Sugar Interface for the XO Laptop

Teams from Pentagram and Red Hat created this icon-driven interface in which collaboration is the core of the user experience. The laptop encourages social interaction, and most activities center on the creation of an object—a drawing, a song, a story, a game—and on "real-world metaphors" such as chatting, sharing, and gathering. All the laptops are connected in a wireless network, both to the web and to one another. The more laptops are connected, the more powerful the network becomes. "By exploiting this connectivity within the community, among people and their activities," the designers say, "One Laptop per Child makes use of what people already know in order to make connections to new knowledge."

Credit: Gift of the designers