UbuntuWelcomeCentre

Revision 39 as of 2006-06-09 19:39:17

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Important Note: - change of direction for welcome centre proposed, see the Content section below.

Summary

  • The Welcome Centre is a GUI application that shows up after booting up the live CD, and on a new user's first login on an installed system. It 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 welcome centre 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. ([http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=186797&highlight=critical+forums 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 Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre right away in a typical 'I don't need your help!' mood. Instead of closing, the Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre 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 Welcome Centre, 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 Welcome Centre browser and the content of the tour and tutorials.

Design

  • The Welcome Centre should consist of a single Window which contains a main HTML view, where people will browse through the content, and a bar on the right containing navigation and buttons with usefull functions. (Like 'Install Ubuntu Now' and 'Live Chat Support' buttons on the Live CD version.) The bar should also have an 'Close this Window' button at the bottom with a 'Show on Login' checkbox above it.
  • If the Welcome Centre is closed, it should still remain in the Notification Area (even after logging out and in, or rebooting. It could show up a baloon ONCE and only for about 5 seconds to let the user know that it's still around. - When closed an information dialogue should appear explaining that the icon is in the system tray, and telling the user how to disable it completely if they so wish. It is very important to make sure the welcome centre does not become annoying.
  • The user can disable the Welcome Centre permanently by clicking the Welcome Centre icon in the Notification Area and selecting 'Disable the Welcome Centre'.
  • The Welcome Centre should also be accessible from the System -> Help menu. (And also on a wise place in the KDE menu in the case of Kubuntu)

  • We can't use Flash because it doesn't come pre-installed since it's propriety software and only available in Multiverse.
  • We can't use videos either because there is limited space available on the CD.

Implementation

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, 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. === Localization === Welcome Centre should be localizable through Rosetta. It is also important that all localized versions of the Welcome Centre 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

I recently started a thread on the forums ([http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=192695&highlight=centre here]) which asked for help with the Welcome Centre content. The main feeling seemed to be that the Welcome Centre should be very brief and to the point. I'm thinking we should revise the content list, (I'm beginning to feel like we're just putting the documentation in two places, that's not good). The new contents list would run something like this: Introduction, About GNU/Linux/Ubuntu, Installing (for the live version), Help with Ubuntu. The Introduction section would be basically like the one on UbuntuWelcomeCentreContent, the About page will be lots of links to info about GNU, Linux, Ubuntu, history, philosophy etc. The Help with Ubuntu will show the users where the system help is, it will also point them to the forums, wiki, IRC and any other online content.

I believe this strategy for the Welcome Centre will be much better for several reasons. It will be small (easier to fit on the CD), it will be short (users, even existing ones will not get fed up reading it), it won't duplicate existing help (in the system help), and finally we'll be able to get it up and running more quickly.

TOC

  1. Introduction: The philosophy, the community, in short, why is Ubuntu so good? Humanity towards others. - Links to the Ubuntu community, forums, wiki, LoCo Teams etc.

  2. Installation: All the steps of the Live Installer explained. (Live version only)

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

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

    1. Instant Communication: Gaim, Ekiga, sharing with zeroconf

    2. Finding Files: searchable Gnome, searching with Nautilus, Deskbar, blurb about Beagle

  5. Entertainment:

    1. Multimedia: Explain 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.

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

  6. Safe Personal Computing: The use of sudo, separation of accounts for different users, installing software, updating the system, new kernel, proactive security, iptables, antivirus

    1. Configuration: Settings/Preferences menu, accessibility, translated versions of ubuntu, power management, Network Manager, user management, add/remove apps, sabayon, screensaver

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

    1. Community:

    2. Participation: bug tracking, providing translations, donating money, wiki, answering in forums

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

  • Please! Add i18n! The code must be translatable via Rosetta. -- RicardoPérezLópez

  • I added a similar Spec to Launchpad today... And then found this one. So I edited the Spec to point over here instead since this draft is more complete. I hope you don't mind. By the way, count me in for any GTK+ coding, etc. -- AlwinGarside

  • There should be two different Welcome Centres. One for the Live CD and one for the installed system. The goals of the two should be different. -- AlwinGarside

  • In the contents section above, support is number 8. The Welcome Centre should be all about support, it should focus on the community. Any new user who becomes a part of the community will be well supported and, if they're having trouble getting to grips with something, they will most likely find an answer. The welcome centre should make the point that Ubuntu isn't like traditional software (commercial software) because of the community of people who believe in the philosophy of ubuntu. Because of the common belief in the spirit of ubuntu the best way for any new user to get support (which is specific to them - and therefore most helpful) is from the community - this is what makes Ubuntu great.
  • Please work with the Documentation team to make sure the information is consistent across all of the guides that are currently in place.
  • The quick guide has been replaced by the DesktopGuide and should be used as reference, this is what is currently being shipped and will be updated.

Maintainer's Contact Info

From FirstBootWizard

First use wizard

Of course, Ubuntu (or Linux for that matter) is not Windows, and we don't want it to be. As a result, we do need to welcome new users in a friendly way, and I think the best way is a welcome wizard. Ubuntu, no matter how hard we try, will always be difficult to new users, because it's different. With a welcome wizard on first boot, or first use of a new user account, we could briefly go over the menu bar (Applications, Places, System), Apt-Get, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. Really, the only programming that is essential is the first screen, then if the user wants to view the tutorial, they click continue, if they want to be reminded, click remind me later, and if they don't want help, just close and leave the link in a menu (system -> help). Then it could lead to an OpenOffice Presentation. Simple, but makes a big difference, giving Ubuntu an easier feel, and a more professional feel.

Mockup

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FirstBootWizard?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=firstuse.png

First screen, just a mockup.

Content Pages

Below are pages on which we should work on the content, there seem to be a lot of different efforts, mock up screens etc, I think it's time we all started (with the help of the documentation team, somebody let them know) working on some content.

These are the main pages for the different versions.

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContent - Ubuntu Version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentUbuntuLive - Ubuntu Live CD version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentKubuntu - Kubuntu Version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentKubuntuLive - Kubuntu Live CD version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentXubuntu - Xubuntu version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentXubuntuLive - Xubuntu Live CD Version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentEdubuntu - Edubuntu version

UbuntuWelcomeCentreContentEdubuntuLive - Edubuntu Live CD version


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