[Sugar-devel] Suggestions for GSoC 2019
Amaan Iqbal
amaaniqbal2786 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 23 11:29:51 EST 2019
James Cameron wrote:
> You replied to me, but that wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
Ya, I know. I just replied to all.
> However, it would be wrong
> to set expectations of colourful software by adding lots of colour to
> the web site.
I just meant to update the color palette, never to have many colors.
> We also need to remain accessible for vision impaired.
True!
> Activities for Sugar are presented by activities.sugarlabs.org and by
> Fedora SoaS. Activities for Sugarizer are pre-bundled, not presented;
> you'll see the https://sugarizer.org/ web site is much better at
> getting people to engage with the software.
I was not knowing about the latter site. That's really good in terms of
user engagement.
Overall I agree with your opinion James, and also of other board members
and now I too feel this may not be one of the important projects for GSoC.
Thanks,
Amaan
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 7:19 AM James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
> Amaan Iqbal wrote:
> > > I don't expect revamping a website to be a _goal_.
> >
> > Without a proper website with the latest content, how can we expect
> > the activities to reach the audience?
>
> You replied to me, but that wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>
> At the moment activities generally reach the audience through OLPC OS,
> Fedora SoaS, activities.sugarlabs.org and Sugarizer. Almost never the
> web site.
>
> > > Even if we add a project for improving the website, 2 years down
> > > the line we might again face a similar email pointing out the
> > > drawbacks of the new model and another revamping of the website.
> >
> > This doesn't mean that we will have the same website with the old
> > foundation 10 years down the line. Web technologies and standards
> > have changed significantly in the past 2-3 years and its
> > recommended we too keep our components updated. The main reason
> > would be similar to why we are updating our activities. Fixing/
> > Updating activities has to do with more engagement with current
> > users and improving the website, to try for more new users. I guess
> > both are equally important.
>
> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>
> Web site components can be kept updated by using a maintained open
> source theme and not tweaking it as incessantly as we have been doing
> with airspace.
>
> While it is similar in general to how we update our activities, this
> is not relevant, because the web site is not an activity.
>
> > > Having less projects does not imply our failure in any sense, lack
> > > of existing contributors might indicate that
> >
> > I agree, but it will be underutilization of potential of an
> > organization which has participated in GSoC for last 10 successive
> > years. We might consider having few more mentors this time if proper
> > mentoring was the issue last time. Even if we are not having this
> > project, we should think of utilizing GSoC to the fullest with tasks
> > related to all the activities wherever significant work is
> > pending. Further, even if we desire to have some new activities, we
> > should think of including that too.
>
> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Rahul.
>
> I'm not worried about underutilisation of potential; there is plenty
> to do, and if anyone is attentive and dutiful toward it they will
> easily find what to do without having to do any updates to the web
> site. I'm also not worried about having less active projects for this
> GSoC, because we certainly have less active developers, and the last
> thing we want is mentors who aren't active developers, as it leads to
> under-mentoring; project never properly defined, mentor has little
> idea of what the student is doing, and ultimately the student produces
> code that isn't useful, or disappears. See Google Summer of Code
> Guides, What Makes a Good Mentor?
>
> https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/what-makes-a-good-mentor
>
> Of course, our thanks to all those developers who have made small
> updates to our software in the past few weeks, I appreciate it.
>
> > > I added why a user should get sugar.
> > >
> > > It’s still a work in progress as I figured even the last design
> > > that’s under development now Wouldn’t really solve the problem. We
> > > need MORE call to action buttons, more exciting colors, a better
> > > navigation processes.
> >
> > That's what. I would too suggest improving the color palette we are
> > currently using. The current color palette is not that pleasing at
> > first sight. Also call to action and download buttons on the main
> > page itself would be a good idea to improve the conversion
> > rate. Further better and clearer navigation is also missing.
>
> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace. However, it would be wrong
> to set expectations of colourful software by adding lots of colour to
> the web site. Cart before horse error. First, we need Sugar and
> Sugarizer to switch to using colour. Then can we increase the colours
> on any web site that describes them. We also need to remain
> accessible for vision impaired.
>
> Also, whether colours are pleasing is subjective, and dependent on
> culture and environment. While you might not like the colours, they
> have been accepted for some time, so you might provide more convincing
> evidence than your own opinion of the colours.
>
> > > Hoping to move most primary information from wiki to the site,
> > > instead of breaking their section on the site to go to wiki(it
> > > lost them totally)
> >
> > This is the most important point. I strongly agree with this. Our
> > website should only have the important information instead of the
> > wikis. It breaks the flow and makes the user end up getting
> > confused.
>
> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace. However, this content could
> be placed in frames or transformed from GitHub or Wiki using a script.
