Kind Acts

I have experienced three kind acts in past two days! First, a total stranger offers me a ride to a train station when I was stuck bad. Today, I forgot my phone in a cab and the driver was kind enough to return when I called.

These simple acts of kindness are very touching. Most people, I think, will not hesitate to help out another person when needed. We need to recognize and appreciate this natural human tendency, a bit more often.

Enterprise culture and the UI

I think in today's times its a given that we as designers take cultural factors into account while designing. The term 'culture' is actually quite bothersome to me, because it seems really difficult to pin point the exact characteristics that make up this 'culture'.

Of course answers can be found about the culture of a people with anthropological studies, looking up some history etc. Poets, writers, film makers and other media all contribute toward shaping and 'preserving' a culture. Blogs like the this one (I am co-authoring and hence promoting :D) are the also examples of artifacts that help you understand culture.

So the term 'culture' is ambiguous I think because there's no one direct way of understanding or defining it. Now think about the term 'work culture' or 'enterprise culture'. How hard is that to grasp? Will understanding it actually help in designing better UI's for enterprise software? What sources could I tap into if I need to understand this? Who are the gate keepers of the 'enterprise culture'?