Talk:Getting Started

Improve the Getting Started page

If you are new to Sugar, please outline problems with this page. Tell us what words you didn't understand, what you wanted to learn but it wasn't addressed, etc.

You can enter your ideas or comments on the editable version of this page.

It seems plain to me that you need to get folk to try Sugar to understand what you are talking about. But the intro and inducement to that needs more pictures. (So point people directly to this link Introduction_to_the_Sugar_Interface.) The trouble is that the words are abstract and nothing in my previous experience seems to correspond to what you say. This makes it very difficult to grasp what you are saying with any clarity. The new user does not have the memory pictures to be able to do this. To grasp something you have to be able to relate to it. More drawings, screen dumps or, even better perhaps, animated pictures should help. --Manselton 22:47, 29 March 2013 (EDT)

Sugar on a Stick Creation Kit

http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/docs/creation-kit/

What makes this page useful to you? Please specify in detail, so that we can include that in a new version.

I find it four versions out of date and short on information. It is also so difficult to edit that no one has tried. --FGrose 22:48, 9 June 2012 (EDT)

Agreed. The Pros, it is portable, has systematic approach, and displays well on a low resource machine. It is free of howlers and distractions of the wiki. It offers an alternative perspective, peceived benefit to those with little experience. --Inkyfingers 07:01, 11 June 2012 (EDT)

This should be updated or not displayed. It can potentially confuse new users --Satellit 11:51, 11 June 2012 (EDT)

Page flow and audience

The page "Sugar on a Stick/Explore" introduces configuration, which is missing on this page.

The entirety of the Explore page should probably be embedded in the Getting Started page. --Walter 19:11, 28 October 2011 (EDT)

I am not sure about this, but does getting started run at more than 1 level. Eg young new-learners, not so young, parents, teachers and organizations. I am aware the whole wiki supports an unusually wide cross section of users. It is a challenge to have a getting started page to pick up each group nicely and take them where they need to go. I like short well targeted pages.--Inkyfingers 22:40, 28 October 2011 (EDT)

Consider customizing a page where the visitor reveals content of interest to them without suffering the loss of context that following a link to another page requires. Expandable frames and hover text or images are two possible techniques. See, for example, the show/hide of the Sugar Learners' Manual on this page. Extra design and care are required to achieve an effective composition and balance the available bandwidth. --FGrose 23:08, 28 October 2011 (EDT)

I like all those ideas. Another technique, two or more pages linked by back and forward arrows. The primary page is as fresh and dynamic as possible, picks up from the point of a new learner with no previous knowledge ... links off this page go only to the most useful pages for this user - avoids distraction. Subsequent pages will be useful to the new learner later and can link to more advanced exploration. I like web sites which help the new user get orientated fast. The show/hide technique (above) could be useful for a paragraph on configuration, which is vital on day 1, can be skipped over on subsequent visits, but is in a known place when required again.--Inkyfingers 06:41, 29 October 2011 (EDT)

I added a link to the Introduction_to_the_Sugar_Interface Tutorial to front page. (It provides a visual introduction to the elements described in the text)--Satellit 07:21, 11 June 2012 (EDT)

Introducing Sugar

Perhaps we should be sure to work in the 11 points of How to present Sugar from the beginning, as that is the experience the presenters gained for new learners. --FGrose 23:27, 4 December 2011 (EST)