[sugar] human factors when launching an activity

[Mikus Grinbergs]

Last night did a lot of activity launching (on 766).  My overall 
impression was that feedback by the system was way too slow.  The 
pulsing "launch screen" (which I like) was introduced to give 
positive feedback to the person clicking on an activity's icon - but 
the system was taking much too long to begin showing that screen.


When launching from Home View, I found the most reassuring way to 
launch was to RIGHT-button click on the icon, wait for the palette, 
then right-button click again on 'Start'.  The disappearance of the 
palette was a positive indication that my "launch request" had been 
accepted.  The problem was that I had "learned" to left-button click 
- remembering to right-button click was difficult.

If I left-button clicked on the icon, all I could do was wait for 
the "pulsing" screen to appear.  Several times, looking later at 
Frame, two instances of the activity had been launched (perhaps my 
hands are more spastic than I thought).  [There was ALWAYS a time 
interval between my click and the showing of the "pulsing" screen.] 
  If I remember correctly, I even had instances where the "pulsing" 
screen did not appear.  [And there definitely were instances where 
the activity showed *its* screen -- I worked with it and then closed 
it -- and then the pulsing "launch screen" was shown again -- I had 
to wait for the pulsing to time out and go away.]  All in all, not 
confidence-inspiring.


When launching from Journal view of a removable storage device, I 
concluded afterwards that Journal was first installing the activity 
in /home/olpc/Activities, and only then "launching" it (i.e., 
showing the "pulsing" screen).  That could mean a wait of a minute 
before seeing the "pulsing" screen.  NOT good human factors.


mikus