[Sugar-devel] Flat design causes uncertainty

[Sebastian Silva]

On 10/09/17 17:17, Walter Bender wrote:
> I am not sure that this is really applicable to the core Sugar
> interface. Pretty much everything on the home screen is an icon and is
> clickable. Pretty much everything on the activity toolbar is an icon
> and is clickable. The idea that icons on a desktop or toolbar are
> clickable was perhaps a bit unusual when we started, but it is pretty
> commonplace today. I have a hard time believing drop shadows or color
> would make much difference. Perhaps on some of the control panels or
> in some specific apps there are places where "flat" is confusing users?
There are a number of confusing places such as the Home View toolbar
(the change between Icon and List view). Also, the buttons at the bottom
of Journal are hard to detect.

But these are all anecdotal. One interesting thing would be to build
heatmaps of user eyesight attention and to start from there, with evidence.

Without evidence to support a design change, looks to me like we are
frozen in time to the taste of original designers. It remains to be seen
if it's possible to evolve.

I would say that in the last 10 years, the most common feedback is that
people think Sugar is monochrome. The benefit of sunlit capable screens
remains questionable (as much as I love them) and in any case Sugar Labs
is not in the business of selling them.

Which reminds me, do we have official permission to use OLPC's logo in
our Home View? James?

Although the intention to put the child at the center is solid design,
the XO logo has grown to signify a brand, so I think we should change
it, regardless.

Thanks
Sebastian

>
> That said, adding some more color would be fine by me as I don't think
> assigning the user colors to the activity icons was every that
> meaningful (except as an indication that the activity had previously
> been run) but it has constrained us quite a bit in terms of icon design.
>
> regards.
>
> -walter
>
> On Sun, Sep 10, 2017 at 6:04 PM, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org
> <mailto:quozl at laptop.org>> wrote:
>
>     A redesign of the GTK+ theme to identify clickable objects would be
>     welcome.
>
>     How?  Just shading or bevels?  Here's another idea;
>
I like how the frame looks with shading. I'd like to see how the
toolbars look raised.
I can never figure out with our OptionButtons when they are on or off,
for instance; I'd add some hints for that.
>
>
>     Monochrome icon restrictions were needed to support the monochrome
>     sunlight readable display of the XO-1 through to XO-4 products.
>
>     With our new products with indoor displays, the monochrome icon
>     restriction may be lifted, although children with colour blindness
>     should still be considered.
>
>     When lifting this restriction, either contrast or reserved colours may
>     be used for identifying clickable objects.
>
>     On Sat, Sep 09, 2017 at 06:38:24PM -0500, Sebastian Silva wrote:
>     > Hi,
>     >
>     > This article, and the related research, made me think of Sugar
>     and how
>     > sometimes it's unclear which parts of the UI are clickable.
>     >
>     > It might be we're up for a redesign?
>     >
>     > ;-)
>     >
>     > Sebastian
>
>     --
>     James Cameron
>     http://quozl.netrek.org/
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>
>
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