What I don’t like about this country is the lack of of REAL lounge clubs/bars. The ones that I know are pseudo lounges, you can kick back and enjoy a few drinks between 8pm and 8:30pm and after that you will hear some kid’s recordings from a computer thump your ears all night out!(it will cost you 40$ to start making music and annoy the crap out of people)

Anyway, I was at Amethyste two weeks ago (courtesy of Leo Burnett Beirut), I didn’t know what to expect to be honest. I can’t really describe the place better than this picture (Big thank you to @meinlebanon for sharing it with me! you can read about the launching on her blog)

What I like about the place is that it’s not your “modern” lounge, architecture is beautiful, it gives this warm yet relaxing summery feeling, me likey!

Now, what I don’t like about it…we were sitting on a table, a classic table that you find in ANY restaurant. That killed the “lounge” feeling. Next time I am there (yes there is a next time) I’ll make sure I hang out by the pool where it does feel like a full on lounge.

A few suggestions:

• get an new entrance, I don’t wanna go through Phoenicia’s main lobby to get to Amethyste, separate entrance would be more than welcomed (and would get more people in, I am a Wok Wok fiend and some of my friends – new comers – were afraid because it’s in “oooohhh phoenicia”. it’s not the UAE here, people are not accustomed to go through hotels and twists to get to a place).
• Get rid of the tables, it’s a lounge and I like the atmosphere there, I don’t want it as a lounge/restaurant. The way you serve food (which is served beautifully) doesn’t need tables.
• no dishdasha/thawbs in there. Ever. EVER!

Music was your regular chill-out/lounge music, easy on the ears and the nerves. I couldn’t complain, loud enough to hear it, low enough to talk with each other without having to shout. Respect!

Food, presentation is what you expect from Phoenicia. Taste wise, a long debate between a friend and me is still going on (not really) if the salmon tasted good or not. I loved the mini barbecue that they serve on the table, smart, cute, and keeps your meat warm. overall, it’s pretty good.

Drinks another long debate, I loved the cocktails, the amounts are just perfect, the alcohol doesn’t kill you and you won’t feel like you are drinking water. Perfetto! Their signature Mojito is yummy (I know “MeInLebanon” will disagree). Presentation, servings, just the right touch and amount.

Price, It’s not as expensive as one might think (ooooh Phoenicia) but again it’s not “Malek el Taouk”. It’s somewhere in between where it keeps the hormonal 16 years old out but allows us who seek to “chill” something somewhat affordable. Will it be my daily hangout? not really. A weekly hangout? most probably.

As I said before, it’s well worth checking out, friendly staff, premium alcohol that is not that expensive, chilled atmosphere with a twist.

Will leave you with a few pictures from the opening and different shots, if you happen to go there please do share your experience and opinion, they are willing to listen and improve.

Update: Amethyste apparently have a blog. I won’t comment on the design but something needs to be done ASAP. A link to the menus and prices (the way its displayed on the blog is too small, so just to the source!) Nice move from Phoenicia to show that they are not that expensive. Kudos. Just don’t overdo it.

Everybody is waiting for the Ipad in the middle east and Lebanon. Mac Shop is taking pre-orders, delivery in a month and prices START at 900 USD (plain rip off) so without further ado here are the pictures and my initial review of the long awaited Ipad! enjoy! (and smile!)

First picture: The Package.

Second picture: unwrapping it 1

Third picture: unwrapping it 2

Fourth and last picture: The applications!

the apps!

• Iperiod: since apparently there is an application for almost anything, Akkle released an Iperiod app, no pain no cramps no mess.
• Isex: it’s only natural to have an “I” version of sex when the missus is going through “that time of the month”
• Icard: send virtual cards to show that you care.
• Iwank: if you send a virtual card, the only sex you are getting is wanking. And since the “Ipad” is the cool thing in town, you will have to use an application for that too. Send some real cards and flowers.

you get the picture folks…now off to the IBooks:

• How to look like an ass 101
• Small schlong big pad
• Please check my over-sized phone.

No real blood was used in the making of this lame post.

