Week 11 updates by Aman Naik (#408)

Author: amannaik247

public/assets/Images/aman-naik-week11-img1.webp

@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+---
+title: "DMP ’25 Week 11 Update by Aman Naik"
+excerpt: "This week focused on restructuring the advice feature for persistent visibility within the sidebar and refining the UX to better support students’ writing flow."
+category: "DEVELOPER NEWS"
+date: "2025-08-16"
+slug: "2025-07-16-dmp-25-AmanNaik-week11"
+author: "@/constants/MarkdownFiles/authors/amannaik247.md"
+tags: "dmp25,writeactivity,write,sugarlabs,week11,amannaik247"
+image: "assets/Images/c4gt_DMP.webp"
+---
+
+<!-- markdownlint-disable -->
+
+# Week 11 Progress Report by Aman Naik
+
+**Project:** [Add an AI-assistant to the Write Activity](https://github.com/sugarlabs/write-activity/issues/52)  
+**Mentors:** [Walter Bender](https://github.com/walterbender), [Ibiam Chihurumnaya](https://github.com/chimosky)  
+**Reporting Period:** 2025-08-10 – 2025-08-16  
+
+---
+
+## Goals for This Week
+
+- Move the advice section into the sidebar for persistent visibility  
+- Add a button to toggle the advice section within the sidebar  
+
+---
+
+## This Week’s Achievements
+
+1. **Integrated Advice Section into Sidebar**  
+   - Previously, the “Get Advice” button lived in the toolbar and printed feedback in the console, which was not accessible or user-friendly.  
+   - I redesigned the interaction so that advice now appears inside the sidebar alongside the framework view.  
+   - This allows students to keep advice visible while continuing to build their story, instead of losing it after an action or context switch.  
+
+   ![Advice section toggled on](assets/Images/aman-naik-week11-img1.webp)
+
+2. **Toggle Button for Advice Section**  
+   - Added a dedicated toggle button within the sidebar to control the visibility of the advice section.  
+   - Students can now choose between focusing only on the story framework or expanding the sidebar to see both the framework and advice in parallel.  
+   - The sidebar structure now uses `Gtk.Stack` to handle multiple subviews cleanly, preventing layout conflicts and allowing for flexible switching between sections.  
+
+   ![Advice section not toggled on](assets/Images/aman-naik-week11-img2.webp)
+
+---
+
+## Challenges & How I Overcame Them
+
+- **Challenge:** Persistent visibility for advice section  
+  **Problem:** In the old design, advice appeared below the toolbar button but disappeared when clicking anywhere else, meaning the student could not revisit it.  
+  **Solution:** Created a dedicated advice section inside the sidebar and added a toggle button to control its display. This ensured persistence and improved discoverability without cluttering the workspace.  
+
+- **Challenge:** Iterating UX without upfront testing  
+  **Problem:** The initial design underestimated the importance of persistent context. Students often need to revisit advice multiple times while writing.  
+  **Solution:** Midway through implementation, I restructured the UI to reflect actual student needs, demonstrating the importance of adaptive design based on iterative testing and mentor feedback.  
+
+---
+
+## Key Learnings
+
+- Learned how to use `Gtk.Stack` effectively to manage multiple sidebar views (chat, framework, advice) while maintaining a clean state transition.  
+- Understood the importance of persistent UI components in educational tools, where students benefit from continuous access to feedback and guidance.  
+- Realized that UX design often requires mid-development revisions and that structured mentor feedback helps identify overlooked usability issues.  
+
+---
+
+## Next Week’s Roadmap
+
+- Implement saving of chat history into the Sugar Journal for persistence across sessions  
+- Begin integrating Sugar AI as the inference backend, replacing the temporary Groq API placeholder  
+
+---
+
+## Acknowledgments
+
+Thanks to my mentors for guiding me through iterative design discussions and encouraging me to prioritize the student’s perspective in UI/UX decisions.  
+
+---