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Launchpad Entry:
Created: 2006-06-11 by Ghee22
Contributors: Ghee22 AlwinGarside JonathanMusther
Packages affected:
Multimedia Guide Content': MultimediaGuideContent
IMPORTANT: - This project was created for the old Ubuntu Welcome Centre's goals
Summary
The Multimedia Guide is a GUI application that shows the user how to do specific tasks. It uses video & audio to introduces the user to the applications that he will be using in GNOME, KDE or XFCE, the capabilities of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Community. The application must be attractive and easy to use for new users, so they can easily migrate to Ubuntu.
Rationale
New users should have an easy to understand, localised guide to using Ubuntu. An internet connection is a commodity not everyone can afford; having the welcome center be a part of Ubuntu guarantees access to all users. The welcome center explains the very basics of menus & shortcuts to the advanced applications available to users. Ubuntu is not only for users who are new to computers; with the majority of people in the world using Microsoft operating systems, Gnome's desktop may confuse them. All new users will have the same questions regarding how to achieve basic tasks in Ubuntu. Having a Welcome Center will automate solutions to preconcieved questions on how to be productive in Ubuntu. The welcome center will instill confidence in the new user which will reduce the risk of them leaving Ubuntu simple because they feel "lost".
The Multimedia Guide should have a section specifically for Microsoft users, and maybe one for Mac users, which outlines how to move from MS or Mac to Ubuntu. For example, 'home' is similar to My Documents, store all of your personal files there (we could take this oppotunity to suggest organising with folders - something which many windows users never do). OpenOffice.org Writer (Word Processor) does the same job as Word, click here to learn how to use it.
Finally, it's critical importance is that the new user is introduced to the forums (and other support resources - such as the Wiki and IRC) as early as possible. The Ubuntu online community, which embraces the spirit of Ubuntu, is probably the very best place for new users to learn and begin participating. The more active users, the better. (see here)
Use cases
- Jigna's Windows XP becomes ridiculously slow being slewed with popups and spyware. Jigna's boyfriend, Parag, comes over one day and installs Ubuntu Dapper Drake on her system. Parag, having a fulltime job, leaves Jigna after he confirms a successful install. Jigna stares at the brown screen searching for the blue E icon; minutes pass and Jigna gives up and boots into a slow, but useful, Windows XP. Had a welcome center explained the equivalents of windows programs to Ubuntu's programs, Jigna would have given Ubuntu more of a chance.
- Raja comes home from intermediate school to find a brand new computer, turned on and on Ubuntu's Edgy's desktop. Excited, Raja clicks rapidly on multiple menus trying to figure out what the pictures stand for and which button on the mouse means what. Raja's father Naimish notices Raja's frustration and joins him. Naimish loads up Ubuntu Welcome Center and explains the basics of how to use Ubuntu to Raja. Afterwards, Raja is able to login to his own account, which Naimish created for him, and play Frozen Bubble.
Steve is a Windows XP expert, but never used Linux before in his life. Out of curiosity he decides to order a free Edgy Eft CD from ShipIt. He boots a live CD and as soon as it is done loading the Live CD version of the Multimedia Guide pops up with clear instructions on what Ubuntu is, what the Live CD does and a big Install button.
- Steve has now installed Ubuntu allongside his Windows XP installation, thanks to the Live CD installer, and boots it up. Now the actual Multimedia Guide pops up and offers him a tour through Ubuntu. A checkbox allows him to disable the pop-up showing up on log-in. Steve marks the checkbox and closes the Multimedia Guide right away in a typical 'I don't need your help!' mood. Instead of closing, the Multimedia Guide minimizes to the notification area, and an 'If you need me anyway, I'll be around'-message baloon pops-up.
After messing around for half an hour, and discovering that his Windows XP knowledge just won't suffice, he decides to give in and opens the Multimedia Guide again, wich is still available from the notification area, and also from the System -> Help menu.
Lee is a very technically minded student of computer science at university, his friend who is overseas has been suggesting Ubuntu for some time. On a whim, Lee decides to download and install Ubuntu on his laptop. When the installation is finished the Multimedia Guide loads and Lee has a very quick read, finds out a little about the Ubuntu community and then closes the window. Lee quickly finds the 'Networking' control panel, but discovers that Ubuntu has not recognised his laptops wireless card. He quickly looks through the system help, but finds only a link to a wiki page which is not very complete. Remembering the Multimedia Guide and it's information about the community Lee opens it again (from System --> Help) and clicks the link which takes him to the Ubuntu forums. A few minutes later Lee has signed up and is asking questions about his wireless card. The next day Lee checks his email and has recieved a message from the Ubuntu forums saying that people have replied to his messages, using the information provided in the forums Lee is able to get his wireless card working, and continues to run Ubuntu on his laptop.
Diego is Brazilian and a Normal Windows User. His English isn't great. He got a Xubuntu Edgy Eft CD, to try out on his Pentium 2, from a friend and decides to boot it up. After a few minutes he's looking at a nice Brazilian Portuguese translation of the Multimedia Guide, wich informs him that if he needs any help, he can use the UbuntuLiveChatSupport. Diego is kinda scared by the concept of installing an OS on his PC. Luckily, he has ADSL, so he opens Live Chat and it connects him to the #ubuntu-br channel on Freenode. He asks 'bom dia, eu quero instalar xubuntu mais nao sei como' and the friendly people on the #ubuntu-br channel guide him through the install, and Ubuntu is installed on his PC without a hinch.
