Journalism of Courage
When he read an announcement of a competition to design a website for the traffic police department,Nirzar Pangarkar made a mental note to participate in it. But I took it seriously only at the very end and worked for about 15-20 days on my design, says this ace web-designer,who also has his own firm RealCubes. The competition was held by Pune Traffic Police along with Janwani (MCCIA). Fifteen designs were shortlisted in the first cut,and five in the second. Pangarkar’s design was shortlisted and put on Facebook along with the other four for a voting procedure. The votes accounted for 20 per cent of the total marks given by judges. Pangarkar’s made the cut and his design was announced as the best on January 26.
I never expected that the competition would get such an overwhelming response from working professionals. The judges narrowed down the entries and picked some really well-thought out ones, he says. Ask him what sets his design apart from the others and he muses,I think the subtle look of my design won me this prize. The design was meant to be user-friendly considering the target audience,which will be citizens of all ages. Plus,I incorporated different ideas and content structure into it.
Pangarkar started working when he was 18 years old. I think my experience gave me an edge over others. I knew what the judges were looking for, says this young entrepreneur,who is also doing his Bachelor of Computer Science at Fergusson College.
While the website design is being turned into a full-fledged working site,Pangarkar is constantly giving his design inputs. The development schedule and timelines are set,so the city will see its launch really soon, he says.
He more than willingly gives us a sneak peak into what the site will look like. See,the whole purpose of a Pune Traffic Police website is interactivity with the citizens. There are going to be a lot of dynamic features like live traffic view,camera views,SMS updates and so on. We will launch new features periodically, he says. The site will have its own maintenance staff and will be very easy to use. Even those who don’t have much knowledge about technology will be able to browse through the site, he adds.
According to this young citizen of the city,such a website is a feasible attempt at solving some major traffic problems. The main goal of this project is to solve traffic issue in Pune. Citizens will definitely use this service because of its features. The Facebook initiative taken by the Pune Traffic Police is already working on most levels,so I am sure this website will click too, he says.
Pangarkar has already designed over 60 websites for organisations in and around Pune. Still,he modestly says,I am looking forward to getting some more experience in this field. My ultimate goal is to run my own web service with a gigantic user base.
