Editing Task:Improving the Application manager
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- | + | As one of the foremost application's in a new user's experience of Maemo, Application manager needs to be one of the platform's best (perhaps only superceded by the browser and email client). As it stands, though, it is still in need of improvement in a lot of areas. Some of these improvements are small changes (like allowing the repository list to be refreshed from the main view), and some of them are quite large (like the category view overhaul), but the end result should be a much better and more usable Application manager. | |
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== Main view == | == Main view == | ||
The main view is a user's portal to Maemo software, it's largely fine right now, but not very interesting. It needs a way to draw in new users and get them interested in the software available to them. | The main view is a user's portal to Maemo software, it's largely fine right now, but not very interesting. It needs a way to draw in new users and get them interested in the software available to them. | ||
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=== New buttons === | === New buttons === | ||
- | One way to | + | One way to do this is add a few buttons over on the right hand side (where the big Application manager icon is right now). Something like, Featured applications (taken from Downloads), Popular applications (also from Downloads), and New applications (since last repository refresh, or maybe new in the last week—the specifics of this one will need consideration). As most of the Featured and Popular applications will reside in Extras (and Extras ships disabled), this would serve as a nice way to introduce new users to Extras by offering to enable it for them when they go to install an application from these lists. |
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=== Button bar === | === Button bar === | ||
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== Category view == | == Category view == | ||
- | + | I was having a discussion with X-Fade today on the repository category mess, and the possibility of having usable categories besides "All" (sadly, I haven't even looked at anything but "All" since at least OS2005 :\) made me consider some of the issues with the current category setup in Application manager. | |
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+ | [[Image:Application manager grid-view mockup.jpg|center|thumb|400px|Mock-up of the grid-view]] | ||
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=== Grid view === | === Grid view === | ||
The current category view has an awful lot of wasted whitespace. My initial reaction here was that a grid view in place of a the current list-view would make better use of space and improve the thumb-ability (ordering is badly messed-up in my mock-up—it should be left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom). The number of packages in each category should be noted parenthetically next to the category name (shown in the tree-view mock-up). | The current category view has an awful lot of wasted whitespace. My initial reaction here was that a grid view in place of a the current list-view would make better use of space and improve the thumb-ability (ordering is badly messed-up in my mock-up—it should be left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom). The number of packages in each category should be noted parenthetically next to the category name (shown in the tree-view mock-up). | ||
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This view does have a few downfalls, though. It doesn't make it easy to see what's in any particular category, so if you're searching for something or just browsing around, you will be jumping between the category view and application list view quite a bit. Which is expensive in taps and rendering. Also, longer category names may cause rendering issues ('''Communications''' becoming '''Communicat...''' is just plain bad). | This view does have a few downfalls, though. It doesn't make it easy to see what's in any particular category, so if you're searching for something or just browsing around, you will be jumping between the category view and application list view quite a bit. Which is expensive in taps and rendering. Also, longer category names may cause rendering issues ('''Communications''' becoming '''Communicat...''' is just plain bad). | ||
- | [[Image:Application manager tree-view mockup.jpg| | + | [[Image:Application manager tree-view mockup.jpg|center|thumb|400px|Mock-up of the tree-view]] |
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=== Tree view === | === Tree view === | ||
The grid-view is probably the most straightforward and immediate solution, but some extra options wouldn't hurt. Some sort of tree view (while mildly ungainly with such limited screen real estate) could give a nice overview alternative to "All" while reducing the number of screens the user needs to scroll through. Show all the categories as collapsible branches, and indicate the number of packages in each category parenthetically next to the category name. The user can collapse or expand a branch by tapping on the category name, or using the dpad up/down to scroll to the desired category and the left/right to collapse or expand it. | The grid-view is probably the most straightforward and immediate solution, but some extra options wouldn't hurt. Some sort of tree view (while mildly ungainly with such limited screen real estate) could give a nice overview alternative to "All" while reducing the number of screens the user needs to scroll through. Show all the categories as collapsible branches, and indicate the number of packages in each category parenthetically next to the category name. The user can collapse or expand a branch by tapping on the category name, or using the dpad up/down to scroll to the desired category and the left/right to collapse or expand it. | ||
