I do like the Accomplishments project, I think it could do great things when it gets to it’s 1.0 release.
Thinking about the design of the acc app, I was pondering why the trophies page always looks so cluttered and disorganised. One of the conclusions I’ve come to is that by rewarding every single action with a trophy, the trophy cabinet gets full very quickly and the very idea of a trophy looses it’s sparkle.
The design I would aim for to clean this up is a basic categorisation and substitution. when you’ve just accomplished your 100th ask ubuntu posting, you don’t really value a trophy for your first. Looking at Ask Ubuntu (and other reward based sites) I came to the conclusion that rewards should be staggered and that your score in any one category should be aggregated into a finale trophy.
With this representation of your accomplishments, it’s easy to see that you’re an awesome Ubuntu User, but you have lots of things you could do to get the full 3 star trophy for support. Each category of accomplishments can neatly fit in without creating more graphics for certain branding. That would only be required for the tasks/todo items page where you might want items to be dissociated with the idea that each task gets you a trophy.
What are your ideas?
I’m glad to see Ubuntu working on important stuff like regressions [1][2] and system-freezing bugs [3] and LTS-upgrade failures [4] instead of putting lots of effort into making test suites for Farmvillian imaginary awards for accomplishments like changing desktop wallpaper.
[1 ]https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-widget-menubar/+bug/1000506
[2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssl/+bug/965371
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ecryptfs/+bug/431975
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-defaults/+bug/990740
Adam – You are right that Ubuntu could be working on those four problems. But consider technical expertise. None of the developers, designers or writers are going to know anything about C (or even python internals) to know how to even start trying to debug those problems.
Part of what tools like this hope to achieve is greater participation. By growing the numbers of people who recognise the value of participating we can find the right experts to help nail important problems. And I don’t really care if the process involves finding the person directly or enough people donating money to pay the guy.
Oh and Ubuntu != Canonical; Ubuntu makes absolutely no assurances that it will work at all. Any and all bugs are there for you to fix as extra puzzles. 😉
Hey Martin,
I agree with you on the need to organize the trophy wall. I like your suggestion and propose the following refinements:
– it still make sense to have a proper list of the accomplishments, both done and undone, which could stay in the “All” section,
– a “Summary section” with the layout your propose would be the default display when opening the viewer,
– Shields, cups and trophies, bronze, silver and gold, 0, 1 and 2 stars, too many visual representations IMO. I think the trophy alone should be the only reward, as it is for the gaming platforms it is inspired from (360 or PS3).
– Then you could display a bronze, sliver or gold trophy in the summary to represent the skill level in the relevant area (User, Developer, Ask Ubuntu…).
+gigix – The 360 and PS3 gaming platforms aren’t known for being good models for utility items like this. although there’s no bronze, just wood. It’s a shield.
Anyway! yes a good list of tasks done would be a requirement of course.
I love the idea of the accomplishments and your mockups are awesome. i’d worry that the only way to achieve awesome status is to “buy $100USD on amazon” or “buy 100GB on Ubuntu One”
I love this concept. Now I wonder, can this be something that can be built and tested based on the current API alone?
If so, we could make a real life version of the mock up (another client) and see what people prefer.
@Ricardo – Would you be able to help?
Hi Martin,
Apologies for the delay. You have some great ideas here!
I personally really like the idea of grouping accomplishments together so you can see different types but then still get to the details in the accomplishments list where needed.
Would you be interested in fleshing out your suggestions further into a spec on the wiki and then posting to https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-accomplishments-contributors where we can discuss it more as we plan for the next release?
Thanks!
Jono – you should enable blueprints to link your project page to your wiki.
Martin,
I have just enabled blueprints in ubuntu-community-accomplishments. You are very welcome to push your ideas there 🙂 I will be very happy to discuss your concerns, as I do support your ideas.
Rafał Cieślak