10 ms·

Show HN: AgoBrowse: Picture books for kids without distractions

61 points by AgoRapide 6y ago

bwb 6y ago
Got any examples of how this manifests?
- AgoRapide 6y ago
  Could you be more specific please? There is an example database in the Bitbucket repository if that is what you mean.
  - bwb 6y ago
    Yep, when I clicked the link it didn't load anything.
    - AgoRapide 6y ago
      Sorry, I suppose you refer to the online demonstration at http://vifero.no http://vifero.no It is a bit embarassing, I had to take it down due to a huge memory leak which only manifests itself on the server, not when running locally. But running the Visual Studio project locally should give you the same result.
      - bwb 6y ago
        No worries, it happens :) Ok thanks!
        AgoRapide 6y ago
        Fixed now. http://vifero.no http://vifero.no is up and running. I forgot to set an access right. Will have to improve ARCore also, so such an error is not so dramatic.
        bwb 6y ago
        thanks :)
        codetrotter 6y ago
        The question mark in the corner of each image is not clickable on mobile for me, so in order to view the image attribution credits I have to view the site on my computer instead.
        AgoRapide 6y ago
        Yes, the mobile interface (touch interface) is the least developed. I am one of the few persons left in this world who still uses a dumbphone. My laptop is my primary gadget. But pull requests with a better touch interface would of course be welcome :)
OOvsuOO 6y ago
It's pretty cool! Looked at the examples and neat! No distractions that's what we need more in the web. NO ads and distractions.
- AgoRapide 6y ago
  Thanks! Just what I wanted to hear :) Can I quote you on this?
juliushuijnk 6y ago
If you like creating picture books (no ads, no account required) perhaps you also want to try out my MyPictureBooks app for android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juliushuijnk.tools.mypicturebooks https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juliushuij... Add text and audio to pictures and you can flip the pages. That's mostly it. I also provided a couple of books myself. (update: removed multi-line question 'where are examples?')
- AgoRapide 6y ago
  An online instance of AgoBrowse can be found here: http://vifero.no http://vifero.no
  - juliushuijnk 6y ago
    Thanks! Would it be wrong to say it's a slide show creator / viewer? Do you want to grow it into like a super simple Libre Office Impress ( https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/ https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/) / PowerPoint ? Or is your personal family use-case the main purpose. I don't fully understand the wiki like edit, but not sure I need to. Might be nice to add an index page on the space-bar press, where you have thumbnails of each slide to quickly jump to specific image.
    - AgoRapide 6y ago
      See my reply above about your Android App. I think I want vifero.no itself to be REALLY simple, so OOvsuOO's comment will always be relevant: "It's pretty cool! Looked at the examples and neat! No distractions that's what we need more in the web. NO ads and distractions."
      - juliushuijnk 6y ago
        We can agree on the ads part. What counts as a distraction vs a feature is depending on the use case and perhaps how your brain works. If you're trying to accomplish something like 'get quickly to that specific page', a way to quickly get to a list of thumbinals, to tap on it, would not be a distraction. But if those thumbnails are always visible when you are just viewing the page, then it becomes a distraction. If you have features that are perhaps hidden by default, but could be enabled in settings, you could allow the user to add the features they don't see as distractions.
animal_spirits 6y ago
A little off topic but I'm a little jealous that dinosaurs are way cooler looking now that they are feathered and modeled after birds. The leathery lizard-like dinosaurs that were in my books as a kid were cool, but these ones are wild looking! Now that gets me to think about just how persuasive images are to children's minds. When I think about velociraptors I almost exclusively imagine the Jurassic Park movie velociraptors, and not these ones.
ivan_ah 6y ago
That's very nice and well done. Anything distraction free gets lots of points from me! A great way to browse the openly licensed images in the commons. If you also want to introduce reading aspects, I highly recommend the African Storybook collection: https://www.africanstorybook.org/ https://www.africanstorybook.org/ all kinds of a short (like 10 pages) books for young kids. For localhost access, you can read the books in Kolibri (a FOSS learning platform you can install on any old computer a raspberri pi). For the African Storybook channel, see this online demo https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/ef701556c9f65b46934a8e8044f0b02e https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/... and look around that demo server to see all the other channels available.
- AgoRapide 6y ago
  Nice! That is exactly how I would like children books to be presented. I see that there are also some English language books. Does there exist a site in this format, with English books but with world-wide cultures? I have been googling for it now and then but am still unable to find the 'perfect' presentation format.
  - ivan_ah 6y ago
    Here are some more kids stuff I've seen (sometimes with different reader UX from the above): 1/ Global Digital Library (PDF and ePub format) https://digitallibrary.io/ https://digitallibrary.io/ and as offline-capable Kolibri channel https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/909001de001e5c45b3bc363665689289 https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 2/ Pratham Books' StoryWeaver (includes some of the African Storybook titles, and based around PDFs) https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/131e543dbecf5776bb13cfcfddf05605 https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/... 3/ Learn JS games (probably need 6+ years old for this) https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/6277aa0c44235435acdc8a9ed98f466b https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 4/ Videos of kids from different cultures: https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/000409f81dbe5d1ba67101cb9fed4530 https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 5/ Educational math videos with lots of singing: https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/08a53136a1555f64b0496b3e1318b0cd https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... And more generally, you can see all EN channels in the catalog: https://catalog.learningequality.org/#/public?languages=en https://catalog.learningequality.org/#/public?languages=en
wccrawford 6y ago
Bug: Clicking too fast to advance the image results in highlighting a picture, turning it blue.
- AgoRapide 6y ago
  I think it is moving the cursor simultaneously with clicking that causes it. In other words the web-browser sees it as intention to mark / select content on web page. Any suggestions for how to avoid this?
  - wccrawford 6y ago
    There's some CSS you can use that prevents selection. I can't see any need for selection in your app, so you could just apply it liberally.
    - AgoRapide 6y ago
      Thanks! I will look into it.
      - AgoRapide 6y ago
        It looks like adding "user-select: none" for the image tag did the trick. Please try it out now. (I do hope that the touch-interface was not affected by this, I only use mouse / keyboard myself).
        wccrawford 6y ago
        Seems good now. It also seems more responsive/snappier. That might just be in my head, though. It shouldn't affect touch events. That's a different CSS rule. Edit: Just tried it on Firefox/Android, and it seems like it actually changes multiple pages now. Perhaps it's reacting to both click and touch on mobile?
        AgoRapide 6y ago

