Make KCMs consistent and apply the KDE HIG to them as much as possible
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Description

Currently most of the KCMs are very iconsistent and often don't follow the KDE HIG:

  • Desktop files are not consistent
  • Buttons and other widgets don't use title capitalization
  • Buttons sometimes don't have an icon, even though they have one in other places or there is one available they could use
  • Buttons have text in some places, but not in others
  • Buttons are in different positions
  • Wrong search bars and missing or wrong ellipses

...and more

The full list

Sidebar:

Workspace:

  • "Single Click" vs "Double Click" is a very important option, but it's buried here
  • This KCM is so small, if only it could be removed
  • This KCM should not be scrollable when holding the left mouse button

Task Switcher:

  • The way that the choice for the effect is presented is really bad, just a checkbox? It needs to explicitly say you're changing the animation

KWin Scripts

  • Wrong search

Global Shortcuts:

  • Wrong search
  • Incosistent buttons
  • Use group box with title

Standard Shortcuts:

  • Wrong search

Web Shortcuts:

  • Wrong search

Custom Shortcuts:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Login Screen (SDDM):

  • Inconsistent selection style
  • Inconsistent "Remove" button
  • Not so good looking and inconsistent theme preview
  • Breeze theme preview is outdated
  • Group box title should use TC (this message is also kind of weirldly placed, at the very least it shouldn't be as big)

Autostart:

  • Inconsistent buttons, should use icons
  • Incosistent list view header style

Background Services:

  • Inconsistent buttons

File Search:

  • Inconsistent header subtitle
  • Inconsistent buttons
  • Group box title should use TC
  • (maybe?) Header subtitle is missing a dot (.) at the end
  • One option uses TC the other one doesn't

Plasma Search:

  • Wrong search
  • Inconsistent clear button

KDE Wallet:

  • Same as with the SDDM KCM, the header subtitle seems odd, it should be smaller
  • Inconsistent buttons

User Manager:

  • Inconsistent buttons
  • Password should have a placeholder

Spell Check:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Date and Time:

  • Replace "&" in the KCM name with "and"
  • Wrong search

Notifications:

  • Entries should be alphabetically sorted
  • Inconsistent buttons

Default Applications:

  • Explanatory message is pretty oddly placed or needs better margins
  • Inconsistent buttons

File Associations:

  • Wrong search
  • Inconsistent buttons

Launch Feedback:

  • The first option ("Cursor:") looks really weird, a drop down menu could be used for this

Accessibility:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Connections:

  • Wrong search
  • Inconsistent buttons

SSL Preferences:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Cache:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Cookies:

  • Group box without title
  • Wrong search
  • Inconsistent buttons

Browser Identification:

  • Very verbose header, consider simplifying
  • Inconsistent buttons

Windows Shares:

  • Missing line edit placeholders

Bluetooth Devices / Bluetooth Adapters:

  • Inline message box has no error icon
  • Not so good looking "No devices found" error

Advanced Bluetooth Settings:

  • Inline message box has no error icon
  • Use a group box instead of just bold text
  • Inconsistent buttons

Mobile Broadband / Wi-Fi:

  • These two look like a test and don't belong on a desktop, so they should be hidden

Mouse:

  • Use a group box instead of just text
  • Pointer speed slider is not scrollable with the mouse wheel

Joystick:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Touchpad:

  • Inline message boxes have no icons
  • Inconsistent buttons

Displays:

  • Inconsistent buttons

Compositor:

  • Some values are capitalized, some are not

Gamma:

  • Improve header wording "Calibrate monitor gamma"

Multimedia

Audio Volume:

  • Use a group box instead of just text

Audio and Video:

  • "Backend" tab makes too little use of horizontal space
  • Inconsistent buttons

Energy Saving:

  • "Screen Energy Saving" is capitalized and the rest of the options are not
  • The option text needs to use colons ("Switch off after:" instead of "Switch off after")

Per-Activity Power Management:

  • Only one tab
  • Too much spacing between radio buttons

Advanced Power Management Settings:

  • Big spacing under header
  • Remove label and change checkbox text to "Pause media players when supending"
  • (maybe?) Wrong button position

Printers:

  • Weird "System Preferences" button on the top left
  • (maybe?) Use an inline message box to display the "No printers" information
  • Change "Click here to add a new printer" button text to "Add Printer..."
  • Add Printer Dialog: Move the "Please choose an item on the list" label to the top or bottom and rename it to "Please choose an item from the list."

