HaikuDepot, app discovery and preview

I think these need to use the default font. Currently, uses a slightly smaller and a bit grayed out font, so that’s not helping. I’ll fix that and post an update soon. But this is roughly how it would work, like the mail app

Install should still be the most prominent button. Changelog and Contents are nice to have, but they’re secondary.

Those are toolbar buttons, they are always in the same place, hence this is still kinda okay, but even there it hurts discoverability.

They’ll get alpha-sorted as usual for a column list. Sorting columns is a standard feature; that doesn’t mean that it’s especially useful or often used for all columns. Most of the time, column lists are just a very convenient way to show tabled information.

Still, tabs have the advantage that you can quickly switch between “pages”. What happens if user click on your Changelog button? Do we jump to some position in the scroll view? How do we then switch to Contents, manually scroll to the top to click the button?

Also, your Falkon example has a nicely short description. When it’s longer, your buttons - including the vital Install - may move out of the visible scroll view.

If tabs are needed, then tabs we shall have!

The About section could show a few recent reviews, with a shortcut button to view more that jumps straight to the Ratings tab.

We want to see the rating on the left hand overview column so that it may be viewed at a glance for each package without having to select the item to see it.

I just added those here.

I’m not sure how I feel about apps with no rating. Maybe they should have a tag or some kind of indicator? Without anything, it just feels a bit odd, like HaikuDepot failed to load those ratings

Here, we can see the ‘Not yet rated’ indicator on the list. It also appears when we select an app with no ratings.

Edit: Updated the unrated indicator

Personally I think stars look kind of bad. In general I mean, what about a simple bar?

If I’m looking at ratings, changelog or contents, can I still install the package?

Do you mean the unrated indicator being just a dash and no stars? So, like —

Yes! We should keep the App Icon, App Name and the Install Button across all tabs, and then the information below changes

If they are the same in all tabs, why should they be inside the tabs?

I think each tab gives you a different piece of the puzzle. Originally I wanted all in one page but it has some tradeoffs so tabs:

  • About, shows the description, screenshots, and a quick summary of the app
  • Ratings, provides user reviews and comments
  • Contents, lists all the files included with the app
  • Changelog, well, that’s where you see what’s changed. Although, many apps don’t seem to support it

I agree, but each tab has a header which is the same in every tab (and includes the install button). Shouldn’t this header be outside of tabs?

It feels like a pretty small trade off and it seems rather okay here

(oftopic) If anyone wants to tackle qt6webengine that Falkon port could be brought on par :slight_smile: (back to topic)

This is missing the “open app + deinstall app” combo. I’m guessing those would be below each other? If the header is in all tabs it should be a bit smaller, i.e move the name and copyright right of the icon like in the list.

Though keep in mind that no tabview in haiku behaves like this, so it would be unusual and also “special” which already was a critizism you had against the original design.

I really like that i can switch between featured and all packages inside a category,
i quite like the UX of Haiku Depot, but then i am a longterm linux user :wink:

Here we have the tabs switching
Haiku_Depot_Tabs

Open and uninstall, here

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