Comments on: Report: OLPC may eventually switch from Linux to Windows XP http://humanfactorsblog.org/2008/04/23/report-olpc-may-eventually-switch-from-linux-to-windows-xp/ Not blaming the user since 2007! Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:01:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tom Drewes http://humanfactorsblog.org/2008/04/23/report-olpc-may-eventually-switch-from-linux-to-windows-xp/comment-page-1/#comment-86 Tom Drewes Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:09:21 +0000 http://humanfactorsblog.org/2008/04/23/report-olpc-may-eventually-switch-from-linux-to-windows-xp/#comment-86 The OLPC Wiki has some documents detailing their Human Interface Guidelines. I have not had a chance to read over these yet, but perhaps their is some discussion of principles underlying the design: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines It's interesting to note that there are a number of additional controls on the OLPC keyboard that are very task-specific and unique to the OLPC: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Sugar_Interface/Input_Systems Also, there are apparently some bootable CD images available of different flavors of Linux sporting the Sugar environment running on top of them - I haven't had chance to try one of these either, but I'll hopefully take a look this weekend: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LiveCd I'll reserve any judgments until I've had a chance to actually try a live version of the interface and read a bit more about the basis for their design decisions. The OLPC Wiki has some documents detailing their Human Interface Guidelines. I have not had a chance to read over these yet, but perhaps their is some discussion of principles underlying the design:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines

It’s interesting to note that there are a number of additional controls on the OLPC keyboard that are very task-specific and unique to the OLPC:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Sugar_Interface/Input_Systems

Also, there are apparently some bootable CD images available of different flavors of Linux sporting the Sugar environment running on top of them – I haven’t had chance to try one of these either, but I’ll hopefully take a look this weekend:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/LiveCd

I’ll reserve any judgments until I’ve had a chance to actually try a live version of the interface and read a bit more about the basis for their design decisions.

]]> By: ryan k. http://humanfactorsblog.org/2008/04/23/report-olpc-may-eventually-switch-from-linux-to-windows-xp/comment-page-1/#comment-85 ryan k. Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:52:14 +0000 http://humanfactorsblog.org/2008/04/23/report-olpc-may-eventually-switch-from-linux-to-windows-xp/#comment-85 The interface definitely raises a few red flags for me, in terms of what Travis said on the previous post about this topic: "For me, the biggest question with something like Sugar is whether is does children a service or disservice to provide them with computing tools that will not expose them to many of the UI conventions used worldwide." But in other regards, I wonder what the UI was based on, and if the ideas of designing for children in low-income, low-technology households was taken into account. The interface seems pretty obvious to me at the forefront, but if this is their first hypothetical introduction to a GUI, I wonder how they will react to the mainstream UIs later on. So interesting! The interface definitely raises a few red flags for me, in terms of what Travis said on the previous post about this topic:

“For me, the biggest question with something like Sugar is whether is does children a service or disservice to provide them with computing tools that will not expose them to many of the UI conventions used worldwide.”

But in other regards, I wonder what the UI was based on, and if the ideas of designing for children in low-income, low-technology households was taken into account. The interface seems pretty obvious to me at the forefront, but if this is their first hypothetical introduction to a GUI, I wonder how they will react to the mainstream UIs later on. So interesting!

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