Device Actions:

  • Header is too long
  • Inconsistent buttons

Camera:

  • Use buttons non-flat and not a toolbar

DONE:

  • Look and Feel
  • Plasma Theme
  • Cursors
  • Splash Screen
  • Colors
  • Fonts
  • Font Management
  • Icons
  • Emoticons
  • Application Style
  • GNOME/GTK Application Style
  • Window Decorations
  • Desktop Effects
  • Screen Edges
  • Touch Screen
  • Screen Locking
  • Virtual Desktops
  • Activities
  • Window Behavior
  • Boot Splash

Details

Differential Revisions
D20549: Improve the look of the Plymouth Boot Splash Screen KCM UI
D23174: Improve the look of the Activities KCM UI
D23615: [kcmkwin/options] Improve the look of the KWin options KCM UIs
D22468: Rewrite KScreen KCM as ConfigModule with outputs model and Kirigami
D22911: Improve the look of the Lock Screen KCM UI
D22909: [kcmkwin/kwinscreenedges] Improve the look of the Screen Edges and Touch Screen KCM UI
D22933: [kcmkwin/kwindesktop] Improve the look of the Virtual Desktops KCM UI
D22830: [kcmkwin/kwineffects] Rework the Effects KCM
D21668: Modernize and redesign the Night Color config window
D19093: Improve the look of the Emoticons KCM UI
D19651: Improve the look of the Application Style KCM UI
D19790: Improve the look of the GTK Application Style KCM UI
D19079: Make look of Font Management KCM UI more consistent
D19046: Make Breeze theme tooltip texts consistent and rename Breeze Snow cursors to Breeze Light
D19006: Use KCM name in KCM header
D19009: Use better KDE GTK Config KCM desktop file comment
D19038: Make Appearance KCM tooltip texts consistent
D19018: [kcmkwin/decorations] Use correct header text
D18903: Make Appearance KCMs' labels consistent
D18899: Don't use British English spelling
D18458: [kcmkwin/kwindecoration] Rewrite the KWin decorations settings as a ConfigModule
D18247: Improve Desktop/Plasma Theme KCM
D12278: [Colors KCM] Port to new design
D18267: Improve the Cursor Theme KCM
D18269: Improve the Splash Screen KCM
D18861: Improve the look of the Fonts KCM UI
D18206: Improve the Look and Feel KCM
There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes
GB_2 added a comment.EditedJan 5 2019, 8:06 PM

So what you guys are calling the Header/Title actually pulls text from the Comment: field of the KCM's desktop file.

This is semantically incorrect; the true title is the KCM's name, and this text is really more of a subtitle or caption. If we want to keep this subtitle/caption visible, we need to make the header/title show the real name.

On the other hand, if we do that, then the open KCM's name will appear three times: once in the sidebar, once in the titlebar, and once in huge letters on the page. This seems non-ideal.

Idea: remove the large text title/header entirely and let the titlebar do what its name suggests it's for: showing the title!

We are calling that the header.
Your idea was good, I think we can remove it entirely and put it in the title bar.

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 5 2019, 9:34 PM
filipf updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 5 2019, 10:46 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 5 2019, 10:55 PM

BTW, you say "Header should use TC (Title Case)", but in other places, this text, which comes from the Comment: field in the KCM's .desktop file, appears as a caption in a tooltip:

Here you can see the odd effect of making what amounts to a subtitle use Title Case:

Isn't that weird?

So I'm not sure we can and should simply change the case for all of these strings to Title Case just so they look more like titles. Semantically, they're not titles. They were always meant to be captions or subtitles, not titles. Using them as titles creates problems of this nature and makes my "this is semantically incorrect!" alarm bells ring. :)

GB_2 added a comment.Jan 6 2019, 9:55 AM

So would it be better to turn everything into explanations/descriptions without TC and make the header smaller, so it is just like a small explanation/description?

Options:

  1. Remove header, put title in titlebar only, only show caption in tooltips. Drawbacks: caption would not be seen much of the time.
  2. Remove header, put title in titlebar along with caption. Drawbacks: might visually overload the titlebar?
  3. Remove header, put title in titlebar, and put caption in small font on the page. Drawbacks: might look weird? Maybe we could make it lighter or smaller or something.
  4. Keep header, use it to display the real title, and display the caption beneath it in smaller text. Drawbacks: might feel cluttered, and there would be triple redundancy since the title would be visible three times

.

GB_2 added a comment.Jan 7 2019, 6:15 AM

IMO option 3 is the best one, followed by option 1.
I will see how it will look like.

