that I mentioned for 1^st and 2^nd also accommodate kick count feature. But I found this 3^rd trimester exclusive app called kick me.

This helps to keep track of frequency of baby kicks, time stats, and active hours in a day. You just have to start a session timer and tap whenever you feel the kicks.  The resultant can be viewed as hourly, daily and general stats.

To conclude…this is where I am so far into the pregnancy, and shared about all the apps that have been awesome fun and facts. There is a lot of useful and just as much junk out there. You have to set a filter on your head and not get carried away by the information surplus.  These apps are just our companions and no way replacements for the real experts. They sure are ‘smart’ companions though.

Appy Pregnancy  🙂
April 14, 2015 – Lepakshi turns 1

How is Facebook like a Temple?

vimana

Social networking space creates provisions for users to create autobiographies every day. The convergent and ubiquitous nature of technology helps user to document details of life. One of the reasons for popularity of social networks is the provision to reconnect with old friends. People are curious about other people and social networking space gives them a dynamic platform to see what is happening in everyone’s lives.

See Page 28 – 33

Next generation gaming

 As there is natural evolution of gaming towards simpler and more ergonomically viable solutions I think the eventual shift of gaming would be towards mind controlled games. As “Alice in wonderland “as it sounds the existing development in technology and the fact that user experience and ergonomics are an essential in any game design process now only helps build this theory. Gaming is like a system (totally speaking my head out) and system is a product of interaction between macro and micro elements in it. In Gaming the micro elements are: Gameplay, game story, game concept etc which may remain the same through generations but it’s the macro elements which will affect the next gen gaming. And the elements which form the macro elements are: User controls, interaction patterns and perception/ visual design.

 The success of consoles like Nintendo Wii, Wii fit, Ds is a natural evolution process for species called “casual gamers”. These games juxtapose to natural physical behavior of humans. Features like less complexity in handling controls, combining human body mechanics with game mechanics (wii fit); mapping eye movements with camera angles are such examples. As these consoles form a part of present generation gaming I think that by extrapolating the technologies today we can imagine what next generation gaming will be like. As I said earlier gaming is a system and the micro elements form the core of it. But it’s the macro elements which will be affected from the technology adaptation. Features like augmented reality, Brain mapping, movement recognition, multi touch, speech recognition and eye tracking should form an inevitable form of future game designing.

 In fact if game producers can realize this by researching and exploring more into the casual game genre, designers would be able to make accommodations for future. In an adapted version of the Harry Potter video game, players lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only their minds. Just as physical movement changed the interface of gaming with Nintendo’s Wii, the power of the mind may be the next big thing in video games. The sensory features are the design elements for next generation gaming. Vision (already exploited enough and well exploited in fact in games so far) Voice and Sound (Voice response systems employed in games like End war) Touch (not just touch screen… more) Smell (what if I could feel the fragrance while playing flowers)

 Coming to the practical accepts of above suggestions the following is the status report of these technologies: Mind Controls: Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, says its mind-control headsets will be on shelves later this year, along with a host of novel “biofeedback” games developed by its partners. Several other companies – including EmSense in Monterey, California; NeuroSky in San Jose, California; and Hitachi in Tokyo – are also developing technology to detect players´ brainwaves and use them in next-gen video games. The technology is based on medical technology that has been around for decades. Using a combination of EEGs (which reveal alpha waves that signify calmness), EMGs (which measure muscle movement), and ECGs and GSR (which measure heart rate and sweating), developers hope to create a picture of a player´s mental and physical state. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which monitors changes in blood oxygenation, could also be incorporated since it overcomes some of the interference problems with EEGs. In order for mind gaming to attract consumers, developers know they need to offer more than just interesting technology. Earlier biofeedback games – such as Atari´s MinkLink in 1984 and AmTex´s Bio Tetris in 1998 – never took off, possibly because they used old games. This time, developers plan to design novel games that can only be played with mind control complementing a traditional handset – similar to the novel sports games custom-designed for the Wii. Motion Detection: User gets to wave his hands and see stuff happening and it’s a lot more engaging then hitting keys on keyboard.

 Since the introduction of Microsoft surface a lot of development has come in the field of multi touch based interaction Its been used in restaurants for billing, in music shows by DJs and of course in gaming . One such example is Warcraft developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL). This interactive multi-input panel allows users to control such games as Warcraft III with “an array of antennas embedded in the touch surface”.

 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1bTNbbWk4&eurl=http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/warcraft-iii-multi-touch-panel

Smell:  It would be so much fun for the kids who are playing animal crossing to be asked to pick flowers based on their fragrance. The technology that supports this feature is called Smell- O – Vision. Of course there is long way to go for this to be called working, but definitely gaming provides a suitable platform for this to be adopted. The history of Smell – o – vision is that this system released odors during the projection of a film in Japan so that the viewer could “smell” what was happening in the movie. The technique was created by Hans Laube and made its only appearance in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery. The process injected 30 different smells into a movie theater’s seats when triggered by the film’s soundtrack. (Source: Wikipedia)

Wouldn’t Prince of Persia love it if he could use the strength of his mind to look through Ariman’s evil black magic? And yell out to Elika for help (user screaming his lungs out) Would taking over an upsurge in COD be a lot more realistic if I could really walk into these jungles and pick weapons from dead soldiers (and I mean PICK!!). Whatever the next generation gaming beholds is yet to be seen, but it’s definitely a good move if we designers could approach a design process which involves Humans as primary audience than just gamers. It means that the playing field is leveled for everyone be it young, old, man, woman, George Bush, etc. because everyone can make natural movements to do stuff.

References:

 Billycuts on March 17, 2008 in Consciousness/Psych/Brain, Futurism/Transhumanism, Games and Technology http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/warcraft-iii-multi-touch-panel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-o-vision