[IAEP] ASLO Suggestion

[James Simmons]

The new style sheet for ASLO reminds me that something has bugged me 
about the design of the site from the beginning.  The site does not do a 
good job of showing just how much is available.  When you click on a 
category you see entries for three or four Activities, seemingly picked 
at random, and no indication that these Activities are not the only ones 
available in the category.  Yes, there is a link to show everything in 
the category.  It's not that you can't find anything if you really want 
to.  It's that the site doesn't do a good job of selling what it has.

What I would suggest is to put totals for each category in a prominent 
place on the page.  When you first come into the site and no category is 
selected you should see something like "500 Great Activities 
Available!"  Choose a category like Documents and the line would read 
"10 Activities In This Category."

The other thing that has bugged me is the Recommended Activities.  We 
need to put more thought into what gets recommended.  Currently one of 
the Activities that is recommended is Read.  Now an XO owner or SoaS 
user already has Read, so why recommend it?  Is there some reason I 
should remove the Read I already have and install this one?

Recommended Activities should promote Sugar.  They should meet the 
following criteria:

1).  Fairly robust.
2).  Not included by default with anything.
3).  Should do something interesting.  Think of the iPhone commercials 
that show all the apps that are available.  Why not recommend something 
like Food Force or Story Builder?

I also question the category GCompris.  I understand these Activities 
are related to each other, but the relationship would not be meaningful 
to a teacher or a student.

A little salesmanship could go a long way in making this site better.

James Simmons