John,

> Supposedly there is scientific evidence that visually pleasing things
> actually work better (see
> http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/emotion_design.html). It troubles me that
> Squeak is so odd looking, but I have only had time enough to make
> minor contributions in this arena.

  Supposedly, children's mind often work differently.  Take a look at
an article on SciAm and go to page 5:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=000ACE3F-007E-12DC-807E83414B7F0000

-- Yoshiki