<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> Hi All...<div> </div><div>See comment/question below....</div><div> </div><div>Caryl > From: wad@laptop.org > Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 17:27:12 -0400 > To: cscott@cscott.net > CC: marketing@lists.sugarlabs.org; tomeu@sugarlabs.org; iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org; rafael@sugarlabs.org > Subject: Re: [IAEP] [Marketing] OLPC rules out Windows for XO-3 > > > After spending some time with touch based devices, > I have to agree with Scott. Yes, you can "bolt on" > support for single touch to many activities, but doing > a good job of supporting multitouch is typically a complete > UI redesign. > > We are trying to get an accelerometer into the design > as well as touch, better supporting these new UIs.</div><div> </div><div> An accelerometer huh?  Does this mean XO-3 users will be able to participate in this international "Quake Catcher Network"?  That would be very neat! (Said "wearing my retired-science-educator-hat") <a href="http://scienceforcitizens.net/project/239/">http://scienceforcitizens.net/project/239/</a> </div><div> </div><div> > > On Jun 3, 2010, at 1:45 PM, C. Scott Ananian wrote: > > > I strongly encourage the Sugar team to consider rethinking the Sugar > > UI from the ground up for touch. The "simple" port is likely to yield > > a very unsatisfactory experience; "fat fingers" are just not precise > > pointing devices, and a lot of gestures which seem intuitive for a > > mouse don't really work for touch. In the same vein, there are many > > finger gestures which are intuitive which aren't being exploited in > > the mouse-based UI. And, of course, the whole "pop up a keyboard" to > > type thing is weird now; keyboard shortcuts and special "home", "view > > source", etc, keys don't work as well. Everything needs a place on > > screen. > > > > My suggestion would be to first convene a "ground up rethink" of what > > a touch-based Sugar could be. Then, realizing that the best is the > > enemy of the good and the realistic limits on Sugar development, draw > > up a "from here to there" plan concentrating on grabbing the > > lowest-hanging fruit first (perhaps a redesign of the home screen, or > > rethinking palette menus, or whatever) and embarking on an incremental > > strategy to adapt. > > > > Software engineers like to think in terms of generalities, and "what > > can we do that's not too hard", but I'm suggesting that's *not* the > > most fruitful way to approach adaptation to touch. The engineering > > thinking should be *second*. Design and user experience should be > > first. Every designer should probably be required to have spent > > serious time with an iPhone or iPad or touchscreen phone (preferably > > from a variety of different touch-based OSes) to be sure we're not > > just mapping mouse onto touch. Ideally, take some time to give an > > iPad to a 3-6 yr old and watch and learn. The result should be a > > *book*, which describes the ideal UI. That will be the long term > > (think, next decade!) goals for Sugar. > > > > I'd personally like to see the Sugar team come up with bold ideas that > > go *beyond* what we're seeing in Android and iPhone OS; in particular, > > how to best enable *content creation*. We've always said we'd like to > > see a movie editing application in Sugar. Concentrating on what > > Record or Etoys or TurtleArt might look like with a touch-based UI > > would be bold thinking that would radically advance Sugar's mission. > > What does it mean to have the entire environment written in Python, if > > Python is clumsy and hard to use with a touch-based interface? Maybe > > the direct-manipulation model of Etoys is a more natural fit? What > > does "view source" mean in a touch-enabled world? > > > > I look forward to exciting times and crazy great ideas! > > Yep! > > Cheers, > wad > > --scott > > > > -- > > ( http://cscott.net/ ) > > _______________________________________________ > > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep > > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep </div> </body> </html>