communication-book-community team mailing list archive

[Tim Abell <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

So today v0.5 of the app, and John's latest symbol library was put in 
front of some potential users. The app seemed well received and was 
certainly produced a fair amount of interest. Here is a list of ideas 
and observations that came out of the session from my point of view.

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Mouse travel

 * the current layout of the app was done with order of use in mind,
   however watching users with the app it is clear that moving the
   mouse is more of a challenge than the ordering of items. As such I
   plan to move the most common items to cluster around the top left
   corner of the app:
     o The category panel (bottom) should be moved to the left hand
       side of the app and become vertical, with the top level category
       at the top.
     o The speak button should be moved to the left hand side of the
       sentence panel.
     o filed as https://bugs.launchpad.net/communication/+bug/1016622


Speak button

 * The speak button still needs a symbol of its own for clarity and for
   users who are less able to read.
 * filed as https://bugs.launchpad.net/communication/+bug/1016624


Category navigation panel

 * One of the users clicked on the currently selected category and
   wondered why nothing happened. I think this should not be shown as I
   never saw the users refer to it.
 * Showing the name of the folder for the top of the category tree is I
   think a little confusing. Perhaps it should always say "Back to
   start" and only show if there is a category selected.
 * It was not clear to one of the users how to go back once they were
   in a category.
 * filed as https://bugs.launchpad.net/communication/+bug/1016625


Scrolling

 * Currently if there are too many symbols / categories in the main
   panel they just fall off the edge. The simple case would be to add
   scroll bars, however some users might struggle with this. The
   current idea is to add big back/next page buttons that show to the
   left and right of the main panel if there are more items to see.
   Having said that, it would be interesting to try adding the scroll
   bars and seeing how users get on with the scroll wheel on the mouse
   so I might do that first.
 * https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/scrollable-library


Symbol library

 * John has supplied a new work-in-progress library which was used in
   today's session.
     o http://downloads.timwise.co.uk/commsbook/symbols/symbols-john-2012-06-22.zip
       (60Mb)
 * It is becoming clear that we will need some kind of special website
   to encourage sharing of libraries. It's important that this site
   enforces consistent open licensing of symbol libraries.
     o https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/library-website
 * Copying the symbol library to/from usb stick takes ages (12k files)
   due to window's slow handling of many files. I guess distributing as
   a zip works around this and people are fairly used to that.


App title

 * The appearance of "Java" in the task-bar raised a question. This is
   because the app has no title set.
 * See https://bugs.launchpad.net/communication/+bug/935853


Library navigation

 * The primary purpose of the app is to build a sentence. It was
   noticed that in order to do this you have to repeatedly dive in and
   out of different categories. This needs more thought as the current
   approach is a core part of the current app/library design.
 * filed as https://bugs.launchpad.net/communication/+bug/1016627


Search

 * It would have been useful to have a search function so that anyone
   assisting a user could help them find a particular word in a large
   library. There were a few occasions where I wanted to show a user
   how to construct a sentence I had in my head, but couldn't find the
   words even though I knew them.
 * https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/symbol-search


Sentence altering

 * I was conscious that if a user made a mistake mid-sentence but
   didn't notice immediately then the only option is to delete items
   and start again. Although none of the users got this far this was on
   my mind.
 * See
   https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/sentence-reordering

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Alternative use cases

 * When writing a letter, not being able to think of the spelling of a
   word, and being too far out for auto-correct / google / dictionary
   to help. Could use the app to find the word and therefore its spelling.
 * One user has no problem speaking the words once they have them, but
   struggles to remember them. As such the app can be used to find the
   words but not necessarily needing to use the full sentence building
   and speaking facilities.
 * One of the users mentioned remembering a word one day, and not being
   able to remember it the next. As such perhaps a history or saved
   sentence system would be useful.
     o See
       https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/saved-sentences
     o and
       https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/sentence-history

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iPads

 * 2 people have iPads of there own, so would benefit from an iPad
   version of the application. This would give the advantage of easy
   access to the app in social situations, or just in normal life
     o a real example would be being able to use the app in a sitting
       room rather than running upstairs to a desktop pc
     o my current thinking is that this should be developed as a
       separate app, but it should be able to load the same symbol
       libraries
     o filed as
       https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/ipad-app


Raspberry Pi

 * Noticing that there is a large tv available to the group today, it
   is an idea that we could set up a raspberry pi with a cheap usb
   mouse & keyboard and set it up to always run the app. This would be
   a low cost resource. An SD card image could be published that
   achieves this. Probably need to wait for the Pi to get a case.
 * https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/raspberry-pi

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Partially sighted users

 * A user with poor vision did not attempt to use the app. The app
   would need adjusting for poor vision. Perhaps with a different mode?
 * https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/partially-sighted-support

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Missing words

 * The following are words that we tried to use in John's library but
   weren't there yet:
     o Alphabetical - "one" (as in, "that's one of my favourites")
     o Alphabetical - "my"
     o "favourite"
     o Activity - "cooking"
     o "audio book"
     o Emotions - "love"

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Information sheet

 * A few people had questions like "so can I get this on my computer".
   As such it would have been handy to have an A4 printout to give to
   people with a little about the project, where to get it from, how to
   get support and how to help.
 * https://blueprints.launchpad.net/communication/+spec/information-sheet

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I'd like to thank John for starting this project and working so hard on 
it, and all of today's group for showing and interest and helping try 
out the app.

Tim