ANN: Global freeware laptop diary tool in REV

[Thomas McGrath III]

Kresten,

Congratulations on release 16.3.9 of Phenomenalog. I've seen one of  
your previous releases and progress is always a good thing. I know  
you are trying to get across to the end user a new method for  
tracking and organizing their life. I have been involved in using  
graphical symbols for communications for many years for people that  
can not speak and who require augmentative communication methods  and  
I do know the problems inherent in getting people to bridge the gap  
between words and graphics. Recently, I have been taking that concept  
to small screen devices (PDAs, Cell Phones, etc.) and the problem of  
getting people to 'see' how this is useful is even greater. I know  
that your system is very powerful and 'could' truly help anyone that  
was willing to learn the critical aspects of the software. The  
problem is that most people will not get to that point. They can't  
get past the overwhelming 'newness' and inherent broad usage of the  
system to a basic understanding of what it is and how to use it.

I have a suggestion for your release that should help you get across  
your core concept to people that are not familiar with your work.  
Even though your idea and methodology offer a broad and ever changing  
usage and is meant to be customized by the user, for the user, as  
they continue using it and that it is designed to grow with the user  
as they use the software on a daily basis, this will only serve to  
confuse the 'new' user and in the end is not very helpful. Instead  
coming up with a sample 'workflow' or daily diary and having an  
explanation built in to that sample 'diary' will allow the new user  
to browse through one possible usage until an understanding is  
reached. Then after an initial understanding is reached of one way to  
use the system then gently explain other possible usages and work  
flows to them.

I would offer a fully scripted walk through of two to three scenarios  
that explained each part of the software and how it was or could be  
used in a sample 'day in the life' approach and offer interactive  
feedback to the user on the 'what' and the 'why' of each entry in the  
system. Have a few sample entries and explain how they are entered  
and why they include the graphic images and explain how useful that  
can be. Then move on to more complex usages and repeat the same  
explanations for each. Do this right on the screen in your interface,  
using pop ups and/or animated processes to 'walk' the user through  
their first usage of your software.

You are already starting to do this by providing the sample user  
images but they are not easy to see or understand and have no real  
explanation of what they are. The text descriptions although fine do  
not get the point across as well as an image or animation do. (A core  
concept of your approach) So if you expand on what you are already  
doing and supply a full screen of the possible usage and include the  
explanation as part of the sample then you can better explain the  
true power of your system and you should be able to draw the user in  
to the software.

I hope this helps and if you want more ideas please feel free to  
email me.

Yours truly,

Tom McGrath


On Jun 16, 2006, at 9:27 PM, Kresten Bjerg wrote:

> Invitation to try using  and collaborate on  an ”elaboratable”  
> diary program  and set of glyph-fonts:
> Phenomenalog 16.3.9.
>
> As difficult as it is to explain and convince about the empowerment  
> afforded by cross-platform REV,
> what we need may be a demonstration-case fit to appeal to basic  
> human existential needs across
> regions and cultures and languages, outside (and inside) of  
> professional circles
>
> With laptops by the millions reaching all cultures and age groups  
> ( MIT $100- laptop  to Africa
> putting this process in the right perspective) , the freeware  
> inroad can be seen as a strategically
>  ( and ideologically ) sound  way of promoting the interest &  
> demands for all which Rev (and Linux) stands for.
>
> We are now making public a  beta-version of a new rev stack  
> aggregate, PHENOMENALOG ,
>  - a (quite complicated) new kind of tool, for all types of non- 
> professional users
> to develop their own  very private electronic diary, fitting it to  
> their personal idiosyncracies and relevances.
>
>  It is freeware, and  meant to be improved and optimized,  
> immediately and on further time horizons,
>  through the feedbacks from prospective users, and, in the first  
> phase,  * of course *:
> primarily  the REV-community as represented in this site.
>  .
>  We have now established a basic site for the program:   
> www.phenomenalog.dk , where Its  functions are explained ,
> where standalones - with necessary folders and fonts, manual etc -  
> (for Windows, MacFAT, MaxOSX and Linux )
>  can be downloaded, where  the ”Phenomenalog Manual”, and the  
> glyphfont libraries can be inspected
> without installing the fonts ,  where a Forum for reporting,  
> suggesting and discussing has been opened. and where
> credits are given (not least to the help we have received  from   
> Mark Schonewille (Economy-X-talk.com)
> Sarah Reichelt and her DateTime.rev collection, Richmond Mathewson  
> for his Paint widgets, Eric Chatonet,
> Klaus Major, Mark Talluto and others.)
>
> The theoretical rationale is explained in the paper: "The global  
> future of the electronic diary"  - to be found at
>  www.psy.ku.dk/bjerg
>
> It is the preliminary result of more than a decades work (mostly in  
> Hypercard) to develop a new kind of tool
> in qualitative psychological research in empirical phenomenology,
>  based upon  the (automatically timestamped) use of ( yet only)  
> app., 450 pictograms (as characters in fonts)
>  and the use of user-language text-entries.
>
> We will be grateful, if revolutionaries will have a look / give it  
> a try, and perhaps produce some feedback
>  relevant to the future of this  ambitious enterprise * having  
> mercy upon  the  weaknesses in the scripting.
> and the pictograms.
> Especially wellcome will be offers to make translations to other  
> languages than english.
> and specific suggestions for new  pictograms/glyphs to be included  
> in the next version of the 12 glyph-fonts.
>
> ( Has anybody cared to think of right to left textfields and  
> buttons fit for arabic?)
>
>
> For those who want to deal with its basic full revolution-version
> it can be found at rev user site under the name ”Kresten”
>  (Cautiously in rev 2.6.1, not in  the not-backwards-compatible 2.7.1)
>
>  (But the glyph fonts must be downloaded from the phenomenalog  
> site, with one of the standalones)
>
> There is a max-edition, where all options are made visible,
> and a minimal-edition, demonstrating a simpler beginners preferences.
> *but it is exactly the same  program
>
> All kinds of feedback  (to the forum at www.phenomenalog.dk, to  
> skya at webspeed.dk or to Kresten.bjerg at psy.ku.dk )
>  will be appreciated and considered for further versioning.
>
>
> There is one category of evident reaction, once you meet the  
> machinery:
> that its construction with a 3x3 screens  size of the daycard-stack  
> is akward,
> and ought to be re-engineered as 9 seperate stacks or a data-base!
>
>  YES. We know it. And maybe some time in the future somebody will  
> try to do it.
>
> But we (Steen Andersen and myself) are not capable of doing it  
> ourselves.
> The way we * very unprofessionally - have been developping the  
> scripting over a period of 10 years
> has made it highly intransparent and overly complicated.
> So, please disregard that option, - which is also a plea to be  
> overbearing with the slownesses you will encounter .
>  Some may be reduced by script-improvements , some made less  
> frequent by setting the preferences
> for automatic saving to larger intervals.
>  Its optimal functionality is obtained  by running it continuously,  
> day and night,
> using the hide button  to minimize it to dock most of the time,
> - and create buttons on the daycard-background for the applications  
> you most use
>  and the folders or files, you mostly are dealing with.
>
>
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Thomas J McGrath III
3mcgrath at adelphia.net

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