UbiquitySlideshow specification Wiki page shock and horror

[Evan Dandrea]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 3:44 AM, Dylan McCall<dylanmccall at gmail.com> wrote:
> Some quick pseudo-science says that a screenshot is not tremendously
> important for marketing. However, in the realm of demonstration, a
> screenshot provides a more tactile, inviting, hands-on kind of example.
> Even a small one, perhaps.

There are a few problems with screenshots.  Localizing them uses up
precious space.  The theme can change from release to release, making
the screenshots look odd if they're not retaken (and we shouldn't
assume that they will be).  And personally, I think they create too
much visual noise.  This should function very much like advertisement
posters do, where you have a small amount of text that the user wont
ignore and very simple imagery that ensures the user wont get
distracted by it and not read the text.  But perhaps I've been
watching too much of the UK Apprentice. :)  I'll let Matthew speak on
the real usability issues of it.

Personally, I think we should be covering concepts rather than
specific applications.  The original specification [1] spoke of
community, free software, in place upgrades, 10,000+ packages, and so
on.  These are things that are better expressed in icons rather than
screenshots.  But rather than go back and forth on that, I'd like to
get a first cut of this out the door so we can get it into the archive
and on the CDs.

1: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ubiquity/Slideshow?action=recall&rev=17