Design ideas from other platforms that could be applied to System Settings
I originally made this post at #15 and @ngraham asked me to move it to its own issue so we could discuss it.
Here I'm describing MS Windows settings and extracting some of the good design ideas they had. Feel free to add other design ideas from other platforms that could be relevant to Plasma System Settings.
Please note the intention here is not to suggest we should carbon-copy their settings app, but instead, it's a place to gather nice design ideas that may or may not be used in System Settings in the future. Use this for inspiration.
Here's an overview of what Microsoft did with their Settings app:
- All subcategories in the Windows settings app are presented with an icon, a title, and a list of settings (separated by a comma) you will find there.
- In Plasma Settings, there are too many items to parse on both sidebars at once. Windows solves this issue by putting subcategories in the main view and by using whitespace. While this may reduce information density, it helps users quickly parse the information on the screen, which would help alleviate the complaint some Plasma users have that System Settings feels too overwhelming to use. Andy's idea of using cards while removing the secondary sidebar in #13 (closed) helps achieve this effect while also not decreasing information density too much:
- Windows uses subtitles within subcategory pages to further organize categories. Eg. If you go to System -> Video, you'll see subtitles above related subcategory items:
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Commonly used options are easily accessible after clicking a subcategory, while very advanced options are hidden in a third level. For instance, in the image above, you'll see they have a combo box to change the scale, however, if you click on the little arrow on the Scale option, you go into a third level. For instance, clicking brings you to a page where you can set a custom scale level. Using this organization structure would allow System Settings to offer more advanced, less often used settings while making them harder to access by accident by less tech-savvy users.
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Adding related settings to pages, just like Android - There are times when subcategories might fit more than one top-level category. In those cases, adding related settings to a page helps users with navigation. In the example below, under Scale, Windows shows three settings as related categories: Font size, Refresh Rate, and Graphical Elements. Those can usually be accessed elsewhere, but if a user gets lost trying to find something, they can go straight to the settings they were likely to be looking for.
- Advanced search - Their app supports more than keywords for searching. For instance, if you search for the word "Put", the search box will suggest "Put computer automatically in sleep mode when I leave". Those don't seem to be using any fancy AI or complex algorithms, instead, it seems they hardcoded prompts users are likely to search for.
Which of these design elements do you think System Settings could make use of, @teams/vdg?