UbuntuWelcomeCentre

Revision 11 as of 2006-06-05 15:01:31

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Summary

A GUI application that assist the user with the application that he will be using in GNOME, and the capabilities of Ubuntu. The application must be attractive and easy to use for new users to easily adopt in Ubuntu.

Rationale

New users should have an easy to understand, local guide to using Ubuntu. An internet connection is a commodity, not everyone can afford; having the welcome center be a part of Ubuntu guarentees 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 new users to computers; with the majority of users in the world using MS based OSes, 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 leaving Ubuntu plainly for "being lost".

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 on her system. Parag, having a fulltime job, leaves Jigna after he confirms a successful install. Jigna stares at the screen searching for the blue E icon for internet explorer; minutes pass and Jigna gives up and boots into a slow, but useful, Windows XP. Had a welcome center explain 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 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. Raja is also able to double click on a desktop shortcut, which loads up the National Geographic Kids website, where can learn about nature.

Scope

Design

[http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~jigtopi/ubuntu/ latest mindmap]: Use right-click save on .mm file and then view. Use [http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#Download FreeMind] to view.

Implementation

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 I want to take. I want it the tour to 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. This tour is not for new features in Ubuntu Dappy Drake; this tour is for all features in Ubuntu, period. This is our first LTR, hence, truly our first release to the general public. Note: MS uses Flash for their tour, our specs require GTK.

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 : (adjusted for our use)

  1. Getting Started: Desktop, Icons (shortcuts), Taskbars, Gnome Start Menu, Files and Folders, Windows, Ending Your Session & our version of fast switching users

  2. productivity: openoffice.org 2 features, firefox, evolution, gedit, gimp, installing java

  3. Digital Media: good & the bad. good: gthumb, totem, Rhythmbox (list portable players that are compatible, podcasts), . the bad but put a twist on it: restrictions explained ( MP3s, The Codecs, Playing Streaming Video from the Internet, Playing DVD's, RealPlayer, Macromedia Flash, , Macromedia Shockwave, AAC and iTunes Music Store) point to instructions on how to install mp3 playback, . something for the future is to modify easy ubuntu to only install codecs and have users be able to install it if they are within a legal country.

  4. Finding Information: searchable gnome, searching with nautilus, deskbar, blurb about beagle
  5. staying connected: gaim, ekiga, x-chat gnome, sharing with zeroconf

  6. Fun & Games: introduce user to stock games, downloading new games, and even using wine to play games

  7. Easy configuration: settings/preferences menu, accessibility, translated versions of ubuntu, power management, network manager, user management, add/remove apps, sabayon, screensaver
  8. Safe Personal Computing: the use of sudo, separation of accounts for different users, installing software, updating the system, new kernel, proactive security, iptables, antivirus

  9. support: help menu, documentation & guides, online web forums, paid support with canonical & other registered companies (link)

  10. participation: bug tracking, providing translations, donating money, wiki, answering in forums

At the end of the tour, there should be a list of places to go for support. This is just to open their eyes to where one should go for help. This page http://www.ubuntu.com/support has enough content to fill in the last page.

As for a 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

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Code

Data preservation and migration

Outstanding issues

BoF agenda and discussion

Discussion

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