They all have the exact same menu. Nothing is different except a few languages (which is a nice touch, Arabic/English/French/Armenian for Lebanon, Urdu Farsi Arabic Hindi English for UAE…) AND It doesn’t show that I am already signed in to my Google account! If I head to Google.com (non localized page) it shows that I am signed in, when I head to the Lebanese localized page, it shows that I am signed in. BUT when I head to any other localized page it doesn’t show that I am signed in. Porque?

check the screengrabs to see what I mean.

Two questions:

• Do all the users have the same behavior in the middle east? hence why the same features display on all of them?
• Why doesn’t it show that I am signed in whenever I am using a different localized page? knowing that I am already signed in at Google.com or Google.com.lb

I m just rambling…

I was like a kid enjoying an underskirt view for the first time! but what struck me was that there are no links/mentions (still) to the maps on Google’s Lebanon page! nothing! zip! nada!

I thought it would be in the “more” but nothing at all.

maybe in the “even more”

and voila! buried deep inside on the “search menu”.

I know it’s not the end of the world, but, usability/ux wise, you want to burry the maps deep down, have it as an icon along the rests, people are expecting to see it with the icons (even more=icons + description, not up in the search bar)

I don’t know what Google’s policy is, but having something like Google Maps with directions/routings for Lebanon at street level view and fairly up to date imagery, I’d place the link on the main page.

Unfortunately I don’t have the data to what the users are doing on the main page of Google Lebanon but the line up is as follows: Web Images Translate Scholar Calendar Documents Gmail

Are people using Calendar more than Maps? are people actually using Scholar (I’d be more than happy if it turns out that the Lebanese are doing so!) so the good folks at Google, share some information with us the very few and rare specie that are interested in usability and user experience in the middle east, and please GIVE US LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS FOR LEBANON ASAP TOO (I am willing to fill the data for free)

“Alfa Telecom” (managed by Orascom) have different payment options for post paid phones, which is totally great: automatic withdrawal from bank, paying at accredited points, bill collectors passing by…

Now I’ve been afraid to have the automatic withdrawal from bank for the sole reason that I can name 8 persons who had trouble with automatic withdrawal from the bank (in other words, being ripped off and having more money withdrawn) so I decided to go with the bill collectors “jibayat”.

It was one of the biggest mistakes I EVER made.  Here’s the deal, you have to call them up to designate an address where they pass by monthly to collect the money. Simple right? well not in my case. I called up the first month, asked the lady who answered the phone to write down my address so they can collect the money.

Jibayat Lady : yiiiiiiiiyyyy the bill collector already passed by that region, next month for sure he’ll pass by you

Me: el 7al? (the solution?)

Jibayat Lady: pay it at Alfa and next month the guy will pass by

Me: Ok, thank you

Next month…

Me:  Hello, I am calling concerning my bill…

Jibayat Lady: yes mOOsieur, what’s your number and address

Me: xxxxx blah blah yada yada

Jibayat Lady: ok the guy will pass by in 5 minutes to collect…

Me: ummm I am sorry I am at work, I work! I don’t have a money tree to pay Alfa’s over expensive bills, change the address and let him pass by XX

Jibayat Lady: yiiiiiiiy we don’t cover that region, listen, go pay it at Alfa and next month the guy will pass by khalas I have your address

Me: are you suuuuuuuuuuurrrrrreee?? it takes him 2 minutes to collect the money from where I am

Jibayat Lady: khalas khalas (don’t worry don’t worry) next month, I have the address.

Me:  *sigh* oook

Next month…

Me: Bonjooooouuuuuurrrrr, the bill, the effin’ bill, I am begging you to collect the money, where is the guy?

Jibayat Lady: Hold on let me call him and get back to you.

Me: ok.

15 minutes later…

Jibayat Lady: he’s passing by now.

Me: ok, thank you!

3 days later

Me: Good morning, where’s the DUDE?

Jibayat Lady: he passed by and no one was home.

Me: are you dead sure that he passed by? cuz there is ALWAYS someone at home?

Jibayat Lady: walaw mOOsieur?! he definitely passed by.

Me: solution?

Jibayat Lady: Call me tomorrow.

Me: ooook.

Next morning…

Me: eeeeh I am at home, is he passing by today?

Jibayat Lady: no the guy who collects your region won’t pass by today, he finished the region.

