ubiquity-slideshow team mailing list archive

[Dylan McCall <dylanmccall@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Howard,

Sorry this took so long. And about the top-posting. Modest, while very pretty, doesn't seem very helpful for plain text messages :)

I'm not really saying you should use different images in your example, but I suspect that it can be difficult to find single images that present everything we want.

The Gnome Do thing is a red herring ;)
Just an example of how your screenshot demonstrates the issue I just mentioned. Even though it's for support information, half of the information on there is about gnome-do, from your screenshot! Of course, this is a mockup, so not a permanent problem. However, with full pictures the issue of staying 'on topic' (within reason) is important.

Indeed, the nifty explanatory bubbles on top of screenshots can be separate and localized. However, we then lose the power of screenshots to drive context, at least for right-to-left users. (Eg: Arabic). Screenshots could be localized similarly, which would be mighty cool.

Basically, I do really like the mockup, but it has some technical hurdles and is in need of examples for other cases such as slides about multiple apps. If those hurdles can be overcome, which I agree they _could_ be: awesome! I think that could be a fun target for 10.04 :)
For 9.10, I think it's safest to stick with structure similar to what we have already + some minor amendments, unless there is a really serious issue to contend with.


Thanks again,
Dylan

----- Original message -----
Hi Dylan

I would like to respond to your concerns, point for point, but I had some
trouble understanding what you were trying to say in your last message.


> I'm using Webkit entirely because it will probably be on the live cd by
default ... If this turns out not to be the case, it'll be Firefox's
xulrunner or a hand-made XML parser.

I understand this part.  You are confident that using WebKit (or some other
web markup engine) is the right way to go because it will *probably* already
be included on the LiveCD.


> I love the way you have the bubbles here. Very tidy. Light on text, heavy
on image is a decent idea to pursue so long as the image conveys the right
information to replace the text. In your example I don't think that is so
much the case;

I think you are saying that it would have been better if I had chosen
differently for the images on my slides.  Is that what you meant, and if so,
what would you suggest instead?

> ... for information about support resources, it sure does a lot of
promoting GNOME Do. (I guess we could call that a dual purpose, but then the
reader forgets support having been blinded by GNOME Do's brilliance). Of
course, that's an example. I can certainly imagine where that would work
really well.

I'm sorry, but this just leaves me confused.  You seem to be saying
something about GNOME Do, but I don't see how that is relevant.  Are you
saying my text bubbles remind you of the GNOME Do interface, and if so, what
does that mean in terms of the suitability of my proposed design?


> One issue with using big images alone is localization ... Stripping text /
localization details from screenshots and handling the captions with
text could be one way about that ...


I think you are touching upon the issue of,

"How do we produce slides that are in each user's preferred language?"

As well, "How do we do this without taking up a huge chunk of memory on the
LiveCD?"

Is that what you are saying?  If so, this is something I was thinking about
when I was making these latest mockups, as a matter of fact.  I feel it's an
important issue.  I also believe there is an elegant solution to this -
layers.  Considering your aforementioned preference of implementing the
slideshow with a web markup engine, I have an idea how we can address this
issue by using CSS Layers with Absolute Positioning.  I would be happy to
share the details of this solution with you, but for now, I just want to be
sure I am properly understanding what you are trying to say.


Well, that's about it.  I look forward to your reply, and I thank you in
advance, for taking the time and effort to clarify what you were trying to
say in your previous message.


Thanks,

Howard "Freeman" Stellar.