The $100 GUI
December 15, 2006
Pentagram has released a preview of the user interface for Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative, featuring the work of a design team led by Lisa Strausfield.
It's difficult to evaluate the design without a better sense of how the thing actually works, but at first glance this seems like a well thought-out solution for a project with presumably severe design constraints (i.e., designing for children in developing countries, with no common language, on a platform with limited resolution and color display).
Pentagram's write-up provides a basic description of the interface elements, but doesn't say much of anything about how the design team arrived at this particular solution. I wish they could tell us more about the research behind the design - e.g., was there some kind of ethnographic study involved? what alternatives did they consider? what kind of testing have they done? There has to be a more interesting story behind this project - here's hoping someone tells it.
> Pentagram, One Laptop Per Child
File under: User Experience
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