[IAEP] For Sugar Everywhere, Google-ize!

[C. Scott Ananian]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Gary Martin <garycmartin at googlemail.com>wrote:

> On 16 Feb 2011, at 20:35, "C. Scott Ananian" <cscott at cscott.net> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 3:26 PM, Christian Bryant <<christianabryant at linux.com>
> christianabryant at linux.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm curious, is there a comprehensive requirements and/or design
>> document for Sugar against which the recommendation is measured?  I'd
>> be curious to see a "gap analysis" that supports the argument to not
>> use Python.  If nothing else, I'd vote for a solid wiki page that can
>> properly frame the idea, and the pros and cons.
>>
>
> I would also be interested in seeing an thorough experience report from
> someone who has attempted to use Sugar on a touchscreen device.  We already
> know that several major features (such as the frame and hover menus) fail
> completely.
>
>
> FWIW neither of those are particularly challenging design cases. The frame
> could be triggered by a hardware button, and the 'touch & hold' interaction
> will work just great for the hover menu case.
>

This is an encouraging report.  "Touch and hold" isn't discoverable, though
(you end up clicking on the button when all you wanted to do was see the
drop down) and in general sugar uses a lot of hover interaction to help kids
find what the active parts of the UI are.  This doesn't work on
touchscreens.

Also, integration of the keyboard is a huge open question.  As detailed at:
   http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Onscreen_Keyboard
"One major drawback of an on-screen keyboard is that in its current design,
it blocks out a part of the Sugar UI. There's no immediate answer on how to
handle this problem."

Activities would need to be resized to accommodate the keyboard, at the very
least.

I think there's a big difference between "I tried it, and it sorta worked"
and "I tried it, and it was a great experience".  Is it realistic to think
that Sugar can be a "great experience" on a touch device with only minor
tweaks here and there?  Or are we going to miss out on the exhilarating
"direct interaction" feeling possible with a tablet and just produce a
device that will frustrate and confuse kids?
  --scott

-- 
                         ( http://cscott.net/ )
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