Scope
- This specification covers the design/creation of the Multimedia Guide browser and the content of the tour and tutorials.
Design
- Reads categories.txt for last modified date
- categories.txt's format is each line has category filename, modified since last run.
- If (categories.txt's date is modified later than last time it was modified (stored in guide.ini))
- read categories.txt for all categories that have been modified, looking for modified boolean, and update files as necessary
- display main menu, waiting for user to click category
- display category's page from it's filename.
- user may hit next page in category, previous (if hit next before), or change categories, or click upper left to return to main menu
- Updating files (categories.txt has been modified)
- Rebuild .html files by using tags
<title> Is for title of page
<content> tag is for words & pictures
<number> is for page number within category
Implementation
The guide will be implemented using DHTML (combination of html, js, & xml). XML will allow for certian pages to be turned off by the system administrator for new users. Pages must be easily added and removed, therefore a setup screen with checkmarks will be included. DHTML is used because it is highly portable to all three Ubuntu distributions with little to no work; also it will be able to play audio & video quite easily.
Microsoft's approach
- Microsoft takes the following approach: When a new user is logged into Windows XP for the first time, a icon in the system tray pops a message, "Take a tour of windows XP". This is not the response we should take. The tour should be open on the first login for many reasons. We cannot take for granted our users will understand the system tray being at top right. Also, many users find the pop-up message irritating. This tour is not for new features in Edgy Eft; this tour is for all features in Ubuntu, period.
Note: MS uses Flash for their tour, we will use DHTML.
With Gnome being our default desktop, I have decided that Gnome's Desktop User Guide (http://www.gnome.org/learn/users-guide/latest/) should be heavily reformatted and edited. Edited because although Ubuntu is based on Gnome, it isn't Gnome. For instance, we include Firefox as the default browser, rather than Epiphany. This tour's content should be similar to the tour on this page http://help.ubuntu.com/quicktour/C/quicktour.html. Unfortunately, this is for Ubuntu 5.10. We can use Gnome's "what's new in 2.14" (http://www.gnome.org/~davyd/gnome-2-14/) as a good reference. I'd remove all the technical details such as performance issues. Again, we are assuming the audience has not used Ubuntu before.
Although I'd like to hope MS users will be able to pick up Gnome without assistance, I've seen in personal experience that it's not very likely. Questions such as "where's: Winamp, Word, Outlook, this & that?" arise often. It's not difficult to find a chart that points out Ubuntu's "equivalents": http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/11684.html. There should be an option in the tour, "Are you a MS Windows user?" If yes, the tour would move to this chart but instead of the Ubuntu apps being text, they would be links to the actual programs so the user can right there continue their personal tour.
Now that the MS bashing earlier is over, let's look at what they did right. MS has two versions, one for accessibility made as a webpage. I agree with this tactic & the implementation of this should be fairly simple. Our should be the same, using stills instead of videos. MS's Windows XP tour is personalized for certain activities.
Localization
- Multimedia Guide should be localizable through Rosetta. It is also important that all localized versions of the Multimedia Guide come on the CD.
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu
- Obviously, each of these should have different content specialized for the Desktop Environment and target user in question.
Contents
The content is being worked on at: MultimediaGuideContent
Timeline
- May 23rd, 1st week: mock screenshots of actual tour completed in first week
- May 30th, 2nd week: submit screenshots to mentor and general public. since most of the text content is already created, the adjusted formatting of all text should be completed in a week. also all screenshots must be taken (note: this is only screenshots, not video shots of programs).
June 7th, 3rd week: use new mockup after mentor & general public's opionions. work on gtk program, with only text up. our goal for this week is to have the the menu of choices and each choice finished
- June 13th, 4th week: work on flashy intro, this will take 2 weeks so I'll break it down. this week will be design goals for flashy entrance and all text completed
- June 20th, 5th week: work on finishing touches for flashy entrance
June 27th, 6th week: test on dapper in 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1400x1050 (laptop). note all problems. test in 32 bit mode, 16 bit mode, test in live cd & in ubuntu installed comp. Convert program to html with pictures.
- June 30th, mid 6th week: submit for midprogram evaluation. program should have flashy design, and all text for all windows expected. submit both versions to general public.
July 4th, 7th week: lax week, fix all issues that mentor & general public did not like
- July 11th, 8th week: implement screenshots into tour
- July 18th, 9th week: submit to general public, start taking video screenshots using Istanbul
- July 25th, 10th week: learn how to implement video screen shots
- August 1st, 11th week: fix issues general public did not like, implement all video screenshots. Start work on an HTML version of this
August 8th, 12th week: test on dapper & latest flight of Edgy Eft in 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1400x1050 (laptop). note all problems. run program in edubuntu as well, submit to general public
- August 15th, 13th week: fix all issues found
- August 21st, end of 13th week: program due, submit
Code
Data preservation and migration
Outstanding issues
BoF agenda and discussion
Discussion
Maintainer's Contact Info
- ghee22 on irc.freenode.net
First use wizard
Mockup
Content Pages
The content is currently on: