[TBD] Plasma 6 proposal: Fullscreen application launcher based on Kickoff
Background
The existing application dashboard (referred as "fullscreen launcher") has a questionable technical architecture and is completely broken in Plasma 6. Most existing fullscreen launchers on sko are also based on the broken fullscreen launcher, so they are also likely to fail, which means there will be no usable fullscreen launcher in Plasma 6.
Reasons
It's difficult to quickly completely understand what people really need when they use the fullscreen launcher and its variants. Some are using it on small-screen devices, and some are using it on full desktops. If there are still many users using the fullscreen launcher, it might make sense to make a new fullscreen launcher following the design of Kickoff. Reasons given below:
- The design of the new Kickoff has gone through multiple rounds of prototyping, making the final product have good usability, and people seem to be in favor of the current Kickoff as there are few negative reports.
- The current Kickoff has already implemented the features available in the fullscreen launcher except for the widget browser, and it's questionable whether it's useful to browse widgets in an application launcher as many forks of the fullscreen launcher have removed the feature. People using the existing fullscreen launcher will not feel anything incomplete in the new fullscreen launcher.
As I believe users tend to use the fullscreen launcher on touch-capable devices, to adapt Kickoff design to the fullscreen launcher, a few changes will be made:
- No information overload: A fullscreen view will only serve for a single purpose, which means the home page will no longer be crowded with favorites and application lists, making buttons bigger and more touch-friendly.
- Less tab, more swipe: Using tabs to navigate is not touch friendly. People are more used to swiping to switch views on mobile platforms.
Plans
A few fullscreen launcher prototypes will be made to more quickly get feedbacks from the users. A final product will be made after a consensus is reached.