[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [GSoC] Use Widget Layout for the Start Center

[Krisztian Pinter]

Hi all!

Sorry for the late reply!

(Disclaimer: I'm not an UI designer, just trying to use my own flavor of
common sense here, so I apologize in advance to any UI professionals if I
say something very stupid. :-)

Thanks for all the responses, and thanks Mirek for starting the whiteboard
and creating a mockup (which I liked).
I had something with tabs in mind as well. I created a rudimentary mockup
myself before posting this, and in its concept it's close to what Mirek
did. I think tabs should correspond to modules, feels more practical to me,
and I think this is what the average user might find more
comfortable/familiar.

Currently when LO starts, the question Star Center asks is "Which module
would you like to use?". Olivier's design asks the question "Would you like
to create a new document, create a new document from a template or open a
recent one?"
I think users don't fire up LO thinking "I want to create a document from a
template" or "I want to open a recent file" but something like "I want to
start a new spreadsheet (in Calc)" or "I want to continue working on my
slash fic (in Writer)".
The point I'm trying to make is that I think users first think about what
type of document they want to work with, and second what they want to do
with it, and so this is the order Start Center should be asking the user
these questions.

Obviously, this is all just speculation, and I'm not 100% confident in my
reasoning, so please, tell me what you think.

The idea about different filetypes having different colored shadows: that's
interesting, but I think a small icon for the filetype should also be put
in a corner of the thumbnail or something, because it wouldn't be very
helpful for color blind people.

All the best,
Krisztian

On 26 July 2013 10:47, Mirek M. <mazelm at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Krisztian,
>
> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 6:16 PM, Krisztian Pinter <
> pin.terminator at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all!
>>
>> I'm working on this GSoC project:
>> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Gsoc/Ideas#Use_Widget_Layout_for_the_Start_Center
>>
>> "Currently, the Start Center (the start screen you get when you start
>> LibreOffice) is only a static bitmap, with few buttons and links. It would
>> be useful to present few recently used documents there (as thumbnails), and
>> do more fancy stuff.
>> See this overview and WidgetLayout to get more information about the
>> Widget Layout (this part is actually very similar to the above mentioned
>> task). Additionally, code for rendering the thumbnails will have to be
>> introduced, and maybe some code sharing with the new Template Manager will
>> be needed too."
>>
>
> Sounds good. I was about to say that perhaps you could try to reuse the
> Template Manager's thumbnail rendering.
>
>>
>> I've already converted the current startcenter to .ui, and it has been
>> merged to master, but it's still being improved. I'm currently working on
>> adding thumbnails for recent docs.
>>
>> I'd like to request a mockup for the startcenter (with thumbnails for
>> recent docs), so we can make it look nice and pretty.
>>
>
> I started a whiteboard for it:
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboards/Start_Center.
>
>>
>> Kendy, my GSoC mentor, listed these points as his preference:
>> >* Keep the buttons to start apps some way (but they could be smaller or
>> organized another way
>> >* Keep the LibreOffice logo, but the other visual things (like the
>> shadows etc.) might go from my point of view
>> >* Make it resizable, so that the screen size is better used (ie. no more
>> fixed rectangle in the middle of the screen)
>>
>
> I tried to incorporate these into the scope. Take a look at it and feel
> free to make changes based on what you feel like doing. :)
>
> Thanks for working on this!
>
>>
>> Looking forward to your feedback!
>>
>> All the best,
>> Krisztian
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
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