[Om2009] testing Release 3

[Risto H. Kurppa]

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 8:56 PM, Warren Baird <photogeekmtl at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I thought I'd share my experiences so far with the testing release.   I've
> been using QT Extended 4.4.3 as my primary phone for more than 6 months now,
> but I decided to try putting the OM2009 TR3 build on my SD card to give it a
> shot.
>
> I've only done minimal testing so far - I've been able to successfully make
> and receive a phone call, and the first sms I sent work, however the second
> one seemed to hang while saying 'sending' for quite a while.   I was very
> happy to see that receiving a phone call while suspended woke up about as
> quickly as QtE 4.4.3, so I was able to easily answer the call - unlike my
> experience with OM 2008.
>
> However, I'd have to say that coming from QT Extended, the paroli user
> experience requires a *lot* of work - enough that my first thought was that
> my install didn't work.
>
> I saw a black screen with white text showing the time and date at the top,
> and 4 lines with "I/O" (or "1/0" - I can't tell for sure), "People", "Tele"
> and "Msgs" on it.   On each of the following pages there's no real
> indication what to do.  The first thing I did was click on the "I/O" page,
> and saw a blank page with an edit button at the top that seemed to do
> nothing.    Then I tried to figure out how to get back to the main page...
> Took me a lot of random clicking to figure out that clicking on the date at
> the top takes you back to the home page.
>
> The Tele page is a little more intuitive, but again, it wasn't obvious to me
> that the text 'Call' near the top was an actual button.
>
> I found the msgs page very confusing.  I did figure out fairly quickly that
> '+' tries to send a new message - and I was able to send a message and get a
> reply.    I do actually like the IM like display showing the messages back
> and forth.   However, I couldn't really figure out what to do to send a new
> message to the existing conversation.   I got into a mode where it seemed to
> be letting me edit the sms message I had just recieved, but couldn't figure
> out how to just reply.
>
> It seems like OM2009 has addressed the technical problems that encouraged me
> to switch to QtE originally - but I must admit that unless the user
> experience is *substantially* improved, I doubt I'll be switching off QtE.
>
> Is there work ongoing in terms of producing a better user experience for
> OM2009?   I'd love to contribute.  I don't have piles of spare time, but
> I've done a bunch of python coding, am pretty good with the gimp, and worked
> with a Ph.D in user experience for long enough to have half a clue about
> user interface design.
>
> Warren


Hi Warren!

I just couldn't agree more with your comments!
I wrote a message about my remarks of the Paroli GUI here:
http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-May/047818.html -
but no answers so far. I'd really like to know the thinking behind
Paroli GUI and know how to contribute and so on.

So by all means, I too want to welcome you to work on Paroli. I don't
know what are the changes to be able to work on the GUI but it's
always worth trying, and I especially respect that you are a
professional in this field and OM should work hard to make people like
you to contribute and stay around and not go away.

So make sure you're not forgotten. An easy way to join is to come to
#paroli IRC -channel. If you have time & skills some kind of analysis
of the UI would be great.

Enjoy your freedom!


r