Discover UI redesign
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

This is a Discover mockup, i tried to makes it similar to the real Store, like AppStore or Google Play i get some ideas from M127 and M111 mockups.

Home page:
Here is a big category bar and apps cards has a screenshots, also in top you can put apps with a big nice image (Like in Deepin Store).


Here seen that Big Apps category has a own smaller categories, also a apps cards now more compact.

Opened App:
(second category would to hide?)

SVG:

ngraham added a subscriber: ngraham.

Things I like:

  • Pretty much everything about the new Home page. Looks much more attractive than what we have right now. I'm coming to believe it's important to either regularly rotate the content, or else add dynamic items, so the ecosystem doesn't look static and dead.
  • Making the list into a grid with rectangular cards. It looks really good IMO.
  • Expanding the apps category so you can see its child items on the first level of navigation in the sidebar.
  • Putting add-ons in a whole separate category.

Things I'm neutral on:

  • Adding a second sidebar. I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it either. Maybe if we put these category items on the tools area, it wouldn't look so empty.
  • The gigantic colored rectangle header on the app pages. Maybe it it were a bit smaller, it wouldn't seem wasteful and attention-getting.

Things I don't like:

  • Hiding the search field behind a button. It needs to be visible by default, since it has keyboard focus by default.
  • The tools area now looks huge, barren, and empty. This might be better if there was a visible search field in it though.
GB_2 added a subscriber: GB_2.Apr 20 2020, 3:54 PM

Things I like:

  • Pretty much everything about the new Home page. Looks much more attractive than what we have right now. I'm coming to believe it's important to either regularly rotate the content, or else add dynamic items, so the ecosystem doesn't look static and dead.
  • Making the list into a grid with rectangular cards. It looks really good IMO.
  • Expanding the apps category so you can see its child items on the first level of navigation in the sidebar.
  • Putting add-ons in a whole separate category.

    Things I'm neutral on:
  • Adding a second sidebar. I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it either. Maybe if we put these category items on the tools area, it wouldn't look so empty.
  • The gigantic colored rectangle header on the app pages. Maybe it it were a bit smaller, it wouldn't seem wasteful and attention-getting.

    Things I don't like:
  • Hiding the search field behind a button. It needs to be visible by default, since it has keyboard focus by default.
  • The tools area now looks huge, barren, and empty. This might be better if there was a visible search field in it though.

I agree with all your points. An idea would be to have buttons in the tools area for All/Home, Installed, and Updates like GNOME Software instead of another sidebar. Then you can still have a sidebar with Applications section in the All/Home page, but add an Appearance section below it in the sidebar.

zamundaaa added a subscriber: zamundaaa.EditedApr 28 2020, 11:01 PM

I agree that the Home page looks very good but that it would be good to make it a bit more dynamic as well. Maybe simply rotating around the images of the singular apps on different times for different apps would do the trick (as opposed to rotating around apps, which is IMHO mostly not a good idea except in preview panels like on the top).

Adding a second sidebar. I don't hate it, but I'm not in love with it either. Maybe if we put these category items on the tools area, it wouldn't look so empty.

I think as long as we don't do a nested sidebar thing like with the current implementation it would still be a good option. Putting the categories in the toolbar might work but it's probably too much to fit and not look squashed together.

I agree with all your points. An idea would be to have buttons in the tools area for All/Home, Installed, and Updates like GNOME Software instead of another sidebar. Then you can still have a sidebar with Applications section in the All/Home page, but add an Appearance section below it in the sidebar.

Pamac does it exactly like that: "Browse", "installed" and "Updates" buttons top center and a categories filter on the left. In "Browse" mode it shows the application categories, in "Installed" it lets you filter whether apps are explicitly installed, orphans or foreign (AUR) and under "Updates" it just hides the bar completely. I'm not entirely convinced that's the best way to go but it's definitely usable, as long as the search doesn't reset on switching tabs (pamac does reset it, and it's quite annoying).

I think as long as we don't do a nested sidebar thing like with the current implementation it would still be a good option. Putting the categories in the toolbar might work but it's probably too much to fit and not look squashed together.

How about using a tab bar instead of the second side bar like in google play store.

t-ask added a subscriber: t-ask.Oct 12 2020, 1:55 PM
ognarb added a subscriber: ognarb.Oct 12 2020, 1:57 PM
t-ask added a comment.Oct 12 2020, 2:01 PM

I just want to add an alternative mockup for the sidebar and the app installation list. Some widgets may not be possible - I'm not sure.

n-gone added a subscriber: n-gone.Feb 5 2021, 9:38 PM

I saw the new post about the redesign of GNOME Software seen here: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-software/-/issues/1111 and would like to see how the designers would implement context tiles because I think it's a good idea to have. I also think having a link to the App's addon page, if we put addons in a separate category could help connect the two sections of the app.

I forgot the mockups and started something in this direction: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/discover/-/merge_requests/81. I probably could take more inspirations from the mockups.

ngraham closed this task as Resolved.May 15 2021, 2:00 AM
ngraham moved this task from Backlog/Planned to Sent to dev on the VDG board.
ngraham claimed this task.

Yep, that MR is going to me merged into 5.23 and implements a fairly similar design. I think these mockups have more or less done their job. :)

The sidebar should not utilise text below iconography, because that is significantly less consistent, and is additionally less sensibly adaptive if the constituents of the text that is beneath it are more than approximately 4 letters.