more, Ubiquity Slideshow for Ubuntu

[Dylan McCall]

On Mon, 2009-06-15 at 23:29 +0530, mac_v wrote:
> H S wrote:
> > 
> > * the ability to view it any time from the 'normal' desktop, possibly
> > integrated into the existing help pages..  That way it's not about
> > killing time during the install, but about providing the user (and
> > especially new user) with an ongoing resource that they can turn to, to
> > learn more about there system. 
> > 
> 
> +1.
> 
> One of the problem , is that non-technical user doesnt find it easy to
> quickly shift to Ubuntu, the user is either searching for items they are
> used to like My computer,MY...,RecycleBin/Installing programs from other
> repos ...


Ooh, thanks for all the feedback. Unfortunately I have to debunk a few
thoughts, but I'll start from the top:

      * I will try to do something user friendly when I package this,
        but I would be hesitant to throw it into too prominent a place.
        Perhaps into the example-content directory would do. Putting it
        right inside the help system is indeed a bit redundant, and I
        feel kind of goes against the "brief introduction to make people
        feel more comfortable with Ubuntu" idea. If people honestly
        start consulting this as a form of permanent documentation,
        neither thing is doing its job. I hope to keep this fairly
        simple, oriented towards the one single task.
      * Bookmarking a slide sounds mighty cool. Indeed, I am steering
        clear of telling people to install software and import music CDs
        while Ubuntu installs (recipe for disaster), which leaves a
        strong possibility of people seeing cool things but then not
        really doing anything. If they could click a little star for
        "remind me about this later!", that would solve the issue
        elegantly. However, it also adds a bit of technical risk and
        complexity to the venture. The alternative is to just say "grab
        a pen and paper because this is going to be awesome!"
      * I settled on the slide size quite a while ago. At the time, X
        was unlikely to get the right screen resolution in a lot of
        cases and liked falling back to 800x600 in the live cd. Nowadays
        that's much less of a problem, although screen resolutions have
        travelled back in time as well thanks to netbooks. Never thought
        to review it, although it could be a nice project for a later
        date to make these wider at least.
      * On this same note, there is a lot of interest in having
        controls. I'm hesitant to have any sort of pausing because it
        adds unneeded complexity, but it makes sense for going back when
        someone misses a slide and for people who want to skip the
        boring but (correct me if wrong) quite necessary accessibility
        slide.
      * A "what's new this time" slide is what the release notes are for
        and would generate immense panic in trying to keep everything
        synchronized. Nice point, though, that it's an important thing
        to have a link /somewhere/ other than the web site.

I think a nice background goal here is sort of teaching by osmosis
wherever possible. For example, I am popping together a Games slide
right now per Andrew's suggestion and it's actually feeling like a neat
platform to demonstrate the main menu as well. We don't have to say
"most applications are in the main menu" in some mundane 30-50 second
lesson. We just have to get people looking at the right place for games
and they'll notice the rest themselves.
It would be a neat goal to address that problem of people turning into
zombies when faced with computers, and I think it can be aided by having
this - possibly the first 'getting started guide' the user sees - really
encourage natural exploration, because our users are not dumb.

I like the idea of having something more interactive. It would be cool,
for example, if people could click the screenshots at the bottom of each
slide to have some optional extra (text only) information appear. This
way we don't generate information overload unless people ask, but extra
stuff is available in a click. It could even use Alt text to do this,
thus feeling justified. Nice idea, Mac :)
I'm not big on having forking slideshows, though. Again, I stared at it
but it adds a ton of technical complexity and makes things kind of crazy
for very little gain. It loses us that power of gradually introducing
concepts by creating quite a bit of uncertainty for what the viewer has
seen and what he has not.

As for that other OS, why show what app is an equivalent to Paint when
you can just say "This is for drawing pictures" and appeal to /anyone/,
ex-Windows user who cares about Paint or not? This reminds me of Mark's
aim for Ubuntu to not be seen as a cheap alternative to Windows, and one
of the ways to achieve it is to avoid having that sort of stuff in such
a prominent place. It makes sense in a switcher's guide, but I really
don't think it does here.

The problem with Windows' install slideshows is that it takes on the
salesman tone. (If I am installing Windows, I think I already bought it,
thanks). For example it says "Oh boy, you can watch movies now!" and
then leaves you in the dark. It appears to be telling you how great
Windows is and why you should use it, which is entirely redundant and
horrible.
To be honest the fspot slide does that right now, too, except it tells
you which app to open... but yes: let's try to avoid it.



Hopefully that will get us on the same page!


-Dylan
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