[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] 'Resume' vs 'Start a new' Activity

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Simon,

On 13 Jan 2010, at 16:38, Simon Schampijer wrote:

> Hi Gary,
> 
> thanks very much for your feedback.
> 
> On 01/13/2010 02:15 PM, Gary C Martin wrote:
>> On 11 Jan 2010, at 20:44, Walter Bender wrote:
>> 
>>> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 3:32 PM, Simon Schampijer<simon at schampijer.de>  wrote:
>>>> On 01/11/2010 06:12 PM, Wade Brainerd wrote:
>>>>> My feeling regarding all this is that the problem is deeper than
>>>>> finding a way to Resume Latest or Start New from the home screen.
>>>>> 
>>>>> IMO, the whole idea of Resume Latest is broken and needs to be
>>>>> ditched.  The Journal is the place to resume activities.  We need to
>>>>> make the Journal more discoverable and usable instead of trying to
>>>>> mash its features into the home screen.
>>>> 
>>>> My findings are as well that the Journal is the natural place to resume
>>>> an activity. The home view is the natural way to create a new activity,
>>>> since it contains a graphical representation with the available activities.
>>>> 
>>>> I think resuming is a secondary option we can provide, but should not be
>>>> the default option when you click on the icon. To overcome the issue of
>>>> constantly creating new activities I liked the 'open the full palette on
>>>> left click' option. The learner is then provided with options to choose
>>>> from.
>>> 
>>> I like this too. It is worth mentioning that on non-OLPC-XO hardware,
>>> there is no easily discovered (or typed) dedicated key or mouse
>>> movement to get you to the Journal--one of the reasons we have also
>>> discussed having the Journal icon always available in the Home View (I
>>> am in favor of always at the bottom of the circle). All of these
>>> changes collectively may help.
>> 
>> I've been trying to stay out of this discussion so far, watching for what might stick. So summing up so far:
>> 
>> - Always show Journal in the home ring, though I'd favour having it as the first item, so that would make it always at the top of the circle ;-)
> 
> That sounds like a good compromise to me.
> 
> Side-Note: While thinking about it, Walter mentioned that the Journal is not as accessible, especially on non XO-hardware. Another thing which is hard to discover is the frame. I see a lot of kids having issues here. This is one reason why the Journal is hard to find but as well to see which activities are open at the moment.

Oh no, don't bring up discoverability of the frame! One problem at a time ;-)

>> - Home view reverted back to the 'start new' activity focus, all icons are un-coloured.
> 
> Yes.
> 
>> - Single left click always reveals the palette with the 'start new' item at the top and 'resume' items below. Some minus design points here as 'start new' and 'resume' will both become 2 clicks away, and take extra palette cursoring dexterity to reach. You could argue both 'start new' and 'resume' will drop to second level features with 'activity palette information' becoming the top level home feature. Being able to read (some of) this palette text would also now be required, so our 'low floor' just got a little higher :-( I do agree though that this provides a compromise between reducing Journal spam and preventing the unintentional overwrite of existing Journal work by making the choice explicit.
> 
> I tested today, to have the left click reveal the palette directly (patch attached for those who want to try it out). You are right, that you need two clicks, now. For me it would be ok, to just revert the behavior to 'start new' by default and leave it to the merchandise (including teacher) to set the message: resume is in the Journal.

So resume from home view becomes the secondary palette action, I'd be OK with that, though it leaves outstanding the issue of Journal spam for those who just start new activities every time. FWIW I'm not equating 'Journal spam' and the (more serious) 'out of storage space' state. The largest consumers of storage I'm aware of are a few monster sized activities kids may try and install**.

** random thought, is it feasible to have Browse not start a download unless there is enough storage space?

> Side-Note 2: I figured today that our use of left click is inconsistent. In the home view clicking on the activity icon does choose one default option on left click. Clicking on the XO icon does not have a meaning, you need the palette. Same is true for clicking on a buddy icon in the neighborhood or group view. The 'add friend' is not the default. However, clicking on an activity icon in the neighborhood view does join it, clicking on an AP does try to connect by default.

Yep. I believe we've had this discussion before :-) I seem to remember Eben agreed that what was always intended was for any button that did not have a primary click event should have the click event reveal the full palette. So clicking on the big XO icon should instantly show the palette; clicking a buddy in the neighbourhood should just show the full 'add friend' palette, etc. That way something would at least always happen when a user clicks on a button.

I did have a half a day hack at this, but for me the pallet event processing code is so deep and intertwined that I eventually had to call it quits (though I did learn a heap of other random GTK+ stuff trying) ;-)

Regards,
--Gary