Bug 424476

Summary:	KDE Plasma look and design decreases by each new released version
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	medin <med.medin.2014>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED NOT A BUG
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	kde, the.neophytes.logs
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	5.19.3
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Manjaro
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description medin 2020-07-20 17:53:32 UTC

I love KDE and don't mean to say something bad about it, but sometimes hard/bitter truth is better than flattering.

It's like there is no quality design in the last released versions, some random UI solutions added with no reason at all, with a lot of popup dialogs inside settings.

1- I will start by Application Style, you will find a grid with different available styles, then at bottom two buttons "Configure Icons and Toolbars" and "Configure GNOME/GTK App Style", the first button opens a popup window ! The second button opens other kind of internal window with return header at top !
Why not create 3 tabs for Styles, Configure Icons and Toolbars and Configure GNOME/GTK App Style ? this way it will be clean and easy to modify and understand like what we have in Windows Decoration section with two simple tabs.

2- The second point is font settings, why are we wasting space by creating 3 columns, and the second columns contains only two fixed item which are Fonts and Fonts Management, why not create two tabs Called "Fonts Configuration" and "Fonts Management" directly under "Fonts ?
With current implementation when I open Fonts>Fonts I found in total 5 columns in front of me with so little space given to font preview at right.

3- The third point is the Icons Settings, the same can be said about the solution of 3 columns, it is better to create two tabs called "Icons" and "Emoticons" under one root section called "Icons & Emoticons".
And what is really disturbing is the button at bottom called "Configure Icons Size", why are we putting a fixed list of items inside scrollbar pane and the whole pane inside a popup window ? why not a simple combobox and a slider beside it at the bottom ?

4- ...

The second column in Settings should be used only if at least one item from the list has multiple tabs in the third column.

Because KDE has a lot of functions and options, some kind of of unification, simplification and categorization should be done to improve Settings/Desktop, because I'm should more people are embracing KDE and loving it.

Comment 1 Oussema Bouaneni 2020-07-20 21:35:20 UTC

I think they're trying to improve this and redesign the system settings.
You can see their progress here:
https://phabricator.kde.org/tag/plasma_kcm_redesign/

Comment 2 Oussema Bouaneni 2020-07-20 21:42:49 UTC

Also, as it seems you understand UX/UI design, you might want to get involved with Plasma's visual design group on Phabricator and give feedback about the proposed changes and designs and suggest changes as well.

Here's more on how to get involved: https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/design
And here's what the VDG is currently working on: https://phabricator.kde.org/tag/vdg/

Comment 3 medin 2020-07-20 21:59:47 UTC

(In reply to Oussema Bouaneni from comment #2)
> Also, as it seems you understand UX/UI design, you might want to get
> involved with Plasma's visual design group on Phabricator and give feedback
> about the proposed changes and designs and suggest changes as well.
> 
> Here's more on how to get involved:
> https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved/design
> And here's what the VDG is currently working on:
> https://phabricator.kde.org/tag/vdg/


I'm by no mean a designer, and I never liked to be a designer, but my feedback is based on my daily/heavy use of Plasma desktop and my previous experiences with other desktop managers in the past.

For me the usage behavior should be the only direct factor that guides how the desktop manager should look and not dictated by what a designer likes.
The best example is how M$ tried hard to remove start menu and impose their silly design on Windows users but in the end they revive it.

Comment 4 David Edmundson 2020-07-20 22:29:47 UTC

Your feedback has been noted. 

>some random UI solutions added with no reason at all,

If you wish to have a positive impact on a project I would advise you to adjust your tone.

This is not an actionable bug report as it combines multiple things, so I will close it from the queue.

If you have specific design suggestions please do feel free to join the appropriate teams and make suggestions accordingly. 

Note also that some of your comments are the practical implications of doing slow migration and not the result of the intended design if we had a million hours.

Comment 5 David Edmundson 2020-07-20 22:34:27 UTC

To quickly address your points:

1) The fact that they're different is a valid comment. Practically it's because the GTK settings have changed a lot over the past year and this hasn't really updated. We are moving away from tabs, plus whole tabs for 2 boxes is another UX issue.

3) It can't be one slides, it'd be 5 sliders for the different icon sizes.
I do agree that could be made into a whole page where it's presented more like a list view with the N slides