Ridhwan Rahim

Eye Infection

Duan — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:49:38 +0000

Had a horrible conjunctivitis that lasted for over a month.
During this period, I wore my old spectacles in public. That was a strange period where I look like a baller nerd.
Since I switch to contact lenses, I have been dependant on them whenever i go out.
One thing that interest me during the drama of the infection was reading other people who had a similar infection and their experience of it.
It made me more prepared and have a overall better experience and i would like to reciprocate my story. Hopefully someone, somewhere on earth or jupiter will find this useful.

About 10pm, as i walk passed my sister, she told me my eye was red but i couldn't feel any pain. I immediately looked it up on a mirror and removed it. After that I used my phone to watch videos. Before every video plays, there will be this blank bright white screen that causes a sharp glare and i have to immediately close my eyes. The pain from the glare would last for about 30seconds and then i could open my eyes. The next day, it became hard to read. My vision kept going out of focus. It was seeing spoltches of color and i had to blink a few times to see things clearly. Besides that, my eye was tearing up. I had running nose before but never had a running eye. That was when i found out it was not normal and wanted to seek help from a proffesional. So i went to consult a general practitioner would treated me with anti-biotic eye drops. 2 weeks passed and the condition was the same. So i went back to the doctor. They didn't have the equipment nor an eye specialist. They referred me to A&E. In A&E, the specialist was very friendly and asked me questions to find more about the condition. I remember vaguely some of the questions were: When did it start happening? Did you travel within the past month? Contact lens wearer? What medication were you previously on? How's your vision?


He was asking a whole bunch questions, but he was not telling me what was wrong.

I was adviced to wash my hands often, avoid rubbing the eyes and don't share towels.

i was also to dispose previous lenses and solution and it may have been the cause.

I came out of the office not knowing what was wrong with my eye.

I was prescribed another type of anti-biotic and an eye ointment.

At the pharmacy, i didn't know how to put on the eye ointment so i asked the pharmacies who gave me unclear instructions.

Went back home and search and landed up a youtube video on "how to put on an eye ointment".

I found that really useful. So i went to do the exact same thing.

After putting on the ointment, my eye condition was better, just slightly red.

I was suppose to have a follow-up appointment a week after.

Appointment at SNEC a week after, they examined my eye and saw some recovery.

They said that it might be complicated because i am a contact lens wearer.

The specialist started me on optodexine which was a steroid eye drops.

He told me the potential risk and implications that might occur with using steroids.

Because there might be side-effect such as eye pressure which is quite a rare case, i was put under observation and had to come for a weekly check-up

After about 2 weeks, my eye was completely back to normal.

Few days after, it came back now on the other eye.

I waited a few days before going to the doctor.

There were short sharp pain happening every 15minutes following by tears.

It went on like this for 3 days after the visit to the doctor.

A week later visited the doctor, my eye felt better, no pain, just visible red nerves on the cornea.

The specialist checked on my eye and spent about 10mins just writing away on my file.

During that period of time i was left sitting down with nothing to do. I felt bored and helpless

The specialist then stood up and walked away to what seems like the cheif doctor's office and seeked help.

They had a conversation for a few minutes and then i got re-examined by the cheif doctor.

He said there were scars on my cornea.

Naturally it will dissapear overtime but i could seek treatment

I choose to get treatment and he started me on FML(another steroids) and cravit(anti-biotic).

Everything went well from there. In the next appointment, doctor told me there was one spot in my cornea and that I could reduce my intake of both FML and cravit by 1 each week and eventually stop.

Everything seems better now, my eyes feel much fresher than ever before probably due to the constant lubrication and I've been more diligent when it comes to contact lens care. Got an app on my droid to get keep track of when my contact lens is due.

My next appointment is 4months later. Till then, practise good hygiene often and try not to wear contact lenses for an extended hours.(I'm guilty of it alot)



December Update!
Duan — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:24:55 +0000
It’s December. So why not take a break from all the work/school and start doing something unmeaningful. It’s the holiday season anyways.

Just a tidbit of how you can do with post-its other than just for brainstorming and ideation.
I have been reading up on UX articles and books on prototyping. Updated the template on the site to make it responsive by using zurb’s foundation framework. Now you can view this blog on your tablet and mobile and it would look good either way.



Library Is For Everyone
Duan — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:19:46 +0000
Yet another Balsamiq Mockup. I think i’m getting addicted to it.

This time a web user interfaces as well as information architecture.

Scroll all the way down to find out my thoughts behind the design



Project Brief:

With the RP Library as your research space, devise a strategy to prepare the Library for the Internet Search Generation.
Considerations

- Users (RP students and staff)

- Findability of a book

- Experience of the user

- How a library in the near future be like?
With those considerations we did a task-flow of a typical user with certain conditions.

The user already knows the title and the author of the book.

Objective: Find the book and loan it.

So one of my team mates went on trying to use the current website

Here are some pictures in navigational order






Thoughts Behind the Design

A library is used by people of all ages. *Almost Everyone*

The purpose of a library is to allow the public to get access to books for educational purposes

As time pass, the library has evolved to something more than just books.

A communal place to play,study and grow as a person.

