papercuts-ninja team mailing list archive

[Launchpad Bug Tracker <1026090@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Wilson (notgary) has assigned this bug to you for software-center in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu Software Center 5.2.4, Ubuntu 12.04

The top of USC's software item screen is unattractive.
<https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110380605/layout.png>

To see this problem, go to <http://apt.ubuntu.com/p/snorms> for example.

There are always at least five elements in this area:
a. Icon for the application/package.
b. Title (application name or package synopsis), usually four words or fewer.
c. Summary or tagline, usually ten words or fewer.
d. Price, often "Free"; or, if currently installed, an "Installed" icon and text and the date it was installed. <https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110391101/installed.png>
e. Button labelled "Install", "Install…", "Buy…", or "Remove", depending on the situation. During installation/removal, this changes to a progress bar with a small Stop button.

Occasionally there are additional elements:
f. An average rating, shown as stars, and the number of ratings.
g. A banner warning you that the item may be inappropriate: for example, "This software requires a CD drive, but none are currently connected."
h. Text for a package you've downloaded outside USC, "Install this item only if you trust its origin." Currently this replaces the price, because USC has no idea whether or how much you paid for it. <https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110980902/deb.png>

So, what are the problems?
<https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110980809/layout-annotated.png>

1. The contents of the price+button ribbon, and (when present) the
warning ribbon, are flush with the left and right edges of their colored
backgrounds. This is ugly.

We could fix this by adding some left and right padding inside, but then
the text would no longer line up with the package description below it.
Would that matter? Maybe, maybe not. We could fix that too, by adding
padding to the package description as well. But then the overall
description area would be further away from the edges of the window than
the banner areas are. Would that matter? Maybe, maybe not.

2. The price/installed and warning ribbons are rather unattractive in
themselves. In particular, they have no vertical borders, but dotted
horizontal borders and a background color. These don't seem to go well
together. The text in the price/installed ribbon is also bold and a bit
clunky.

3. The "Install"/"Install…"/"Buy" button is far away from the price --
and the wider the window is, the further apart they are. Originally this
was for semi-consistency with list views of multiple results, where we
have a "More Info" button at the left end, and an "Install" button at
the right end. <https://launchpadlibrarian.net/110391422/list-view.png>
but we want to reduce our use of list views anyway. One possibility for
fixing this would be to put the button on the left side, with the
price/installed text immediately to its right.

These three problems would be best solved all at once by a graphic
designer.

** Affects: hundredpapercuts
     Importance: Low
     Assignee: Papercuts Ninja (papercuts-ninja)
         Status: Confirmed

** Affects: software-center (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Low
     Assignee: Emily Maher (emily-maher)
         Status: Confirmed

-- 
Top of software item screen is unattractive
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1026090
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Papercuts Ninja, which is a bug assignee.