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. | |
[[Image:Application manager grid-view mockup.jpg|thumb|250px|Mock-up of the grid-view]] | [[Image:Application manager grid-view mockup.jpg|thumb|250px|Mock-up of the grid-view]] | ||
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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. | ||
- | * Change to Modest's nice, big, thumbable scroll bars | + | * Change to Modest's nice, big, thumbable scroll bars. |
- | * 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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[[Image:Application manager description mock-up.png|thumb|left|250px|Mock-up of the description tab]] | [[Image:Application manager description mock-up.png|thumb|left|250px|Mock-up of the description tab]] | ||
==== 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]. |
[[Image:Application manager installing mock-up.png|thumb|250px|Mock-up of the installing tab]] | [[Image:Application manager installing mock-up.png|thumb|250px|Mock-up of the installing tab]] | ||
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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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