Skip to content

New Card based UI

Created by: mray

As proposed in #666 (closed) Plinth needs a more usability focused UI. I propose the following cards based approach. Cards are usable on any device, provide flexibility in terms of what they "hold" and represent apps / modules in a simple, consistent form.

I separated 5 main layouts that should cover almost every scenario in Plinth:

  • home screen (when not logged in yet)
  • apps (overview of apps)
  • configuration (overview of modules)
  • $app
  • $module

Main Menu

The main menu consists of 5 elements:

  • *(logo)*Home -> home screen
  • Apps -> apps overview
  • Configuration -> module overview --
  • user dropdown menu
  • power dropdown menu

Cards

Cards come in two variants:

  1. small, in a stack as an overview (limited and defined content)
  2. big, as pop up covering the overview (flexible and less defined content)

Apps

(disclaimer - I understand apps technically are also modules) Apps contain services that provide a feature to FreedomBox. They can be turned "on" or "off". Some apps come with an "app page" (like roundcube) which can be visited via a respective link. The apps overview has two card stacks: one for running apps, one for disabled apps. Enabled apps are sorted by having an app page.

Modules

Modules provide configuration options to maintain a running FreedomBox so it can deliver its features through apps. Modules can be categorized via any arrangement of card stacks, some discussion with @ikmaak made me assume "System" "Network" and "Identity" might work.


Home screen:

image

Apps screen:

image

App pop up:

image

Configuration screen:

image

Module pop up:

image

Clickable HTML version: Plinth-card-based-UI.zip

Edited by Sunil Mohan Adapa