Lots of events & activities happen in the library.

Yet, finding books is not is still difficult.
When I see the word catalogue, i thought of a wide array of different types of books. (Like those IKEA catalogues)

To my dismay it was a search function.

That limits the online library to a basic/advanced search.

Which meant that the user have to know exactly what they are looking else the search wouldn’t work.
For my design of the online library portal, I went away from the search as a primary function and went to the findability portion of the library

Having a scenario where the user wants to find books relating a certain topic, example: Fashion
In a typical library, a user will have to go to a specific location/section of a shelf with all the books about fashion(& more)

This allows the users to take their time to look through the shelf and find books that interest them. The user would pull out the book from the shelf to find out more about the book
What this interface does is to translate the experience to accommodate both new and existing users to the site as well as to give them more choices in finding relevant books. The left sidebar uses an ambiguous organization pattern as it is arrange by the genre of the book. Given the amount of books available in the library, the sidebar would use a shallow & deep information architecture which means there will be alot of sub-categories, under design, there could be sketching,interior, living spaces, industrial, etc. That would be there would be a faceted search that will allow the uses to narrow down the books to a limited option based on certain conditions set by the user.
The users will spend more time on the website trying to find books in a specific topic given the wide variety of books. If that book is loaned out, the user can always reserve or loan out a book that is of similar context. When the user clicks on the book, it will have a side-pop that describes book as well as related books. This replicates the action when the user takes out the book from the shelf. If they do not want to loan the book yet, they can close the pop-up.(put it back on the shelf). Key features are that it only takes a few minutes for each user to learn how to use the interface and then they are free to explore the site and given unlimited paths for them to choose. Education last a lifetime and everyone is constantly learning yound or old.



Notice Board Application
Duan — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:07:53 +0000
Did a quick & simple mock-up of a  mobile application with Balsamiq Mockups
 


Project Brief:

 The Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) would like a notice board for its Ability Centre.

The information on this notice board must be accessible by all its members.
Some considerations
- Can be used by a majority and various types of disabilities

- Be sensitive towards the user

- Different types of noticeboards
Because of the lack of time, we couldn’t go to the site itself so we had to made some assumptions based preconception of what we know as well as do some research on the website. This application was design based on if I were disabled, what would my preferred way to receive notices would be.
If I was paralysed from my waist down, I still have my hands healthy and functioning. However, I would not like move around as much as possible even when seated in my wheelchair because it would be difficult not being as mobile. I would then not likely wheel myself over to a noticeboard in order for me to get updated on the latest happenings around because it would be a hassle and would required alot of effort.
What this application does is to bring the noticeboard straight to me at comfort of my hand. Connecting me with latest news on the main homepage as well as a discussion place for me to connect with my peers. It also allows me to save articles in order for me to read it later.



Sketch-A-Day
Duan — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:18:46 +0000
Inspired by Spencer Nugent of ID Sketching, David Woon decided to self-initiate a “Sketch-A-Day” Project. 
David decided that it was time to refine his sketching skills, and ever since embarking on his Sketch-A-Day journey, he has gained confidence in sketching with a pen instead of a pencil.
Here are his sketches:













Sketching is a very effective in communicating form and function.

If you are a designer and you can’t draw to save your life, you’d better start your very own “Sketch-A-Day”.



Is google a stalker?
Duan — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:29:56 +0000


I was trying to find a firefox plugin and so i googled for “firefox plugins” and google reports to me on how many times i have previously visited the that site from the search.
Also notice the cached link beside the url.

Google’s definition of cache:



Every single web page of virtually any indexed website is being archived by google.

So basically you could time travel back in to past and probably dig up some dirty little secrets in the past that no longer exist in the present future.

Well you could prevent search engines from crawling to your site but that prevents you from getting visitors from search engines.
The internet is not as safe as you might think.



New instrument & Me
Duan — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:35:59 +0000
Haven’t made a post for quite some time so I thought I’d updates you on what i have been up to lately.

December will be a very busy month for me due to my involvements in a number of projects.

So to entertain my readers, I have a cool video to show you.

The video features a student in college who made an instrument out of PVC pipes.

He plays a variation of song ranging Lady Gaga all the way Ozzy.

Not to mention the Mario Brothers Theme Song.

How can anyone go wrong with that!

Enjoy!~ Oh yeah and Happy Holidays.




Koopon. A replacement on print advertisement?
Duan — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:24:40 +0000
I was browsing the interwebs and came across a rather interesting advertisement.

http://www.koopon.asia/

The concept was sheer genius.

Tackling on the main problem which print advertising had was had never worked. (As least there is no way of measuring it)

It develop a discount terminal to address the problem and use readily available technology to provide a smooth portal between service and it’s users.

Advertisers stand to gain alot from this because it leads the audience to them instead of using force.

I’m sure everyday you see people giving out flyers randomly to whom they think is their target audience but they actuality, they have no interest at all.

Therefore these flyers either become litter to the environment or disposed of at the nearest litter bin

Enough said, check the video to know more. (The video could have been more entertaining thou)

They are also giving away an iPad to a lucky person who registered with them so why not check them out

http://www.koopon.asia/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9lIE6WC2gA