[Sugar-devel] modified Home View

[Walter Bender]

On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 12:32 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 10:48 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Christian Marc Schmidt
>> <christianmarc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Comments inline...
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:58 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 4:51 PM, Christian Marc Schmidt
>>>> <christianmarc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > Hi Gary--thanks for the interesting mockup! My feedback:
>>>> > The spiral is interesting and worth exploring. But I would continue to
>>>> > focus
>>>> > the view on a single organizational system, whether ring, spiral,
>>>> > freeform,
>>>> > list, etc. This preserves the integrity and extensibility of the UI
>>>> > views
>>>> > metaphor, and doesn't overload the screen. Because the iconographic
>>>> > language
>>>> > is already very abstract and pared down, we need to make sure that the
>>>> > interaction paradigm is clear and focused.
>>>> > Based on your rendering I think that the spiral in itself is definitely
>>>> > worth exploring further, and I like Walter's idea that it could start as
>>>> > a
>>>> > ring and grow into a spiral when more activities are added. That seems
>>>> > like
>>>> > an elegant and scalable solution. Favoriting could happen in the
>>>> > Journal, or
>>>> > we could opt to always display all activities--either seems like a
>>>> > potentially workable solution...
>>>> > We should also come back to the resume/start new proposal and figure out
>>>> > if
>>>> > we want to adopt any of the proposals.
>>>> >
>>>> > Christian
>>>> > On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 4:38 PM, Gary Martin <garycmartin at googlemail.com>
>>>> > wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> On 8 Aug 2010, at 14:54, Gary Martin wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> > On 8 Aug 2010, at 13:42, Hilaire Fernandes
>>>> >> > <hilaire.fernandes at gmail.com>
>>>> >> > wrote:
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> >> Le 08/08/2010 13:59, Walter Bender a écrit :
>>>> >> >>> See
>>>> >> >>>
>>>> >> >>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description
>>>> >> >>> for the latest screen shots. I made some changes to the way I
>>>> >> >>> generate
>>>> >> >>> the Spiral -- I start from the outside rather than the inside to
>>>> >> >>> minimize the visual disruption between the Ring and the Spiral. I
>>>> >> >>> don't ever shrink the icon size in the Ring, but do so in the
>>>> >> >>> Spiral
>>>> >> >>> once the minimum radius is reached. Perhaps most controversial, I
>>>> >> >>> introduce an intermediate icon size between standard and small
>>>> >> >>> along
>>>> >> >>> the way.
>>>> >> >>>
>>>> >> >>> Gary: I'll post a new patch to the ticket momentarily.
>>>> >> >>> (http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/ticket/2143)
>>>> >> >>>
>>>> >> >>> Comments/suggestions?
>>>> >> >>
>>>> >> >> Don't you need a way to recreate a taxonomy when the numbers of
>>>> >> >> activities grows?
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> > Search (ghost out non matches, as per neighbourhood view design) in
>>>> >> > the
>>>> >> > fav. view would seem an ideal next step here when dealing with many
>>>> >> > activities. Allowing drag and drop that would trigger a switch from a
>>>> >> > fixed
>>>> >> > layout pattern to random mode (with the layout initially intact),
>>>> >> > and/or
>>>> >> > reordering the sequence by drag'n'drop insertions would allow some
>>>> >> > flexibility.
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> > Ideally icons would be either snapped to the shape (dragging N units
>>>> >> > close to a snapped icon or the XO) or freeform positioned (by
>>>> >> > dragging N
>>>> >> > units away from their/a set position). With different icons in either
>>>> >> > state
>>>> >> > for a single view (I.e. a spiral with a few frequent icons dragged
>>>> >> > out into
>>>> >> > empty space). The current random view could then go away (as each
>>>> >> > view could
>>>> >> > be as random or not as desired).
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Just as a follow up to my above comment, attached is a quick home view
>>>> >> vector mockup. It assumes the list view is gone, with Journal stars
>>>> >> being
>>>> >> used to indicate (arbitrary entry) home favourites. It shows a 'snap to
>>>> >> spiral' pattern, with several random clusters of activities/objects
>>>> >> previously dragged out of the pattern by the user. Coloured icons would
>>>> >> resume specific activity id objects, grey icons would be used to launch
>>>> >> new
>>>> >> instances (with the usual resume drop down palette of N most recent
>>>> >> activities of that type).
>>>> >>
>>>> >> The spiral would re-flow once an icon is dragged out and dropped (in
>>>> >> empty
>>>> >> space), or dragged in and dropped (on an already snapped icon). If all
>>>> >> icons
>>>> >> were dragged out you would have what would look like the random layout,
>>>> >> dragging an icon back onto the central XO would start reflowing a
>>>> >> snapped
>>>> >> pattern design again, as would adding new activity favourites.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Again, just a future possible approach. Definitely no need to try and
>>>> >> land
