[Sugar-devel] RFC:Simple Help widget for activities

[Manuel Quiñones]

Hi Gonzalo,

El día 7 de marzo de 2012 09:37, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org> escribió:
> We receive many times request about adding help in the activities,
> and if is true Sugar propose a exploratory approach,
> not all the people learn in the same way,
> and there are people who prefer a little guidance.
>
> For the development we need a simple api, and easy i18n,
> and a non obtrusive experience for the user.
>
> Inspired by the DescriptionItem, I was experimenting with a widget to add
> simple help to activities.
> This is not:
> * A manual
> * Lessons
> * Tips
> Is a short startup help for the activity.

I think tips can be better than direct guidance.  "Do this, then do
that" manner is counterproductive for exploration.  Of course tips can
be ordered in a convenient way, is a matter of manners.  Would be
better to see each section at once instead of a large scrollable list.
 I imagine a slideshow with back/forward buttons.

Also I think visual help can be used instead of text when possible, so
would be great if the widget allows it.  Images can be understand by
early children, and are universal, so no need to translate.  Of course
a little paragraph below the image can be convenient too.

Here is a mockup I did for the same activity with this ideas:

http://dev.laptop.org/~manuq/simple_help_mock.png

What do people think?

> Use only text and the icons already used by the activity.
>
> A example can be seen here:
> http://dev.laptop.org/~gonzalo/images/simple_graph_help.png
>
> In the activity we only need do:
>
>     helpitem = HelpButton()
>     toolbar.insert(helpitem, -1)
>     helpitem.show()
>     helpitem.add_section(_('Basic usage'))
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('First you need add data to create the
> graphic'))
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('You can add data with this button'),
>             'row-insert')
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('...or remove data with this button'),
>             'row-remove')
>     helpitem.add_paragraph(_('To change the graphic title, just change the
> activity title'))
> ....
>
> This proposal is late for sugar 0.96, but may be we can try it in one or two
> activities,
> and start thinking about this topic.
> I really like the help in the Implode activity, but have the following
> problems:
> * I don't know if apply to other type of activities.
> * Is modal
> * need a lot of code to implement it.
>
> Comments?
>
> Gonzalo
>
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-- 
.. manuq ..