'Regarding KO 2.0 goals - feel of the startup screen (RFC)'

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Regarding KO 2.0 goals - feel of the startup screen (RFC)
From:       Jarosław_Staniek <js () iidea ! pl>
Date:       2006-07-17 21:03:32
Message-ID: 44BBFB24.3020703 () iidea ! pl
[Download RAW message or body]

Hello,

RFC:

For 2.0 (probably not this year..) I plan to integrate with the startup 
screen/window for Kexi as much as possible. Since starting a new Kexi project 
is not a mater of choosing template, we need some exensibility for the startup 
screen. Coming from this task, I've started to play with a mockup showing that 
the screen can be more web-page like:

http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/kpresenter_welcome_blank1.png
http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/kpresenter_welcome_chalkboard1.png

Note:
- the mockups were simplified to focus on the general idea feeling of the web page
- Since KDE 3.x there are apps utilizing webpage-like feel in their startup 
screens: Konqueror, KMail, and then Kontact suite went really far with its 
"Summary" screen, with sections -very much like, say, news.google.com.
- I've followed the development and design decisions behind the current starup 
screen. Implementation of the startup screen is still after applying one or 
more of the proposed additions is still _the same_, especially in terms of 
API; the additions are mostly about styling and laying out. Accessibility is 
preserved not less than for web pages displayed in Konqueror. I do not propose 
using a KHTML nor Qt rich text.
- Preparing the mockups I tried to anticipate how KDE4 finally will look like, 
weso think about all the colors in my mockup as about colors fetched from the 
default style

The palette used here is based on KDE4 and the style on this:
- http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/orig/kde4_bg1.jpg
- http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=28476

Basically, what I tried to do is to start with something we can show:
- to usability guys
- to an artist
- then, as early as possible to our users as a part of marketing

..(in this order).

Of course the web-style welcome screen differ from app to app, eg. doc-driven 
apps use this graphics template as an item
http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/orig/empty_doc_1200.png while kexi
will be probably using a 'database' icon. Apart the web style this is another 
eyecandy that (if reused everywhere) can improve the modernize the look of our 
apps.

All the icons come from the Oxygen svg theme now.

Regarding Kexi

- the welcome page will be just the first page of the 'create database
wizard', to 1. avoid a bloat (presented here
http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/orig/access1.png), 2. avoid popping
up modal 'create database' dialog as we have now in 1.x (the goal is to have a
complete path from 'welcome' to 'databsae created' available using the same
web-like page.

- Kexi welcome screen will be a bit more complex, wizard-like, that's why I
started with modelling the easier case - for KPresenter

Regarding KPresenter

- intuitive 'screens' contain a small previews (rendered by putting a
thumbnail below the transparent svg 'monitor' shape -
http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/orig/screen-without-bg-gray.svg with
a realistic glossy screen; same effect can be modeled for 'documents' etc.)

- there's one suboptimal thing in kpresenter's welcome screen - page size
(letter, A4, etc.) could be moved to options visible near the 'Create' button.
Looks like it's not a template category. Of cours to get this to work we'll
need to keep the group of templates that differ ony with screen/page size and
then select the one user has selected. (I suppose - same idea works for KWord,
etc. - http://kexi-project.org/pics/2.0/koffice/preview-doc.png)
UPDATE: Thomas pointed out that KWord has this issue fixed, so groupping for 
KPresenter's templates will be fixed in a similar manner, independently.

Menu issue
- question: what's the purpose of the menu itself and menu items in particular 
within the startup screen:
-- file->new -clones the screen
-- file->open -duplicates the 'open existing document' button (I think the 
file dialog could be embedded in the startup screen anyway to avoid cascading 
dialogs, so typical for older apps)
-- file->open recen -duplicate
-- file->[9 disabled actions]
-- file->quit -users ask: "does it quit the app or the welcome dialog itself?"
-- settings->[3 items] -why do we want to configure the app at this stage?

Another reason I consumed some time to prepare the stuff is to propose to show
the mockups as our vision for users. Let it even be a vapourware, it's long
way before koffice 2.0 will be releases, not mentioning when it all will be
packaged in mainstream distros...
Shots in technical blogs are nice but you know - not for the the average user,
yet the shots can be really not encouraging. The mockups show the 'difference'.

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam,
  Jaroslaw Staniek / OpenOffice Polska

Sponsored by OpenOffice Polska to work on
* Kexi & KOffice: http://www.kexi-project.org | http://koffice.org/kexi
* KDE3 & KDE4 Libraries For Developing MS Windows Applications:
                   http://www.kdelibs.com
See also:
* Kexi For MS Windows: http://kexi.pl/wiki/index.php/Kexi_for_MS_Windows
* Kexi Support:        http://www.kexi-project.org/support.html
_______________________________________________
koffice-devel mailing list
koffice-devel@kde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 