[lively-kernel] Waving the red flag

[Philip Weaver]

Prezi is indeed pretty rad. Patrick, please reply and explain more about the
zebra and paths. I have not looked closely enough.

I think that *when* a zoomable user interface becomes a priority that some
aspects of Lively ought to change. Drag to pan by default. Lasso selection
via contexual menu instead. (Keep usual single selection behavior.)
Double-click a morph to zoom to fit (similar to opening a window from an
icon). Viewports (scrollable viewports) should instead be views to
subworlds. Etc. But we need some drawings and need to consider "subtlety"
for a zoomable user interface.

Thanks for writing Patrick. If you are willing to draw mockups for Lively I
need you. http://tinyurl.com/lively-mockups/  If you want to code, the
project needs you: talk to Dan, Jens, or Robert.

Peace,
Philip

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Patrick Shouse
<shouse.patrick at gmail.com>wrote:

> This description of a Phooey reminds me of Prezi: http://prezi.com. Some
> concepts from Prezi like the zebra and paths might be useful in Lively
> Kernel.
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:12 PM, Philip Weaver <philmaker at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hello Richard,
>>
>> In April you wrote: "What would it take to make it easy to construct and
>> navigate such a zoom world in Lively Kernel?"
>>
>> I hope you can spend some time to answer this question with a drawing:
>>
>>    -
>>    http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYWzJ6ByFTvFZGhqNmI2cGhfMjc5Z2Q3cjlrZ2Y&hl=en
>>    - http://www.lively-kernel.org/repository/lively-wiki/index.xhtml
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Philip Weaver
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Richard Karpinski <
>> dickkarpinski at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Dan and everybody,
>>>
>>> Smalltalk is wonderful. Making it work in virtually every browser by
>>> coding the base system in Javascript is very clever and could be marvelously
>>> useful. Enriching the current code to make Lively Kernel suitable for
>>> awesome presentations well beyond what PowerPoint could dream of has much
>>> appeal for me. I love neat things that are useful and can be acquired
>>> inexpensively in money and time. When such things have unbounded utility,
>>> Pavlov sets in and I slather and drool. Keep it up, man. I don't mind that
>>> my shirt gets wet.
>>>
>>> But wait. How long does it take for someone to be comfortable navigating
>>> around in a Lively Kernel world?
>>>
>>> I'm sure it's not one of those things that takes weeks to get into, but I
>>> worry that it might take an hour or two. What I want is a system that
>>> computer experts can become competent with in only a few minutes. It would
>>> be truly great if novices could get there even faster. But who knows how to
>>> build such a system?
>>>
>>> Today, I think no one knows how to do that. However, the late Jef Raskin,
>>> father of the Macintosh and author of "The Humane Interface", did. Given a
>>> charter to assist in getting around in a patient's chart which was
>>> impossible to read when fully displayed and awkward to navigate when
>>> magnified to be readable, Jef used zooming to good effect. He wanted to call
>>> it a Flying User Interface, not only because he liked flying and it felt
>>> like that, but especially so he could call it (phonetically) a Phooey. He
>>> was like that.
>>>
>>> Anyway, he discussed the system in his book, but he left out some
>>> details. When computer experts were trained to use the system. they became
>>> comfortable and competent in less than TWO minutes. But when utter novices,
>>> who maybe recognized the mouse as a thing to push around, not speak into as
>>> Scotty did, they became fully functional with the system in less than ONE
>>> minute.
>>>
>>> I really like that. I want that. With such a system I could teach a three
>>> year old to use it, or a 93 year old, or even a college professor. I am NOT
>>> kidding, the first and second examples may have time to spare, but the prof
>>> does not.
>>>
>>> Why does it work so well? My theory is that for tens of millions of
>>> years, our ancestors made it back to the nest, or we would not be here
>>> today. Thus the talent for geographic navigation is built into our DNA. We
>>> do not forget where the fridge is or where the couch is. Often we can get to
>>> such places in the dark. If our computer world is so arranged, people won't
>>> get lost so often. If we can follow links by rolling into a thumbnail and
>>> can return by recrossing that border it will seem natural to us.
>>>
>>> What would it take to make it easy to construct and navigate such a zoom
>>> world in Lively Kernel?
>>>
>>> Richard
>>>
>>> --
>>> Richard Karpinski, Nitpicker extraordinaire
>>>
>>> 148 Sequoia Circle,
>>> Santa Rosa, CA 95401
>>> Home: 707-546-6760
>>> http://nitpicker.pbwiki.com/
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> lively-kernel at hpi.uni-potsdam.de
>>> http://lists.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/listinfo/lively-kernel
>>>
>>>
>>
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