[Sugar-devel] GSoC ideas for feedback
I have been having some ideas for pushing the help system to the next level by embedding the power of the community knowledge directly in the UI using videos: See-Me-Do kind of thing. I came across some related projects http://www.autodeskresearch.com/projects/learning ToolClips One of the main learnability challenges associated with complex software applications is learning to use the tools which the application provides. Advancements in the technologies that we use provide new opportunities to provide the necessary assistance. In particular, video assistance has become widespread. However, such assistance is generally in the form of long video tutorials, accessed externally from the software application. With the ToolClips project, we augment traditional tooltips with videos, giving users rapid, contextual, and within-application access video clips, to help understand how to use the associated tools. Our research on ToolClips has been published and is also being transferred into Autodesk products. CommunityCommands Amazon recommends books to its users. Netflix recommends movies. With CommunityCommands, Autodesk will recommend command functionality to its users. CommunityCommands collects usage data from thousands of Autodesk users, through the Customer Involvement Program (CIP), and then generates personalized command recommendations using newly developed algorithms. CommunityCommands will expose users to the critical commands which they should be using, but are not aware of, accelerating the learning process. I think if implemented properly these might make the activities and the system itself more accessible to a large number of children - especially those in underdeveloped nations with little/no exposure to technology and very little external help. And.. I had proposed an idea earlier http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2010/Adaptive_UI_Framework_for_Different_Age_Groups Is it sounding too complicated ? unnecessary ? not clear ? timeline not good ? - appreciate any feedback. Am really looking forward to be part of the community. Thanks, Mohan ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
[Sugar-devel] gsoc Ideas: interface for younger children
Hello, I am Mohan, a Computer Science Masters student in UBC, Canada interested in GSoC. My area of study is Human Computer Interaction. My thesis is in the area of learnability issues (in content creation software). I believe that developing better interfaces to bring out the creativity of children is of paramount importance. I would like to hence work on the Sugar UI for the next 1.5 years, making it an integral part of my thesis (hoping everything goes well. fingers crossed). I would like to start my work with GSoC. I went through the project ideas and several of them interested me. I need some clarifications on few ideas. I appreciate any help in this. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Development_Team/Project_Ideas: EduKT Simple content - history creation tool that needs: Simplify the interface for little people Is it talking about age or the physical attributes of the children? I assume it is age. If so, what range is being talked about? What age range qualifies as little? Do we have data about the age ranges of current users of OLPC/Sugar? According to the website, the system is targeted at children from 5 to 12 years of age. But what is the split up in the real world. Any idea? *Questions that I am interested in finding an answer:* Do children belonging to different age groups need different UI? Can we design UI targeted at different age groups of children such that it improves their experience (usability) with the system? Can such UI designed specifically for different age groups also facilitate learnability of the UI (the system features that it abstracts) as they move from one age group to another? (culminating in a desktop, for e.g from ubuntu-sugar-remix to ubuntu) *What we need to do:* We would need to build a UI abstraction layer that would enable users of different age groups to experience the system differently. This should be achieved requiring minimal change on part of the developers, especially activity devs. *What I could do:* A UI abstraction framework is too much work: for something that we aren't even sure we need. And I couldn't do it myself in 3 months. So I could start paving way for what could eventually grow into a framework, but still manage to do something useful for the community in these 3 months. Lets take the feature of discoverability of keyboard shortcuts and context menus. I could start work on bringing this feature into Sugar. But do younger children need keyboard shortcuts ? Can the clues for enhancing discoverability of such features lead to confusion for those who dont need it ? So depending upon the age of the child using the system (obtained from user profile), the system could choose to expose certain clues or not. I think this can be done in 3 months. Please have a look at my project page (rough first cut) and kindly share your thoughts, ideas. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2010/Adaptive_UI_Framework_for_Different_Age_Groups Please let me know if you interested in mentoring me or working with (advising) me on this? Thank you for your time, Mohan ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
[Sugar-devel] GSoC Ideas
I want to participate at GSoC for Sugar. What idea could I recommend? http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010 -- Carlos Mauro Cárdenas Fernández Ingeniero de Sistemas 4582877 980525716 Creemos en el amor de los Seres Humanos http://forpapers.blogspot.com/ http://unimauro.blogspot.com/ ___ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
