Ubuntu Wiki

• Launchpad Entry: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/adept-usability

• Created: 2006-06-08 by JonathanRiddell

• Contributors: JonathanRiddell

• Packages affected: adept

Summary

Review Adept for Usability.

Rationale

Adept user interface has some usability problems which need to be addressed. This spec is about interface changes that should lead to better, more usable software.

Use cases

Distinctions have to be made about target groups of users. Adept Manager is for power users, which basically means users that are somewhat familiar with the underlying concepts of package management and dependencies.

Adept Manager

• Search for package to install for a specific task/purpose. That also means that package categories like those shown in Synaptic, KPackage and YaST (@SUSE) should be shown. Only then it will be easy to navigate and locate what we are searching for.
• Get an overview of packages installed on your system and possibly remove some that you don't use/need anymore.
• Browse around the available software repository, learn about new software you may find useful.
• Living on the bleeding edge: try to install a "development" version of a package, manually review and correct dependencies.
• Bring your system up to date with changes in remote repositories (upgrade).

Adept Installer

• View a list of available software for your system, install some applications from the list (say an educational application for your school kid to help learning chemistry)
• Review a list of installed applications and remove some of those you don't use anymore.
• You want to check if there is a new version of an application for your system and install it.

Scope

Scope for Edgy Adept-Manager:

• Add a graphical frontend to the sources interface.
• Redesign of the user interface to provide easier navigation and search facilities for packages.
• Redesign the channels interface.

Review both Adept Installer and Adept Manager to comply with the KDE HIG.

Design

The main toolbar will become context sensitive, the buttons will change depending on the mode application is in.

We will have a left-to-right interface flow for most user interfaces in Adept Manager (or reversed for RTL users). This requires a number of changes.

There will be a mode bar on the left of the window which gives the user an overview of "where I am" and the possibility to revisit screens and actions that they visited previously, for example to review action logs. The "resolve" stage of the install will get an entry in the mode bar, along with "download" and "apply" for easy access and orientation.

http://lorien.mornfall.net:8012/m/random-photos/adept-modebar-draft.jpg-not-inline

The filter/seach section will be put between the package list and the mode bar, this makes both filters and package list more horizontal-space-limited, which means we will need to have the package list using 2 lines per item and the filters need to be redesigned as below.

Package view mode will also get a left-to-right layout as well: "trace" browsing history is leftmost, then the package description and details and last goes a list of related packages, tabbed with file list and changelog. There may also be a "trace" to the left of this view, although it is not yet decided though on its any exact implementation or looks.

The sources editor will be renamed to the channels editor. The current table of entries will be replaced with a list where each item has the channel information in a user readable way abstracted from the original deb source line.

The resolve stage is implemented as a preview and conflict resolution view, approving changes moves the user to the download screen and starts the download.

A progress indication will be improved in the download screen to adding more information: time to finish, sizes and download speed. The context toolbar will have "pause/resume" and "cancel download" buttons.

Before committing changes, Adept will show the user a list containing packages that need to be installed, and their sizes. It should then allow the user to choose NOT to install any of the packages listed.

Support for displaying and resolving dependency trees need to be added. As it is, Adept does NOT make the relationship between various packages quite clear.