PackageKit UI

[Richard Hughes]

On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 15:41 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 02:22:17PM +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 15:09 +0200, Olivier Galibert wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 12:09:10PM +0100, Richard Hughes wrote:
> > > > Comments/suggestions welcome,
> > > 
> > > What are your use cases?  Do you have any?
> > 
> > Lots, see www.packagekit.org.
> 
> I may be a tad dense, but I can't find them there.

In the developer docs IIRC.

> > > How do you handle the use case "I need something to type a letter,
> > > what can I install for that, what are my choices?".
> > > How do you handle the use case "I want my desktop to look cooler, what
> > > can I add?".
> > > How do you handle the use case "I need some free space, what can I
> > > remove?".
> > 
> > We are prototyping something web-based for this sort of thing. We'll be
> > announcing stuff soon (if it works), I promise.
> 
> Good.  Then, what is your interface for, other than placating those
> who think they can't survive if they can't point and drool and
> consider that typing "yum install stuff" is way too complex?

It's somewhere in the middle of "What's a computer" to "iwconfig wlan0"
- competent users who just want to get something done.

> > > What information does the opened/closed box icon give, apart from "we
> > > have good graphists"?
> > 
> > Open = installed, closed = not installed. The icons also change if you
> > select them to be added or removed.
> 
> That's, errr, non-obvious.  At all.  I don't see how an icon can
> convey that kind of thing in an obvious way, to be honest.  A
> word+color code combination would probably be better.  And you
> probably need to have filters like "show installed", "show updates",
> etc directly clickable in the window instead of tucked in a menu.
> Color the appropriate words in the filter name with the same color
> than the indicator in the array and you're probably golden.

Colour is a bad indicator as many people don't "do" colour.

> > > Why do you present multiple versions of the same thing (compiz-gnome
> > > in your screenshot), especially as is they were different?
> > 
> > Ahh, it shows there is an update available. Maybe we need to expose this
> > clearer.
> 
> Ohhhh yes you do.

There was talk on the mailing list on how we parametrize these better so
we can show better icons in the UI. It petered out a few weeks ago, feel
free to jump on the mailing list and help out. Thanks!

Richard.