[Eyecatcher-general] Minutes from a spontaneous IRC-Meeting

[Don Wright]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:00:21 +0100, Martin Zobel-Helas <mhelas@helas.net> wrote:

>we had a spontaneous IRC-Meeting just now, where we discussed what
>could be used for the presentation...

Glad to see this update. To go along with it I'd like to mention a few general
points for computer show displays. (Some of this has already been covered, but I
would like to create a design document.) Please add to it with your thoughts and
discussion.

Question for the group: What mix of GNU/Linux (general) vs. Debian (specific)
should be covered? I will want to use eyecatcher in shows where most people are
not very familiar with Linux. A booth at a Linux conference will have different
needs.


Design guidelines:
 - A person may come upon the display starting at any point. Therefore, as much
as possible, each page should be complete in itself. A series of pages can build
on a topic, but each one should express a complete thought.

 - Minimize the text on each page. These are highway signs, not end user license
agreements. You want the main point of the page to be readable at a distance of
at least 3 metres, or the width of the walkway at a trade show. Anyone closer
than 1 metre is already interested in what you're saying. 

 - Use short, direct, factual sentences to ease the job of translation.

 - Do not describe other products in unfavorable terms. It causes people to
defend their previous choices rather than listen to your benefits. For example,
say the apt system automatically handles dependencies and conflicts, which is a
positive statement. Do not say that RPM is a broken piece of garbage. Let the
viewers decide that from their own experience.

 - I suggest planning for a 17 inch (43 cm) monitor. This is a common size and
the minimum usable for public displays. On that screen the body text should be
no smaller than 6 mm high. (I would prefer 10 mm for viewing at a distance.)
Titles should be at least twice that.

 - Remember that translations may run longer than the original language.
(Debian-installer often has this problem.) Shorter is better.

 - Meanings must be clear. Most people will not ask about things they do not
understand, for fear of seeming stupid. They will go away feeling that Debian
makes them uncomfortable.


I don't want to reopen the discussion about software to the exclusion of
content, but certain issues might cause trouble for people using this
presentation. These are things I've noticed with numerous software packages, not
just the eyecatcher prototype. I don't have a miracle cure to offer right now,
but I will keep looking.

 - Be sure the speed of the presentation does not depend on the speed of the
computer. The first eyecatcher demo from CVS changed pages very quickly on my
AMD 1.8GHz system, which differed depending on whether I started it from a
terminal window or some other way.

 - It would help if the presentation software did not depend on the screen
resolution but would automatically scale text and images to the full screen.
Again, the first demo required reducing the screen resolution on my set.

 - Related to that issue, LCD displays do not look their best at reduced
resolutions, and early video projectors were limited in their choices. If
necessary, provide a way to create versions for specific screen resolutions.
This also means bitmap artwork will have to be scaled to fit. How much work
should we expect the user to do so the presentation displays correctly?


What are your thoughts?  --Don