[Etoys] A few notes on eToys interface

Sun Apr 8 21:15:29 EDT 2007

On 2007 April 8 12:57, Offray Vladimir Luna Cárdenas wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have used the Extremadura's Squeak Image with my students and the
> navigational help of the dock bar is very useful for not getting lost,
> and to have a handy place for usual operations. The Squeakland image
> have the possibility to show/hide a navigational bar, so may be is not
> so difficult on OLPC image, and would be matter of selecting the proper
> configuration options for the interface.

I think basically this is what I was suggesting - by default, expanding the 
red navigation bar, plus adding a "home" button, plus perhaps some wording 
changes including more detail.

MIlan
>
> Cheers,
>
> Offray
>
> Milan Zimmermann escribió:
> > Hi Richard,
> >
> > Your zooming interface description is a great. I am not sure I am
> > visualizing mechanism of the interaction correctly, but I like what you
> > are describing very much (get back home to the nest feels like the right
> > paradigm).  It would be cool to have a chance play with it.
> >
> > (By suggesting "unhiding" the back button + providing a "home" button, I
> > tried to describe a "minimum work" changes that would allow to "find a
> > way back". Not sure it is agreeable but it seems easy and help
> > navigation)
> >
> > Milan
> >
> > On 2007 April 2 16:20, Richard Karpinski wrote:
> >> Wild idea for geographic navigation.
> >>
> >> On 2007, Apr 2, , at 9:00, Milan Zimmermann wrote:
> >>>    - I think the largest potential issue is ease of eToys
> >>> navigation for
> >>> someone who is running the system for the first time. I am thinking
> >>> how to
> >>> modify the UI, without significant changes, to help a new user to
> >>> not "get
> >>> lost" (for example by following a few projects from the cloud
> >>> menu). I think
> >>> people's sense "not getting lost" is greatly satisfied when there
> >>> is a way to
> >>> know "how to go back" - either one step back, or all the way to the
> >>> beginning. I realize this is where the "Navigator->Prev" is used,
> >>> but it is
> >>> not very obvious for a first time user, mostly because it's
> >>> contents (the
> >>> Prev button) is "hidden". I am thinking if the following would help:
> >>
> >> Background - Why geographic navigation works
> >>
> >> When Jef Raskin, the father of Macintosh, proposed a zooming user
> >> interface for a hospital information system, it was built that way.
> >> It worked well, but the part that interests me now is that utter
> >> novices learned the system quickly. They became comfortable and
> >> competent in literally less than a single minute. Of course, computer
> >> experts took longer but they succeeded in less than two minutes. This
> >> was using a mouse with two buttons designated Zoom In and Zoom Out.
> >>
> >> My analysis is that for millions of years, our ancestors succeeded in
> >> getting back to the nest. This imbues their living descendants with a
> >> natural talent for learning to navigate in a geographic world, even
> >> one where there is a lot of content in zoomable regions. I want to
> >> take advantage of that native ability in an even simpler system, one
> >> which uses the graphical input device alone with no keys or buttons
> >> at all.
> >>
> >> Utility - Why auto-zooming is good for you
> >>
> >> The first  thing to notice is that there is room for unbounded
> >> content if you can write it very small and zoom in to read what
> >> interests you. If you showed a shelf full of products, there would
> >> always be room for more detail, even a complete user manual, in a
> >> region no larger than ten or sixteen pixels on a side. The rollover
> >> event could be interpreted to auto-zoom into the region. The amount
> >> of zooming could be arranged in the construction of the zoom world to
> >> be just right for reading text or viewing images in that region.
> >>
> >> Next, we can observe that rollover works the other way too. If you do
> >> the natural thing to return to where you were, you will cross the
> >> same region boundary in the other direction and be back there again.
> >> This is so simple that nearly everyone, I claim, will discover it on
> >> their own. They shouldn't have to, when less than a minute of
> >> training is required, but they could, especially if they are kids and
> >> not yet overly concerned with making no mistakes. Indeed, it works
> >> for the preliterate as well as those who can read and compose text.
> >>
> >> Beyond zooming - Making the graphical input device alone do even more
> >>
> >> I would go further and devise a mouse only (or touch pad only)
> >> gesture for select, and at that exact moment, make a pie menu appear
> >> to permit the second half of a noun-verb command to be chosen and
> >> activated. But I shall leave further discussion of such extensions
> >> for future occasions.
> >>
> >> Initial introduction - How to make first use painless
> >>
> >> In gaming arcades, there is often an attract mode which gives hints
> >> about what this game offers. For us, this includes several
> >> introductory eToy projects. With the auto-zooming interface, it would
> >> make some sense for the initial screen to have each of them in a
> >> region with a well defined border and let folks auto-zoom in to
> >> whichever strikes their fancy. Re-crossing that border, anywhere,
> >> naturally returns you to the original screen contents. Rapid learning
> >> can be expected.
> >>
> >> Since there is always room for another help sheet or demonstration
> >> video on any screen, gentle training can always be at hand. Even a
> >> direct passage to the initial screen, despite violating the strict
> >> geographic navigation paradigm can be arranged to be awfully clear
> >> and quite effective. Any navigation problem which is discovered to be
> >> common can be addressed in such a way without much time or effort
> >> required to set it up.
> >>
> >> Barriers - Why this scheme cannot be adopted at this time
> >>
> >> We need to press forward and we already have much too much to do.
> >> This would be a radical change which we have no time to consider at
> >> present. It would take weeks to set this up just to see if it works.
> >> Nobody needs this. It won't work. People will fall into the auto-
> >> zooming regions and be lost and stuck. It is not now such things are
> >> done.
> >>
> >> Richard Karpinski, World Class Nitpicker
> >> 148 Sequoia Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
> >> dick at cfcl.com  Home +1 707-546-6760   Cell +1 707-228-9716
> >> http://cfcl.com/twiki/bin/view/Karpinski
> >>
> >> ps Put (or leave) "nitpicker" in the subject line to get past my spam
> >> filters.
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Etoys mailing list
> >> Etoys at laptop.org
> >> http://mailman.laptop.org/mailman/listinfo/etoys
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Etoys mailing list
> > Etoys at laptop.org
> > http://mailman.laptop.org/mailman/listinfo/etoys