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 11 2019, 5:06 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 11 2019, 8:37 PM
filipf updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 11 2019, 9:33 PM
GB_2 added a comment.EditedJan 12 2019, 7:55 AM

BTW, you say "Header should use TC (Title Case)", but in other places, this text, which comes from the Comment: field in the KCM's .desktop file, appears as a caption in a tooltip:

Here you can see the odd effect of making what amounts to a subtitle use Title Case:

Isn't that weird?

So I'm not sure we can and should simply change the case for all of these strings to Title Case just so they look more like titles. Semantically, they're not titles. They were always meant to be captions or subtitles, not titles. Using them as titles creates problems of this nature and makes my "this is semantically incorrect!" alarm bells ring. :)

The Comment: and the header/explanation should also be the same then.

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 12 2019, 12:49 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 13 2019, 9:00 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 14 2019, 4:10 PM
ngraham updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 15 2019, 2:31 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 15 2019, 5:15 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 15 2019, 5:18 PM
ngraham updated the task description. (Show Details)Jan 17 2019, 9:32 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 6 2019, 4:31 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 6 2019, 4:37 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 10 2019, 7:15 AM
filipf updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 10 2019, 7:31 PM
filipf updated the task description. (Show Details)
This comment was removed by Ghost6.

^ This is not a task for Discover, KCM stands for KConfig Module - it's the settings pages integrated into System Settings.

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 13 2019, 9:53 PM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 17 2019, 10:04 AM
nicolasfella updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 18 2019, 9:50 AM
nicolasfella added a subscriber: nicolasfella.

Don't worry about the KDE Connect KCM, it won't be around for much longer

jriddell added a parent task: T10488: Plasma 5.16.
ngraham moved this task from Backlog/Planned to Sent to dev on the VDG board.Feb 19 2019, 12:34 PM
ngraham triaged this task as Normal priority.
ngraham moved this task from To Do to Work in Progress on the Plasma board.Feb 19 2019, 12:39 PM
ngraham assigned this task to GB_2.
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 18 2019, 6:10 AM
GB_2 added a comment.Mar 18 2019, 6:15 AM

The Appearance section is now done!

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 18 2019, 6:39 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 18 2019, 6:41 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 2 2019, 6:19 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 2 2019, 8:55 AM
GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 20 2019, 7:34 AM

Might not be the most appropriate place or time to ask this, but considering how the KCM title is shown on the title bar and on the side bar, isn't it unnecessary to have a header that pretty much says the same thing a third time?

ndavis added a subscriber: ndavis.EditedSep 6 2019, 12:53 PM

Might not be the most appropriate place or time to ask this, but considering how the KCM title is shown on the title bar and on the side bar, isn't it unnecessary to have a header that pretty much says the same thing a third time?

See D22884

GB_2 updated the task description. (Show Details)Sep 13 2019, 5:13 PM
vespas added a subscriber: vespas.Mar 16 2020, 9:36 PM

Some kcms allow the user to drag their contents vertically (which doesnt make sense if everything fits in the view), while most don't. This also breaks the "move window by dragging anywhere" functionality. The ones i've seen do this are: fonts, user feedback, display configuration, night color, general behavior (inside workspace behavior), notifications, launch feedback, mouse.

To illustrate what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/pO4TEvV

Some kcms allow the user to drag their contents vertically (which doesnt make sense if everything fits in the view), while most don't. This also breaks the "move window by dragging anywhere" functionality. The ones i've seen do this are: fonts, user feedback, display configuration, night color, general behavior (inside workspace behavior), notifications, launch feedback, mouse.

To illustrate what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/pO4TEvV

Tracked by https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=403837 and https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=403838

vespas added a comment.EditedMar 17 2020, 9:42 PM

I have also noticed that some KCMs show the fonts differently than others, e.g. inside 'workspace behaviour', the entry 'screen edges' shows everything normally, while in 'general behaviour' everything is a bit blurry. -It seems they don't all follow the same theme, with fonts and checkboxes rendered differently.

These are also indented differently in the sidebar: 'General behaviour, 'desktop effects' and 'virtual desktops' are indented properly while the rest move the list to the right and the buttons at the bottom change (the help button is missing in some).

See https://imgur.com/a/HVqW3yD

neckcracks added a subscriber: neckcracks.EditedNov 23 2021, 3:56 AM

These post makes some mention of inconsistencies in some KCMs:

Inconsistent design of messages in some settings pages
https://phabricator.kde.org/T14508

In System Settings, the placement of the "add" button is not a standard
https://phabricator.kde.org/p/endlesswaterfall/