Learn XO Sugar by exploring

The user interface for the XO Computer, a low-cost laptop for the third-world children, is called Sugar. Sugar is radically different, in many ways, from the Macintosh GUI conventions that are now established on all platforms. For example, Sugar does not utilize a folders metaphor for storing documents. In an Associated Press article about the computer, Nicholas Negroponte also touches on how users will learn to use Sugar. Quite simply, by exploring it then teaching it to each other. These are sound principals--they form the basis for minimalism and acknowledge how users actually learn--so it will be interesting to see how, and if, these are reflected throughout the product's documentation and help system.

Posted: January 1, 2007 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item