61 points by AgoRapide 6y ago

bwb 6y ago

Got any examples of how this manifests?

AgoRapide 6y ago
Could you be more specific please? There is an example database in the Bitbucket repository if that is what you mean.
- bwb 6y ago
  Yep, when I clicked the link it didn't load anything.
  - AgoRapide 6y ago
    Sorry, I suppose you refer to the online demonstration at http://vifero.no http://vifero.no It is a bit embarassing, I had to take it down due to a huge memory leak which only manifests itself on the server, not when running locally. But running the Visual Studio project locally should give you the same result.
    - bwb 6y ago
      No worries, it happens :) Ok thanks!
      - AgoRapide 6y ago
        Fixed now. http://vifero.no http://vifero.no is up and running. I forgot to set an access right. Will have to improve ARCore also, so such an error is not so dramatic.
        bwb 6y ago
        thanks :)
        codetrotter 6y ago
        The question mark in the corner of each image is not clickable on mobile for me, so in order to view the image attribution credits I have to view the site on my computer instead.
        AgoRapide 6y ago
        Yes, the mobile interface (touch interface) is the least developed. I am one of the few persons left in this world who still uses a dumbphone. My laptop is my primary gadget. But pull requests with a better touch interface would of course be welcome :)

OOvsuOO 6y ago

It's pretty cool! Looked at the examples and neat! No distractions that's what we need more in the web. NO ads and distractions.

AgoRapide 6y ago
Thanks! Just what I wanted to hear :) Can I quote you on this?

juliushuijnk 6y ago

If you like creating picture books (no ads, no account required) perhaps you also want to try out my MyPictureBooks app for android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juliushuijnk.tools.mypicturebooks https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juliushuij... Add text and audio to pictures and you can flip the pages. That's mostly it. I also provided a couple of books myself. (update: removed multi-line question 'where are examples?')