- | [[Image:Application manager column-view mockup.jpg|thumb| | + | [[Image:Application manager column-view mockup.jpg|center|thumb|400px|Mock-up of the column-view]] |
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=== Column view === | === Column view === | ||
Finally a column view could be another useful alternative for reducing the number of screens to tap through and provide a better overview. Put a column of categories on the left (again, with the number of packages in each category indicated parenthetically) and display the packages in that category in the right column. Basically, the same behavior as the File manager. | Finally a column view could be another useful alternative for reducing the number of screens to tap through and provide a better overview. Put a column of categories on the left (again, with the number of packages in each category indicated parenthetically) and display the packages in that category in the right column. Basically, the same behavior as the File manager. | ||
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== Application list == | == Application list == | ||
The application list is where most of the user's time will be spent—browsing and installing/removing/updating applications and packages—and is arguably the most important area of the Application manager. As it stands, most of what's wrong with the application list is either technical (e.g., the irritating list refresh) or related to the various dialogs related to the list (e.g., the info dialog), and the basic UI of the application list is really quite fine. | The application list is where most of the user's time will be spent—browsing and installing/removing/updating applications and packages—and is arguably the most important area of the Application manager. As it stands, most of what's wrong with the application list is either technical (e.g., the irritating list refresh) or related to the various dialogs related to the list (e.g., the info dialog), and the basic UI of the application list is really quite fine. | ||
- | + | * Columns should be sortable by tapping their names, as well as from the menu. | |
- | * Columns should be sortable by tapping their names, as well as from the menu | + | |
* List refresh needs to be somehow sped up on completely eliminated. This is much better in Diablo, as it doesn't refresh whenever you look at it funny, but still a problem. | * List refresh needs to be somehow sped up on completely eliminated. This is much better in Diablo, as it doesn't refresh whenever you look at it funny, but still a problem. | ||
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=== Info dialog === | === Info dialog === | ||
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* The information being displayed should be intelligently soft-wrapped and/or slightly reformatted to fit into the dialog. | * The information being displayed should be intelligently soft-wrapped and/or slightly reformatted to fit into the dialog. | ||
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==== Summary ==== | ==== Summary ==== | ||
The summary tab is mostly OK. Adding a "Repository" item to indicate which repository a package is in would be useful (especially for identifying Extras and Extras-devel packages). The largest problem is the short description that doesn't get soft-wrapped. Soft-wrapping this description would eliminate the horizontal scrolling in most cases for the summary tab. | The summary tab is mostly OK. Adding a "Repository" item to indicate which repository a package is in would be useful (especially for identifying Extras and Extras-devel packages). The largest problem is the short description that doesn't get soft-wrapped. Soft-wrapping this description would eliminate the horizontal scrolling in most cases for the summary tab. | ||
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==== Description ==== | ==== Description ==== | ||
- | The description field also needs soft-wrapping to make some descriptions fit. The problem here is that many descriptions are already hard-wrapped, which might result in ugly half-soft/half-hard–wrapped text | + | The description field also needs soft-wrapping to make some descriptions fit. The problem here is that many descriptions are already hard-wrapped, which might result in ugly half-soft/half-hard–wrapped text. This may need to be addressed [https://maemo.org/forrest-images/pdf/maemo-policy.pdf packaging-side]. |
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==== Installing/Uninstalling/Upgrading/Problems ==== | ==== Installing/Uninstalling/Upgrading/Problems ==== | ||
This tab is a particularly bad offender, as the content is a known value—we know the type of information that appears here and we can predict how it will be formatted. The first and simplest solution is to take all of the packages under each heading and aligned them with the left side of the dialog. Most of the problems crop up from having such a huge amount of whitespace to the left of the package lists, so bringing these lists down a line and over to the left would eliminate a lot of horizontal scrolling. The headings (e.g., "Application packages missing:") will need to be offset from the text somehow, too. | This tab is a particularly bad offender, as the content is a known value—we know the type of information that appears here and we can predict how it will be formatted. The first and simplest solution is to take all of the packages under each heading and aligned them with the left side of the dialog. Most of the problems crop up from having such a huge amount of whitespace to the left of the package lists, so bringing these lists down a line and over to the left would eliminate a lot of horizontal scrolling. The headings (e.g., "Application packages missing:") will need to be offset from the text somehow, too. | ||
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