> We continue to have people who maintain GitHub and the Wiki and won't
> maintain the web site. Content that has been copied to the web site
> has languished unmaintained.
>
> > > This is as important as improving Sugar Labs tools. Without an
> > > actionable site our tools won't reach our potential users. We need
> > > the users (students parents, school administration) to be able to
> > > download and use Sugar and every other Sugar Labs tools
> > > effectively without stress then we can record an increase in
> > > downloads of these tools we put in so much to build.
> >
> > This is why I thought of this idea. My primary intention is not to
> > get anything revamped but to improve the way we present our
> > activities to the user. Also for better maintenance, it is required
> > that we keep our site up to date and consistent with the standards.
> >
> > Ultimately I would suggest that we should utilize GSoC to the
> > fullest in any way we can, be it only with improving the activities.
> >
> > I will leave further discretion to the board members.
>
> That wasn't me you quoted, it was Peace.
>
> Activities for Sugar are presented by activities.sugarlabs.org and by
> Fedora SoaS. Activities for Sugarizer are pre-bundled, not presented;
> you'll see the https://sugarizer.org/ web site is much better at
> getting people to engage with the software.
>
> GSoC isn't there for us to abuse or on-sell, it's there to help us
> with our goals.
>
> I'm sure the board will continue to listen to what people think. As
> chair, nobody in the board has proposed any motion in relation to the
> web site, but you've heard from Samson, Walter, and myself.
>
> > On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 6:18 AM James Cameron <[1]quozl at laptop.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks. But my vote is no.
> >
> > It's not three months of coding.
> >
> > It doesn't solve a problem we have with our software products; Sugar,
> > activities, Music Blocks, or Sugarizer.
> >
> > Our problem with the web site is with the content, in turn because we
> > have had few content producers, and too many people proposing style
> and
> > layout changes instead.
> >
> > Last month, or November, we had a team formed to do A/B testing, but
> > the A/B testing has not yet begun. I'm guessing they are too busy.
> > Perhaps it is time for more people to speak up in order to slow it
> > down even further.
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 07:44:28PM +0530, Amaan Iqbal wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I see we only have 6 projects so far in our Ideas list in
> comparison to
> > 11
> > > which were selected in GSoC last year. Being a successful Open
> Source
> > > organization, I sincerely hope we have the potential of having
> many more
> > > projects in GSoC this year(most probably 15+ if we can come up
> with such
> > > promising ideas).
> > >
> > > Here I would suggest an idea for the renovation of our
> Website, [1]blog,
> > and
> > > creation of a customized/integration of existing CMS to our
> website from
> > where
> > > admins can create articles directly. Also some other web pages can
> also
> > be
> > > added to this list if I am missing something. The end product will
> be
> > expected
> > > to have :
> > >
> > > • Material Designed
> > > • no/minimal redundancies in code
> > > • faster load time
> > > • Use of latest website standards
> > > • Wider reach in terms of accessibility
> > > • Faster and easier updates from the admins to the website
> > > • Elimination of device specific issues
> > > • Removal of most of the issues on [2]www-sugarlabs
> > > • Easy setup for a new contributor
> > >
> > > After mentoring for few design tasks in GCI and collaborating with
> > several pull
> > > requests I found that the website was mostly constructed with many
> > components
> > > placed forcefully in their places including a search box in the
> navbar,
> > such
> > > that website looks somehow decent. But the design is not at all
> generic
> > and so
> > > as a result there use to be many small issues with looks and
> behavior of
> > > components on different devices. Also, the website is not updated
> to the
> > latest
> > > web standards.
> > >
> > > Further, publicity in the best way with
> appropriate [3]accessibility of
> > the
> > > website is important for any organization and I sincerely hope
> this idea
> > has
> > > that potential.
> > >
> > > Looking forward to hearing your opinion on this before sending a
> Pull
> > Request
> > > on the GSoC ideas list.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Amaan
> > >
> > > References:
> > >
> > > [1] [2]http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
> > > [2] [3]https://github.com/sugarlabs/www-sugarlabs/issues
> > > [3] [4]
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/HTML
> >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > > [5]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > > [6]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
> > --
> > James Cameron
> > [7]http://quozl.netrek.org/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sugar-devel mailing list
> > [8]Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > [9]http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> >
> > References:
> >
> > [1] mailto:quozl at laptop.org
> > [2] http://planet.sugarlabs.org/
> > [3] https://github.com/sugarlabs/www-sugarlabs/issues
> > [4] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Accessibility/HTML
> > [5] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > [6] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> > [7] http://quozl.netrek.org/
> > [8] mailto:Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > [9] http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>
> --
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.netrek.org/
>
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