[Sugar-devel] Journal feature request--more data in main display

[Gary C Martin]

On 4 Jul 2009, at 10:08, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 20:29, James Zaki<james.zaki at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Perhaps this is a late reply, (I am yet to read the last 6 or so  
>> digests of
>> to 20+ that were in my inbox)
>> But I am always sensitive of little incremental additions that seem  
>> like it
>> would be useful.
>
> Totally agreed. We had to start with something before Sugar was in the
> hands of children, but now that it's widely used, we should avoid
> changing whole parts of it without user feedback.
>
>> I always try to think about the first time I used sugar. In  
>> particular, what
>> helped by being very simple. We see sugar evolving, and perhaps  
>> forget what
>> it was like that first time. Perhaps we should harass some friends  
>> and
>> families' kids who've not seen it, and get their feedback.
>
> SoaS is making very easy to start pilots anywhere, so I trust
> developers are going to have very good feedback in a short time. Simon
> is already using SoaS with kids in Berlin, for example.
>
>> If a child new to the sugar interface (XO or otherwise) feels  
>> bombarded with
>> options, it could make things harder.
>> Just my two cents I always voice on this.
>
> Yeah, we have had already feedback about the benefits of Sugar's
> "clarity". We shouldn't let those people down by indulging ourselves
> in featuritis.
>
> By this I don't mean that we should limit ourselves in improving
> Sugar, we know that there's a ton of stuff to improve and new features
> to implement, but if we try hard we are going to find ways to add
> those features without cluttering the UI.
>
> I'm very happy to read these recent threads because we are making
> enormous progress in devising how to expose powerful new features
> without raising the bar for new users.

+1 for what Tomeu said :-)

I see the mock-up work currently under way as a technique to get  
closer, visually, to such issues before too much developer energy is  
spent on them. Whatever items are realistic, agreed, and then  
implemented, will still need user testing – in the hands of some of  
our target users – and likely reworked some more.

The expectation is not to get the perfect design (there never will be  
such a thing), but to be better than the previous design/ 
implementation by an amount worth the cost to get there (understanding  
better will be a bit fuzzy to define).

Regards
--Gary

P.S. Should have another round of updates to the mock-ups later today.