AgoRapide 6y ago
An online instance of AgoBrowse can be found here: http://vifero.no http://vifero.no
- juliushuijnk 6y ago
  Thanks! Would it be wrong to say it's a slide show creator / viewer? Do you want to grow it into like a super simple Libre Office Impress ( https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/ https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/impress/) / PowerPoint ? Or is your personal family use-case the main purpose. I don't fully understand the wiki like edit, but not sure I need to. Might be nice to add an index page on the space-bar press, where you have thumbnails of each slide to quickly jump to specific image.
  - AgoRapide 6y ago
    See my reply above about your Android App. I think I want vifero.no itself to be REALLY simple, so OOvsuOO's comment will always be relevant: "It's pretty cool! Looked at the examples and neat! No distractions that's what we need more in the web. NO ads and distractions."
    - juliushuijnk 6y ago
      We can agree on the ads part. What counts as a distraction vs a feature is depending on the use case and perhaps how your brain works. If you're trying to accomplish something like 'get quickly to that specific page', a way to quickly get to a list of thumbinals, to tap on it, would not be a distraction. But if those thumbnails are always visible when you are just viewing the page, then it becomes a distraction. If you have features that are perhaps hidden by default, but could be enabled in settings, you could allow the user to add the features they don't see as distractions.

animal_spirits 6y ago

A little off topic but I'm a little jealous that dinosaurs are way cooler looking now that they are feathered and modeled after birds. The leathery lizard-like dinosaurs that were in my books as a kid were cool, but these ones are wild looking! Now that gets me to think about just how persuasive images are to children's minds. When I think about velociraptors I almost exclusively imagine the Jurassic Park movie velociraptors, and not these ones.

ivan_ah 6y ago

That's very nice and well done. Anything distraction free gets lots of points from me! A great way to browse the openly licensed images in the commons. If you also want to introduce reading aspects, I highly recommend the African Storybook collection: https://www.africanstorybook.org/ https://www.africanstorybook.org/ all kinds of a short (like 10 pages) books for young kids. For localhost access, you can read the books in Kolibri (a FOSS learning platform you can install on any old computer a raspberri pi). For the African Storybook channel, see this online demo https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/ef701556c9f65b46934a8e8044f0b02e https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/... and look around that demo server to see all the other channels available.

AgoRapide 6y ago
Nice! That is exactly how I would like children books to be presented. I see that there are also some English language books. Does there exist a site in this format, with English books but with world-wide cultures? I have been googling for it now and then but am still unable to find the 'perfect' presentation format.
- ivan_ah 6y ago
  Here are some more kids stuff I've seen (sometimes with different reader UX from the above): 1/ Global Digital Library (PDF and ePub format) https://digitallibrary.io/ https://digitallibrary.io/ and as offline-capable Kolibri channel https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/909001de001e5c45b3bc363665689289 https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 2/ Pratham Books' StoryWeaver (includes some of the African Storybook titles, and based around PDFs) https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/131e543dbecf5776bb13cfcfddf05605 https://kolibri-demo.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/... 3/ Learn JS games (probably need 6+ years old for this) https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/t/6277aa0c44235435acdc8a9ed98f466b https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 4/ Videos of kids from different cultures: https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/000409f81dbe5d1ba67101cb9fed4530 https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... 5/ Educational math videos with lots of singing: https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/topics/08a53136a1555f64b0496b3e1318b0cd https://kolibri-catalog-en.learningequality.org/en/learn/#/t... And more generally, you can see all EN channels in the catalog: https://catalog.learningequality.org/#/public?languages=en https://catalog.learningequality.org/#/public?languages=en

wccrawford 6y ago

Bug: Clicking too fast to advance the image results in highlighting a picture, turning it blue.

AgoRapide 6y ago
I think it is moving the cursor simultaneously with clicking that causes it. In other words the web-browser sees it as intention to mark / select content on web page. Any suggestions for how to avoid this?
- wccrawford 6y ago
  There's some CSS you can use that prevents selection. I can't see any need for selection in your app, so you could just apply it liberally.
  - AgoRapide 6y ago
    Thanks! I will look into it.
    - AgoRapide 6y ago
      It looks like adding "user-select: none" for the image tag did the trick. Please try it out now. (I do hope that the touch-interface was not affected by this, I only use mouse / keyboard myself).
      - wccrawford 6y ago
        Seems good now. It also seems more responsive/snappier. That might just be in my head, though. It shouldn't affect touch events. That's a different CSS rule. Edit: Just tried it on Firefox/Android, and it seems like it actually changes multiple pages now. Perhaps it's reacting to both click and touch on mobile?
        AgoRapide 6y ago