Me: He didn’t finish if he didn’t collect my bill! so listen, I am begging you to pass by and collect the money, you can pick it up from X, Y or Z, I am leaving X in 15 minutes, please tell me ASAP when/where he will pass by.

Jibayat Lady: ok mOOsieur, I’ll call you in 5 minutes and let you know.

Me: I am leaving X in 15 minutes, so hurry!

4 hours later…

Jibayat Lady: bonjour mOOsieur, he’s passing by X now.

Me: I told you 4 hours ago that I am leaving in 15 minutes.

Jibayat Lady: yiiiiiiiiiy let me put you through to him and talk with him guys and you can coordinate.

Bill collector guy thing…: eh monsieur, I passed by the last time, no one was home.

Me: there is no way, maybe you have the wrong address!

Bill collector guy thing…: no walaw, you live at xyz 123 def, A floor.

Me: it’s floor Y! floor Y!

Bill collector guy thing…: she gave me the wrong address…

Jibayat Lady: (3 way conference) yiiiiiiiy sorry mOOsieur.

Me: El 7al? (the solution?)

Bill collector guy thing…: I’ll pass by on Friday for sure.

Me: I have to pay before Saturday…

Bill collector guy thing…: don’t worry.

Me: errrmmm ok.

Friday comes and goes…no Jibayat…Saturday morning:

*tweeleeleep tweeleeleep tweeleeleep* (intercom tone)

Me: yes?

Guy: Jibayat monsieur.

Me: come up *evil grin on my face*

The guy came up, he was EXTREMELY polite, I just wanted to go all Bruce Banner on him, he was the politest guy I ever met, my anger went away. I told him I am sorry but I already paid my bill and from now on I won’t be using Jibayat’s service anymore…

Jibayat, you STINK! I am not gonna leave money at gazillion places to check where you can pick the money and when! my money, my bill, I decide where you collect the bloody thing!

the bill collector guy thing is nice though…

Anyways, I ran a few tests on several search engines, Araby, Ayna, Bing, Google, Yahoo/Maktoob. I came to a small conclusion;

Araby: it should be an all exclusive entertainment search engine if it wants to survive. Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for Araby. And it’s time to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Enlarge your video/image/audio index or Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Some usability issues.

Ayna: it should be a an all exclusive local search engine if it wants to survive.Other than that it has no chance. A full on search engine was not made for it. And it needs to start using a proper engine with a proper algorithm. Better maps are needed ASAP or else Google will swallow the rest of what’s left of it. Major usability issues.

Bing: retire please (or start building proper options for the search engine, results wise it is O K)

Google: Usability, results, options, diversity, overall, still the king with no real threat at all (yet?). Downside, they have to plug the map/local search, saw a few shy attempts, they have to unleash all the data they are getting for FREE from US the USERS!

Yahoo/Maktoob: Considering it’s relatively new in the Arabic market, it is O K, results are O K, but lacks basic functionality just like Bing. Shape up fast or die. (Even though it’s the default search engine on Maktoob, it won’t help much, we saw the same failed attempt by Araby…)

Now the comparison chart, it’s not that extensive, but it gives you a pretty good idea of the major differences between the search engines. All answers marked NO didn’t work at the time of the writing of this post (Feb 8th, 2010) if it is working please take a screen-shot and get in contact so I can update.

The search term means “The Elements of Social Architecture” I wanted to try something “different” they all got the good results except Ayna, the first two results were totally irrelevant.

. Araby Ayna Bing Google Yahoo/Maktoob . Search Term: عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية 3,239 Results 138 Results 4,050 Results 223,000 Results 26,700 Results . Results (1st) A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية عمارة – ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية A List Apart النسخة العربية : عناصر المعمارية الاجتماعية . Speed in seconds N/A 0.9154 N/A 0.9 0.26 . Cached No No Yes Yes No . Boolean searching Yes No Yes Yes Yes . Related Search Yes No No Yes No . Different Views No No No Yes (Related searches Wonder wheel Timeline) No . Search in results No No No Yes No . Limit by date No (advanced is down) Yes (limited though) No Yes (extensive) Yes (limited though) . Collections to search Web Audio Dictionary Songs Islam Forums Celebrities Web Images Video News Dictionary Blog Local Religion Web Web Images Videos News Blogs Updates Books Forums Social Web . Translate pages/sites No No No Yes No . Search in Results No No No Yes No . Advanced Results Sorting/Clustering No No No Yes No

