Re: [kidsUI] Alfredo's idea

[Alfredo Kengi Kojima <kojima@inf.ufrgs.br>]

On Thu, 13 Apr 2000, Doug Loss wrote:

> Alfredo Kengi Kojima wrote:
> 
> >
> > - the text area is the white rectangle in the canvas. It would
> > always have the "input focus", so that you dont need to
> > first click on it to be able to type, as is common with
> > most applications. I think it shouldnt be scrollable too;
> 
> I agree about the scrolling. As to the focus, is it possible to make all
> keyboard input go there automatically but keep the cursor (mouse pointer)
> focus in the image area?
>

Yes, I was thinking of making keyboard focus stay at all times
in the textbox. The mouse cursor would not be able to take focus
away from there, so you can move it anywhere.

> >
> > - the scrollable area on the top of the canvas is where the
> > pages of the book will be stored. Each page that has been
> > drawn is stored there. To switch to another page you click
> > in the desired one (a scaled down image of each page should
> > be drawn on each of those squares representing the pages)
> > There is always a blank, white page at the end of the list,
> > so, to create a new page you just click there.
> 
> I think the blank page should show as such, not just as an empty spot in that
> area.  I think that's what you mean, but I wanted to be sure.

Yep, that's what I meant.

> > Im not sure, but
> > maybe it would be good to remove the scrollbar from the
> > page list, as it could be a bit confusing, but it would
> > limit the number of pages possible (dont know if thats
> > an important limitation). There also could be other ways
> > of representing pages that dont fit there...
> 
> When we think about those other ways, let's try to make sure they're general
> ways of indicating that there's more information available than what can
> currently be seen.  Could we do something like a frame around that section
> that resembles the edges of a book, so you can see extra pages on the right
> and left?  You could click on those edges to turn the pages.  That might be
> easier for a child to understand than the concept of a scroll bar, although it
> might require too much dexterity to use to be the best idea.

I have some difficulty to picture that. Could you do some quick mockup
with some paint program to illustrate it?

Another alternative would be to make the whole workspace look like
the page of a sketchbook and allow flipping of pages when you click
at some part of it. I didnt develop the idea much, as I think having
a shrinked view of each page of the book readily visible is better..

> > - the box below the crayonbox would have some image-stamps.
> > They would work as another tool, you click there and
> > whenever you click on the canvas, it will 'print' the
> > selected image. The button labeled "stamp box" would
> > open a window with many more images. I think it could
> > give a selection of stamp-sets, where the whole group
> > of image-buttons would be replaced with the ones in
> > the chosen stamp-set.
> 
> This is also how I was thinking.  We should also have a button for backgrounds
> analogous to the one for stamp box, that would allow the child to pick from
> background images.
>

We'll have to change some stuff to be able to fit that in the
window. Maybe there wont be enough space to put a selection of
background buttons always visible, like for the stamps, so
it will probably have to be a button that opens a dialog that
shows you the available backgrounds for selection. I think that's
not too bad, as I suppose stamping would be a more frequent
action that changing backgrounds.
 
> >
> > - gray box at the right of the list of books is for administrative
> > tasks, or creating new storybooks and loading old books. Saving
> > would be performed automatically, whenever you load a new
> > book or quit the application. Whenever you create a new book,
> > it asks for a name of the story you will start. They would also
> > have graphical icons, instead of (or in addition to) text.
> 
> We should also have it offer a choice of icons for the story, so that when the
> child wants to reload it he or she can see both the icon and the text.

Either that or we could use a shrinked view of some page of the
book to represent it. Maybe the cover page of it.

> 
> >
> > The load dialog would show a simplified list of the stories
> > by name and have a box with a preview area, showing a quick
> > view of the contents of the story book. No directories, paths
> > or anything.. Maybe a way to throw away a book would be good
> > there. I'll try to make a mockup of this dialog later.
> >
> 
> The load button could have a bookcase icon.  When you click on it, the "shelf"
> opens up and you can pick the book you want to work on.  The standard trashcan
> could work to delete a book, so long as things could be recovered from it
> (standard mark-for-deletion and purge behavior).  Perhaps we could limit
> throwing books away to drag and drop from the shelf to the trashcan.  Then a
> child would have to go to the bookcase, open the shelf, and get the book
> before throwing it away.  This could limit inadvertent deletions, and would
> have a relation to the physical actions that would accomplish the same thing
> in the real world.

I think that's good. 
Btw, how easy for a child is drag and drop?

--
Alfrdo