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Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

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Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#21

Post by orbifold »

sdegutis wrote: post #17
sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

All the UI and UX in general looks like it's from 2007. I know that it's volunteer work and I don't want to downplay the generosity of those who contributed to it, but I do wonder what's causing the delay in catching up to modern aesthetics. Is it a technical issue? Is there too much bureaucracy to overcome? Is there a shortage of UI and UX developers?

Basically creative people by and large never subscribed to the idea that they should give away their creativity for free. So all the talented designers are employed and happily working on paid projects, especially less established ones get approached with ridiculous low offers all the time.

In short outside of the bizarre software/tech world very few subscribe to the idea that intellectual property should be shared and used freely.

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#22

Post by brmgb »

sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

You are not alone. Typography is questionable but the worst parts are padding and alignment.

I have to apologize in advance because it's going to sound like a harsh comment and I know this is volunteer work. I really think that KDE is technically very good. The amount of basic design mistakes however is just unbearable as far as I am concerned.

I mean, let's take a look at this improved notification panel. The closing and setting icons seem slightly lower than the icon on the left of the title. The large hamburger menu icon is actually two pixels on the left of the closing icon. There are 17 pixels of top padding but only 12 pixels of left padding. The large image is one pixel of center (232 pixels on the left, 230 on the right). Every single line of text has a different interline.

And it's same for every application of KDE. They really need a design team to polish it up.

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#24

Post by simion314 »

tylerjwilk00 wrote: post #18
sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

This has always been the problem with KDE and the reason I can not switch. KDE UI never gets Typography, spacing/padding, or alignment correct. It's a shame because they are so close on most other criteria.

KDE let's me setup myy font sizes, I always use huge fonts and I hate with a passion when devs pixel allign things and break the GUI when I use larger fonts.

I also get exasperated when I get asked to pixel perfect align checkboxes and the labels in web pages, each browser has different checkbox dimensions and styles, and aligning them how the designer wants means a lot of extra styling that will break on users that don't use the defaults(but the designerr wants his pixel aligned stuff on his Mac screen... also rewording messages to align in message boxes or labels

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#25

Post by solarkraft »

tylerjwilk00 wrote: post #18
sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

This has always been the problem with KDE and the reason I can not switch. KDE UI never gets Typography, spacing/padding, or alignment correct. It's a shame because they are so close on most other criteria.

I agree. That said I switched to KDE a few weeks ago and turned into a fan boy during the configuration process. I'm very happy with my current configuration (probably a mix of it actually being good and the Ikea effect). I love that you can just configure almost anything almost exactly to your liking with not all that much effort.

I'm not a huge fan of the default configuration, but the ability to completely change it (with the many panel options) is just amazing (kind of contrary to GNOME).

I think I have figured out at least part of the reason for the spacings always feeling just a bit (or very) off (although I think it's bearable with my theme):

Their Kirigami design support library has a set of pre defined spacings and sizes developers are advised to rigidly stick to. These probably break down in many contexts and might not even be chosen well in the first place.

Another reason might be that KDE doesn't have a design group that is as strong as Gnome's and KDE might not be organized top-down as much (which is probably related to financing).

I think you can fix or mitigate well a lot of the mistakes (Qt is great) by using a good Qt curve theme.

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#26

Post by KirinDave »

tylerjwilk00 wrote: post #18
sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

This has always been the problem with KDE and the reason I can not switch. KDE UI never gets Typography, spacing/padding, or alignment correct. It's a shame because they are so close on most other criteria.

What do you use that respects these principles?

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#27

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

kermitismyhero wrote: post #19
magduf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on if you like features and configuration options or not. If you don't like features and don't want to be able to set any configuration options, go for Gnome. Otherwise, KDE.

KDE these days seems like configurability-overload. I appreciate the flexibility but it just feels excessive to me. I think a lot of the options should be tucked away into an equivalent of Firefox's about:config. For me, something like XFCE has the ideal config panel complexity. (Of course, it's all subjective.)

There are ways that the configuration can be done for you, however. There's a "Use Desktop Layout From Theme" that would pull in any layout changes from a theme you install.

When I found out that you could apply a theme and, with a few clicks, have KDE fashioned into something that looks indistinguishable from Unity, I almost switched to it just for the novelty.

https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/make-kde-pla...

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#28

Post by arendtio »

sdegutis wrote: post #17
sergiomattei wrote: post #4

I can't be the only one that dislikes KDE's typography. I see that notification pane and aside from color, nothing gives it typographical hierarchy. It just looks odd to me.

All the UI and UX in general looks like it's from 2007. I know that it's volunteer work and I don't want to downplay the generosity of those who contributed to it, but I do wonder what's causing the delay in catching up to modern aesthetics. Is it a technical issue? Is there too much bureaucracy to overcome? Is there a shortage of UI and UX developers?

Actually, there are many things I like a lot better about the 2007ish KDE/Oxygen/Breeze style than about more modern approaches like for example Windows 10.

I am not saying it is perfect, it is not, but especially in design terms, 'newer' isn't always better. And in general, I like KDE look very much.

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#29

Post by sdegutis »

Narishma wrote: post #20
sdegutis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the UI and UX in general looks like it's from 2007. I know that it's volunteer work and I don't want to downplay the generosity of those who contributed to it, but I do wonder what's causing the delay in catching up to modern aesthetics. Is it a technical issue? Is there too much bureaucracy to overcome? Is there a shortage of UI and UX developers?

To each his own, I guess. I find modern aesthetics to be a downgrade for the most part from what we had at the turn of the century.

Personally I prefer Windows 95-98 era UI/UX, it was the right balance between pretty and useful. Too bad those days are over.

Re: Next Generation KDE Plasma Notifications

#30

Post by magduf »

kermitismyhero wrote: post #19
magduf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on if you like features and configuration options or not. If you don't like features and don't want to be able to set any configuration options, go for Gnome. Otherwise, KDE.

KDE these days seems like configurability-overload. I appreciate the flexibility but it just feels excessive to me. I think a lot of the options should be tucked away into an equivalent of Firefox's about:config. For me, something like XFCE has the ideal config panel complexity. (Of course, it's all subjective.)

KDE could use some work in the design department, with a lot of the menus and UI stuff getting an overhaul, but without actually removing functionality (just moving it around to be more sensible, and not overloading new users with too many options at once).
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