Mockups/new design discussions

[c-lobrano]

Yes, maybe a bit naif, but it’s awesome

[jaggers]

@mpt @c-lobrano @madsrh @frederik-f

Okay, I actually really like this - I tried the coloured app grid as a unifying device across the three software-related icons, and got rid of the meaningless-seeming globe while I was doing it. Don’t know whether this is the style we want, but I think they look really nice, individually and also together:

Also happy to try more magic box designs.

[frederik-f]

I really like that grid idea as an alternative to the A.

The magic box looks too abstract and the software=package link is a little bit dated ( in my opinion). I don’t think that users think of packages when they think of software nowadays.

[mpt]

@jaggers

In the meantime, I’d been trying to simplify the “lunch box” and remove the “A”. For an apps symbol I was trying the app grid, but with each square in a palette colour for visual interest and to symbolise the diversity of the apps.

I like that it’s consistent with the apps button. I wonder what the Snap Store app’s variation would be, though. It would be easy enough to alter the existing Snap Store app icon — green shopping bag with Snappy logo — to the Suru shape. But then how do you convey that Ubuntu Software is snaps plus other apps?

Although the corners are still rounded in that case, these are ubiquitous in Yaru (e.g., paper document), so the hope was that the user would have some “theme blindness” to them and not interpret them as physical rounded corners when they were presented in the usual Yaru way without extra detail.

Hmm, even if that “theme blindness” worked, there would be three difficulties. First, sometimes one app’s icon may be the only icon currently visible (for example, when the launcher is hidden). Second, most people using the Snap Store app won’t be using Yaru at all (because they won’t be using Ubuntu), so it won’t work for them.

Third and most important, as I mentioned before, “a shopping bag has so few details to convey what it is”. It could have:

• rectangular shape
• part of the inside visible
• handles
• a logo inked on the outside
• actual items of shopping inside it
• a mixture of shades from the unfolded paper being at slightly different angles.

But if the Yaru style is going to prevent the first two, you’re going to have a hard time.

@frederik-f

The magic box looks too abstract

Agreed. Common features of a magic box, as it’s usually illustrated:

• rectangular shape
• more than one side visible at a time (to clarify that it’s a box)
• part of the inside visible
• wood grain, sharp reflection off varnish, or diffuse reflection off cardboard
• a glow coming from inside
• sparkles, usually gold and/or silver, often spiralling outward.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, pretty much none of those things is compatible with Suru.