>>>> >> something like this all in one go.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> --Gary
>>>> >>
>>>> >> > But Walters spirals, without any of the above type extras, is still a
>>>> >> > huge improvement for those that want to fav many activities. I'm
>>>> >> > already
>>>> >> > hard-pressed to find new activities to fill up the view for testing,
>>>> >> > really
>>>> >> > scrapping the barrel.
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> > For those of you involved in deployments — roughly how many
>>>> >> > activities
>>>> >> > do you think kids/teachers currently commonly have?
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> >> For example grouping related activities in spiral
>>>> >> >> segments and reinforcing this with common icon color scheme in these
>>>> >> >> segments.
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> > -1 No to a color scheme here. Colour is already used for identity.
>>>> >> > It's
>>>> >> > bad enough that the GC activities, and a few others, break the colour
>>>> >> > metaphor by not bothering with the &fill_color and &stroke_color
>>>> >> > variables —
>>>> >> > adding even more colour metaphors would not help! ;)
>>>> >> >
>>>> >> > --Gary
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > anything at christianmarcschmidt.com
>>>> > 917/ 575 0013
>>>> >
>>>> > http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com
>>>> > http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarcschmidt
>>>> > http://twitter.com/cms_
>>>> >
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> > Sugar-devel mailing list
>>>> > Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> I've added back in the MEDIUM_ICON_SIZE to the Ring when there are
>>>> only a few icons. (See
>>>>
>>>> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description).
>>>> Specific uestions for the design team:
>>>>
>>>> (1) Can we reach consensus re spiraling in from the MAXIMUM radius
>>>> once the Ring is full or spiraling out from the MINIMUM radius once
>>>> the Ring is full?
>>>
>>> I would say spiraling in from max radius. That way we can maximize the
>>> efficiency of the ring, before transitioning to the spiral.
>>> Walter, looking at your mockups I'd try to come up with an algorithm that
>>> gives us a looser spiral with more space between each segment of the spiral,
>>> more along the lines of what Gary mocked up. The screenshots on the wiki
>>> look very dense. Gary's mockup really proved to me that this can work!
>>
>>
>> Hmm. Since Gary's mockup was based on my patch, I wonder what would
>> have changed? I did make this spiral tighter than one I originally
>> made for the modifying Sugar example. I'll generate some variations to
>> look at.
>>
>
> See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description
>
>>>>
>>>> (2) Is is OK to add an INTERMEDIATE icon size between STANDARD and SMALL?
>>>
>>> I'd even go further and suggest that we could have icons scale dynamically
>>> within the ring/spiral, to achieve maximum balance between the available
>>> space and icon legibility.
>>> My only concern here is that we'd need to find the right balance so as not
>>> to interrupt the general zoom metaphor, going from large to small icons
>>> (home to neighborhood). This means we probably need to put a cap on the
>>> bottom end of the scale, not allowing icons to become too small so that they
>>> could reach the size of icons in the groups view...
>>> All this will take lots of exploration I think before getting it right. I
>>> can work on mockups if that would help...
>>
>> I'm pretty convinced that smaller than SMALL is not very useful. I
>> could add a few more intermediaries, but it is already a reasonably
>> fine-grained transition. The question is, when to make the transition.
>> Right now I trigger it when the Spiral is full. As per Q3 below, I
>> could trigger it a bit sooner.
>
> See http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description
>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> (3) In regard to Q1, I could trigger the spiral before the Ring hits
>>>> the MAXIMUM radius, perhaps at MAXIMUM-icon_size? (I've not
>>>> illustrated this yet.)
>>>
>>> Yes, I think that probably makes sense. We should play through all the
>>> possibilities and then make a decision based on what works best...
>>>
>>
>> I'll mock this up too...
>
> I tried it and it was problematic in that starting the spiral at
> MAXIMUM will result in a gap in the spiral.
>
>>
>> thanks.
>>
>> -walter
>>>>
>>>> -walter
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Walter Bender
>>>> Sugar Labs
>>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> anything at christianmarcschmidt.com
>>> 917/ 575 0013
>>>
>>> http://www.christianmarcschmidt.com
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmarcschmidt
>>> http://twitter.com/cms_
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>
>
> Gary: I'm posting the new patch (with a looser spiral and more
> intermediaries) to the Ticket.
>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>

I put a few screen shots of the inside-out spiral in the wiki as
well... Personally, while I like the look of these spirals better, I
think the transition from the Ring to the outside-in spiral is
smoother.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Spiral_Home_View#Detailed_Description

-walter

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org