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Hi, Sam<br>
<br>
Excellent proposal. We should solicit community input on additional
items which experience users need to learn to get comfortable with
using the XO.<br>
<br>
I think your implementation involves too much programming. Perhaps a
youtube style screencast walkthroughs and posters would be an
alternative.<br>
<br>
We intend for the XO and Sugar to facilitate learning - your are
addressing one of the strategic issues with the OLPC concept - how
to use it to introduce <br>
users to the XO and Sugar. Many criticisms of the concept have
focused on the inadequate level of training of teachers. We need to
enable them and their students to continue to recall the training
material and to learn more of the capabilities of the laptop after
the support team leaves.<br>
<br>
I think everyone understands that there are many capabilities of the
laptop which will not be learned efficiently solely by exploration.
I have never heard <br>
Walter Bender introduce TurtleBlocks by saying 'launch the activity
with the turtle icon and have fun'.<br>
<br>
The first step is to get the new users able to use the XO. This is
not intuitive. This introduction involves 'how to plug in the
laptop', 'observe the light <br>
showing that the battery is charging - possibly even the quick flash
when plugging in showing battery is there', 'how to open the
laptop', 'how to power on', <br>
'how to launch an activity - record', 'How to take a self-portrait',
'how to stop the activity', 'how to shut down the XO - emphasize the
difference between shutdown and suspend', 'how to close the XO'.
These are the minimum steps that must be learned to use the XO at
all - and so must be presented without computer assistance.<br>
<br>
If time permits, the user can switch to the Journal, change the name
of the image from 'photo by nick', resume with imageviewer, stop
imageviewer.<br>
<br>
With record, users need to learn to position themselves in front of
the camera and not the screen - they bring the laptop close and are
disappointed that their face is not visible.'. To use the camera as
a camera, the simplest solution I've found is to convert it to
tablet position (with record running), frame the picture through the
left hole in the handle (under the lens), and shoot with the circle
game button (also under the lens). This last is a good way to
introduce the tablet configuration.<br>
<br>
Sugar has some logical ui, but there are some that are also some
illogical quirks. In the above case, the easiest way to switch to
the Journal is to use the Journal button on the keyboard. However,
after giving the picture a suitable name, getting back to record
requires the frame. The Journal should not be 'an activity' so that
a switch to the Journal should allow a return to the activity with
the activity key. The Journal key makes the activity key redundant.
Try collecting a series of screenshots to document an activity and
you will know the problem!<br>
<br>
Generally at a deployment, the user receives an XO with Sugar
installed and ready for use. In that case an introduction to
'flashing' is not really needed. However, we have made life more
difficult in recent releases with the 'gender' and 'class' screens.
In most deployments, the laptops are prepared for use before school
starts - at that time the school does not know who will be assigned
to the laptop. In many deployments an XO is used by more than one
student which means the nick and other information needs to be
updated two to three times a day as the laptop changes hands.<br>
<br>
It is very helpful, if there are posters on the class wall showing a
good picture of the XO, a closeup of the keyboard with special keys
marked, and pictures of the procedure for opening, powering up, and
configuring in tablet mode. Sugarlabs could prepare images for this
which could be made into posters locally at, in my experience, quite
reasonable cost. This is needed by teachers who are new to the
laptop and need to instruct their students on these basic
procedures.<br>
It is also needed as a reminder if a new student enters the class
and the teacher asks one of the students to show the new student how
to get started.<br>
<br>
Tony<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/27/2015 08:20 AM, Sam P. wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CACVKbrW4cYERUF5wHSGHXjDe2dFhOYsiYzcYBDWiGwGt-hMbpQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Hi All,<br>
<br>
Sugar has a novel user interface, with lots of beautiful and
logical things. However, there are some important elements
(such as the frame or journal) that are not familiar or
intuitive to new users. This is an issue, as sugar currently
relys upon exploration as our only user onboarding strategy.<br>
<br>
The un-intuitiveness of our ui comes up every now and again. I
previously conducted a small and probably skewed survey, however
the lack of user onboarding and the effects of that (how users
did not understand the interface) were apparent. It's also
written about in Jeff Atwood's (old) article "the Sugar UI",
where he says, "I have to admit that I didn't find the Sugar UI
particularly intuitive or discoverable, even after using it for
10 minutes and learning the basics."
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Please have a look at my design proposal to add help for
new users [1]. No implementation has been done (as you would
expect due to the time in the release cycle), and comments
would be appreciated to create a great design before even
thinking of implementing.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Sam</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>[1] <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sam.today/blog/sugar-onboard-design.html">http://www.sam.today/blog/sugar-onboard-design.html</a></div>
</div>
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