[sugar] FW: Touchpad XO

[Mary Lou Jepsen]

The idea was simply to have labels, and I agree about the ambiguity - and it
has been pointed out that there are 4 possible x's and 4 possible o's on the
laptop.  

Unlabeled right and left hand mouse buttons are ambiguous.  Many don't know
right from left (I'm one of those).  

What are better labels?  It may be too late for B3 - but please suggest
something that's easy to convey to the kid: simply which mouse button to
press to get something to happen. 

- Mary Lou



-----Original Message-----
From: Eben Eliason [mailto:eben.eliason at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 1:36 PM
To: mlj at laptop.org; Walter Bender; Takaaki Okada; Christian Marc Schmidt;
Sugar List
Cc: ping at zesty.ca; jg at laptop.org
Subject: Re: FW: Touchpad XO

> FYI. we are adding this.

While I really like the idea of labeling these buttons to prevent
ambiguity, myself and the Pentagram folks who have spent much time
with the UI feel that overloading the idea of the X button in
particular might not be a wise choice.

We already have an 'X' icon on the keyboard where the esc key sits.
Additionally, the interface has been set up such that 'check' and 'X'
icons appear in 'OK' and 'cancel' buttons respectively, and in other
places where positive and negative confirmation is needed as well.
Putting an 'X' icon on the left mouse button could lead to its
interpretation as the 'cancel' button, when in fact it is the primary
button and the one that would be used to click on the confirming
'check' button.

Though I like the idea of using the X and O - since the machine is an
XO, after all - I think that the confusion this could cause is a
bigger issue than cute button labels.  I don't propose to have a
better solution at present, but I do want to spur discussion about
possible solutions to this dilemma.  Perhaps we can find better icons
for the buttons, or perhaps we can find other solutions within the UI,
but I think leaving the hardware and software at odds will only
confuse matters.

I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.  Thanks!

- Eben