optional panes out-of-the-box, and other preferences

Jesse Welton jwelton at pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu
Tue Feb 6 13:42:47 UTC 2001


Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> 
> Regarding the out-of-box experience:
> 
> It would be better if all PlayWithMe thumbnails were opened, nicely
> arranged in the world, and without window frame (so they highligh on
> mouse-over).

I don't think these should start open.  It would make the opening
screen too cluttered.  I also *really* do not like the idea of
removing the window frames.  It's good to have a handle by which to
move them around and collapse them easily.  (Don't expect new users to
be using halos right off the bat.)

Perhaps there's another way to keep the highlighting on mouse-over.
It is a bit unpleasant that the ProjectViewMorphs provide this nice
feedback to alert the user that a click will enter the project, but
activating another window will prevent this behavior -- without also
locking the enter-on-click behavior.

>  There might be a little string morph next to each explaining
> what it does.

Or, just give the projects descriptive names, so the existing captions
are meaningful.

>  Same for inside the projects. For example, add a little
> explanation about the Fabrik stuff, just like the Wonderland and MIDI PWMs
> do. Add a note to drop the OOPSLA97 thingie into the BackToTheFuture text,
> remove the +/- book modification buttons and correct the layout of the
> fllowing pages. For PWM8, include a midi file. The point of the CD-ROM is
> to not have to download all stuff, right?

I agree with all this.  The purpose of the Fabrik demo in particular
is entirely unclear to a new user.  (Indeed, to an experienced user,
as well, without some hinting of what to look for.)

> Make a BACK button in each PWM project so it's obvious how to get back to
> the start screen. If you don't know anything about projects you're stuck
> once you entered. It might help to make the Project Navigator stay up all
> the time. But then the PREV/NEXT should be labeled BACK/FORWARD like in
> the browser.

The project navigator does appear in all the PWM projects (after a
second or so, anyway -- perhaps it's just moving into position).  Or
do you mean that it should be open all the time, rather than shifted
down as a tab?  There should be a note about using the project
navigator on the opening screen; that's the kind of practical
information that should go in the "Getting Started" window.

>  And rename the "escape browser" button to "go fullscreen".

Definitely a good idea.

> In the Welcome window, say something about Squeak as an open source
> project right on the top. The prominently displayed copyrights of Apple
> and Disney are somewhat disturbing without a comment.

Agreed.

> Reverse the ordering of Squeak features in the welcome window. Morphic
> should go first (and the wording needs an update), then Balloon3D, Sound,
> Networking, etc., with Interpreter the last. 

The content of this window appears somwhat stale in a number of
places.  Who, getting Squeak 3.0, won't have at least a 2.4 VM to
handle PWM 7?  :)  The information about external projects should
mention more recent progress, and the example given:

	Project fromUrl:
	'http://www.squeak.org/Squeak2.0/2.7segments/SqueakEasy.extSeg'.

doesn't seem to work anymore.  (You can't select a level?)

Hmm, the flash player window that comes up from the flash example is
black, making the close button invisible.  Is this the case with all
flash players?

Of course, as Bert points out, it would be good to replace some of
these examples with examples refering to local content.  Just not the
networking examples.  :)

-Jesse





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