[Sugar-devel] Zooming User Interface

Sat Mar 1 17:10:49 EST 2014

Hi Christian,

Zoom metaphor was in Sugar from day one [1]

Maybe you can make a concrete feature proposal to help us understand
what are you proposing?

You can read about our Features policy [2]
and see how the Features are proposed, like in this example [3]
More examples here [4] and here [5]

Gonzalo

[1]
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Laptop_Experience/Zoom_Metaphor
[2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy
[3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/AboutMe
[4] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Category:Feature_Landed
[5] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features

On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 10:44 AM, Christian Stroetmann <
stroetmann at ontolab.com> wrote:

>  Hi again
>
> And here is a collaborative story authoring tool for children called
> KidPad ([1]) based on ZUI and related with Pad++. It is based on Jazz
> respectively Piccolo ([2]; unmantained website), which has as successor
> Piccolo2 ([3]; use this website for more software technical informations).
> Said this, the general concept to use a ZUI for eductional software is not
> so new.
>
> I also looked at the Sugar framework again in relation with a potential
> prototyp of Sugar+ZUI. At least two options exist:
> 1. Put ZUI into a Linux kernel.
> Pro: In this way Sugar developers could decide if they want to use it or
> not. This might also have advantages with the overall perforamance
> Contra: There are X11, D-Bus and Gnome dependancies.
> Personally, I prefer Wayland instead of X11 but this is another Sugar
> enhancement.
> 2. Put ZUI into the Glucose layer.
> Pro: ?
> Contra: Binds ZUI to Python or/and JavaSript.
> Personally, I prefer my Boot to WebCore with C++Core, but this is another
> Sugar story.
>
>
>
> Christian
>
> [1] KidPad www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/kiddesign/kidpad.shtml
> [2] Jazz and Piccolo www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/jazz/
> [3] Piccolo2 www.piccolo2d.org
>
>
>  Hi again
>
> I forget to say something to your question related with the educational
> technology.
>
> Firstly, I found the following statements on the webpage "What is Sugar?"
> in the section "About the Sugar Learning Platform" of Sugar ([1]) that says:
> " It is easy to approach and yet it doesn't put an upper bound on personal
> expression; one can peel away layers and go deeper and deeper, with no
> restrictions." and
> "[...] in whatever realm the learner is exploring [...] they are able to
> drill deeper; they are not going to hit a wall, since they can, at every
> level, engage in debugging both their personal expression and the very
> tools that they use for that expression."
>
> Hence, Sugar+ZUI supports the learning even with the related UI paradigm
> that reflects the general computer desktop metaphor as well as the 3rd
> characteristical attribute of Sugar.
>
> Secondly, if the U.S. government supports this ZUI based Prezi software as
> part of a billion U.S. Dollar donation even if it does not comply with ADA
> and 508 actually, then there must be a very strong reason to include a ZUI
> based application in a framework of educational software. Sadly to say, I
> do not know the true reason actually, but my instinct gives me a very clear
> hint. For sure, I do know that these might not be convicting arguments.
>
>
>
> Christian
>
> [1] Sugar, What is Sugar?, About the Sugar Learning Plattform
> wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/What_is_Sugar
>
>  Hi Sam
>
> Basically, I find this ZUI concept as attractive as the multi-touchscreen
> and the mind mapping approach.
>
> Also, the foundational hierachical structure of Sugar with the views you
> mentioned fits perfectly with a ZUI.
> The problem I have seen is that the screen gets more and more crowded with
> icons when Sugar is used and collaborations are made. Also, specific
> applications like the Journal suffer from this problem respectively allow
> to present only a small list of documents and activities at once. In this
> relation, I refer to some screenshots that I have seen on the Sugar Labs
> website. A solution to this problem is a ZUI functionality.
> Even better, due to the simple GUI metaphor of Sugar deliberately designed
> for children, Sugar+ZUI should already run smoothly when a user zooms in an
> out with actual hardware.
>
> The actual plan is to try to implement a prototyp of Sugar+ZUI, though
> until now it is just a concept and a plan, and I wanted to ask the other
> developers at first, if they are interested and if it is worth to go in
> this direction at all.
>
>
>
> Christian
>
>  Totally forgot to reply all xD
> On Mar 1, 2014 9:10 PM, "Sam Parkinson" <sam.parkinson3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> In sugar we currently have 'the views'. I think the vid on our site shows
>> that.
>>
>> The whole zui thing does look cool, but besides prezi I cannot see any
>> clear use cases in edu tech. What do you have in mind?
>>
>> Sam
>> On Mar 1, 2014 9:04 PM, "Christian Stroetmann" <stroetmann at ontolab.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Aloha
>>>
>>> Since many years now I am looking at Sugar and the underlying basic
>>> software technologies. Besides this, I am also interested in the specific
>>> field of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI).
>>>
>>> In this relation, I would like to present a concept that is an extension
>>> of the general GUI approach of the Sugar learning software with a Zooming
>>> User Interface (ZUI; [1]).
>>>
>>> One inspiring moment was that recently the U.S.American government
>>> together with companiens like Adobe, Prezi, Microsoft and Apple announced
>>> to make software donationsto schools (related reports can be find in the
>>> web easily).
>>> One specific software is Prezi ([2]) that is developed in Adobe Flash
>>> and Adobe AIR, and built on top of Django (Python web framework).
>>> Surprisingly, Prezi is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities
>>> Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act ([3] and [4])but used
>>> in education (see again [2]).
>>>
>>> I looked around and found the software Eagle Mode ([5]; for a first
>>> impression see the videos on its website diretly).
>>>
>>> Said this, I simply counted 1+1, Sugar+ZUI and Sugar+Eagle.
>>>
>>> Such an UI approach has advantages and disadvantages that are discussed
>>> shortly on the website of Eagle Mode (see [6]). The point with the hardware
>>> requirements seems not to be relevant, because for example the hardware of
>>> the latest featurephones and featuretablets (simple smartphones and tablet
>>> computers) should be useable with a ZUI and are available for around 30
>>> U.S. Dollar already.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Have fun
>>> Christian Stroetmann
>>>
>>> [1] Wikipedia, ZUI en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface
>>> [2] Wikipedia, Prezi en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi
>>> [3] Wikipedia, Rehabilitation Act of
>>> 1973en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Rehabilitation_Act
>>> [4] Wikipedia, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
>>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_of_the_Rehabilitation_Act
>>> [5] Eagle Mode eaglemode.sourceforge.net
>>> [6] Eagle Mode, Project Philosoophy
>>> eaglemode.sourceforge.net/philosophy.html
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Sugar-devel mailing list
>>> Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
>>>
>>
>
>
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>

-- 
Gonzalo Odiard

SugarLabs - Learning Software for children
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