Anyways I decided to go “smart” a bit and search for:

• “Weather Cairo/ احوال الطقس في القاهرة”. All engines failed (note that in English it works perfectly on Google and Bing)
• “Cafe in Dubai/مقهى في دبي “. All engines failed (again in English it shows Google maps with Local Business Results, I was expecting Ayna to show some results since they have maps in Arabic and boast about it)

The only “unusable” features that Araby and Ayna have is the Arabic keyboard (note the “unusable”) Google added transliteration service in their lab but it’s not as good as Yamli’s (it ROCKS!) and not available on the search engine directly…yet.

Anyways here are few screen-shots

The audience will be folks (tweeple!), most are bloggers, all are internet savvy, but the vast majority is not familiar with user experience design.

I decided to take an ascending approach, just to familiarize everyone with UX and explain that UX is omnipresent and affects our daily lives…

What’s better than ketchup to start with (makes anything yummier, just like Tabasco sauce!)

Lemme have it! why these bottles are sorted that way? it’s easy. Comments are open!

click for a larger image.

I thought it would be cool to compare both side to side, here’s what I got (click to enlarge)

I hate to say this, but this is a MAJOR fail. In the transliteration domain, Yamli is still king!

The folks over at Ajnad, you need to work this out ASAP.

Competition is always healthy. If any of you used Anjad, I would like to hear your thoughts (websites should adapt to our behavior, I am not using IE just because someone didn’t do his homework to make sure that their website is accessible on any browser…sorry!)

Links:

• Ajnad
• Yamli

Personally, I believe that it should go through a simple cycle, “functional, fast, pretty” It is functional (technically speaking); fast (again, technically speaking) but not pretty (usability/ux wise)

The dominant tool on souq.com is the search (you have two types of shoppers, the searchers and the browsers) the kind of feature that makes the ux geek in me smile!

I always love a dominant search box in a website like souq, BUT, here’s the deal:

Take a good look at it, you have on the far left “all categories, Stores, Motors, Property” I clicked on “Stores” thinking that the search bar will change and will only search the stores. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. it’s just a link to the stores! Same deal with “property” BUT (a good but!) the “Motors” link changes the layout, search, pretty much everything and searches only in “Motors” (with sub categories such as boats/cars…) consistency folks, consistency, the tiny search bar on the left is not enough to change, let the main search change!

Anyway, I thought that maybe “All categories” refers to where the search is done (since they have a menu right under it and a second search bar too…wait! a second search bar? errrmmm oooook)

The categories, again, is just a replica of the same functionality of the left menu, it does nothing to the search, changes nothing. It reminds me of Ebay, double menu, double search, only the small left sided search changes when you click “stores/properties” Remove the branding from both sites, you have the same interface and layout. It may be working and saving “design” time, but cloning is never a good solution, plus who said that ebay’s interface is perfect? Souq cleaned up the header, it’s “neat” now, kudos for that !

Before

After

The overall landing page is less cluttered now, clean. It still needs a bit of work, the flash component doesn’t add anything valuable to the website, it’s just “cute”. A “hot deal” or featured product carousel would’ve been better for the seller and buyer alike.

again, it’s just cute and non comprehensive.

Nothing changed in the flow nor the checkout process which is a shame.

Overall, it’s better than before, but still, the “essence” is missing, search behavior is still the same…fingers crossed, and hopefully we do see a change in the flow.

Before signing off, I tweeted a few weeks before the whole Yahoo/Maktoob about the acquisition, here’s another one, souq.com is hitting the Egyptian market soon and hopefully we will see the service in Lebanon.

Links

• Souq.com
• Maktoob Yahoo

When you notify the user that he’s not “logged in” you have to provide him/her/it/so-so with a link or a way to actually sign in to use your services.

You are still in “beta”, you have a nice service going on there, so I’ll cut you some slack.

For the rest of you, check it out Tweepi, a Twitter manager made in the MENA.