[Sugar-devel] Zooming User Interface

[Christian Stroetmann]

Hi Gonzalo

Thank you very much for the links.

Indeed, this is a Zoom Metaphor, but somehow I think that it is not a 
true ZUI metaphor, because a user can only "jump" from one view to the 
other and can not zoom inside a single view. Also, applications like the 
Journal are not part of the Zoom Metaphor. So far, I can only point to 
the videos on the website of Eagle Mode once again (link at the bottom 
of this e-mail).

I will follow your advices, come back when I toyed with SOAS, and make a 
feature proposal if there is still something to propose at all.
I also thought about to make some sketches, but did not know where to 
put them on the Wiki.



Christian
> 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 <mailto: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
>     <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/kiddesign/kidpad.shtml>
>     [2] Jazz and Piccolo www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/jazz/
>     <http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/jazz/>
>     [3] Piccolo2 www.piccolo2d.org <http://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
>>     <http://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 <mailto: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 <mailto: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
>>>>             <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface>
>>>>             [2] Wikipedia, Prezi en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi
>>>>             <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi>
>>>>             [3] Wikipedia, Rehabilitation Act of
>>>>             1973en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Rehabilitation_Act
>>>>             <http://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
>>>>             <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_of_the_Rehabilitation_Act>
>>>>             [5] Eagle Mode eaglemode.sourceforge.net
>>>>             <http://eaglemode.sourceforge.net>
>>>>             [6] Eagle Mode, Project Philosoophy
>>>>             eaglemode.sourceforge.net/philosophy.html
>>>>             <http://eaglemode.sourceforge.net/philosophy.html>
>>>>
>
>

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