[Librem-5-dev] Application design principles

[rinigus]

Hi,

I would like to ask about main application design principles that are
envisioned for L5. In particular, applications that are not using Gtk/Gnome
libs and if they wish to follow the same or similar user interaction as the
targeted platform. My questions and understanding of current design are
based on

*
https://gitlab.gnome.org/Teams/Design/os-mockups/blob/master/app-menu/patterns.png
* https://developer.puri.sm/Apps/GNOME/Gtk+.html
* https://developer.puri.sm/Apps/Constraints.html
* https://developer.puri.sm/Design/Design_guidelines/Touch.html

It looks to me that the current guidelines imply:

[1] user will be able to swipe up from the bottom to get main menu with all
applications
[2] application has some kind of a top bar with its name and menu symbols
[3] to get back from the application sub-page, there is an arrow that can
be clicked on the left top

There are no indications regarding swipes as a part of interaction within
applications. Namely, is it envisioned that we can make "page stacks" and,
instead of reaching top left corner to go back, can swipe the page out of
the stack?

As an application developer, I am looking for some kind of guidelines or
will be happy to help through the discussion and other means in formulating
them. While not fully open-source, I would suggest to look into design
guidelines of SailfishOS, which are quite clearly (for me) defined at
https://sailfishos.org/design/navigation/ . In addition, on SFOS, we have
rather extensive specification of used theme colors, distances between
labels, font sizes, and such. For that, we use a dedicated QML class
https://sailfishos.org/develop/docs/silica/qml-sailfishsilica-sailfish-silica-theme.html
. Would be great to get some kind of similar resource that can be queued
for application design.

(Assuming that I understand the principles correctly) As for implied design
principles [2] and [3], I have few concerns

* having a top bar with application name is a large waste of space, at
least for some of the applications. For example, web browser would not need
it and its probably the best to have as much screen for reading as
possible. For maps, same applies - the content speaks for itself in many
cases.

* having an arrow on top left as an only way to move back from the sub-page
back, contradicts easily reachable thumb range (
https://developer.puri.sm/_images/p2f1.png)

Best wishes,

Rinigus
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