Week 9 blog by Aman Naik (#373)

Author: amannaik247

public/assets/Images/aman-naik-week9-img1.png

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+---
+title: "DMP ’25 Week 9 Update by Aman Naik"
+excerpt: "This week focused on improving the clarity and intuitiveness of the UI, refining UX elements, and aligning LLM integration plans with Sugar AI's upcoming deployment."
+category: "DEVELOPER NEWS"
+date: "2025-08-02"
+slug: "2025-08-02-dmp-25-AmanNaik-week09"
+author: "@/constants/MarkdownFiles/authors/amannaik247.md"
+tags: "dmp25,writeactivity,write,sugarlabs,week09,amannaik247"
+image: "assets/Images/c4gt_DMP.png"
+---
+
+<!-- markdownlint-disable -->
+
+# Week 9 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:** 2025-07-27 – 2025-08-02  
+
+---
+
+## Goals for This Week
+
+- Display default explanatory text for empty story elements when creating a framework  
+- Remove unintuitive UI elements for improved usability  
+- Align LLM deployment strategy with the upcoming Sugar AI central inference system  
+
+---
+
+## This Week’s Achievements
+
+1. **Default Text for Empty Story Elements**  
+   - Enhanced the "Create Framework" functionality so that unfilled story elements now display a short description explaining their meaning.  
+   - Helps guide users, especially students, to better understand what each section represents before filling it in.
+
+   ![Default text for empty story elements](assets/Images/aman-naik-week9-img1.png)
+
+2. **Removed Unintuitive Chat Section Back Button**  
+   - The back button in the chat section had unclear functionality and caused confusion.  
+   - Removed it entirely, simplifying the chat interface.
+
+3. **Shift in Focus Toward UI/UX Improvements**  
+   - Instead of deploying the model directly within the Write Activity, the plan is now to integrate with the upcoming Sugar AI system once deployed.  
+   - This ensures a consistent inference backend shared across activities and avoids duplicate deployment work.
+
+---
+
+## Challenges & How I Overcame Them
+
+- **Challenge:** Identifying unintuitive UX elements from a fresh perspective  
+  **Solution:** Having been deeply involved in development, I found it challenging to view the interface as a new user would. Regular mentor meetings provided valuable feedback and helped me spot usability issues I had overlooked. This led to changes such as removing the unclear back button and improving guidance within the framework.
+
+---
+
+## Key Learnings
+
+**Importance of Guided Placeholders in UI**  
+   - Providing default explanatory text in empty fields helps users understand intended content without external guidance.
+
+**Value of External Perspective in UX Design**  
+   - Frequent mentor feedback sessions helped uncover usability issues that were invisible from a developer’s point of view.
+
+**Strategic Planning for LLM Integration**  
+   - Decided to align Write Activity’s LLM features with the centralized Sugar AI deployment, ensuring consistency and maintainability.
+
+---
+
+## Next Week’s Roadmap
+
+- Add an advice button to get AI-generated suggestions during the writing of the story.
+- Fix a critical UI bug I encountered while testing the sidebar toggle button.
+
+---
+
+## Acknowledgments
+
+Thanks to my mentors for their honest feedback during meetings, which helped me identify and correct unintuitive UI elements.
+
+---