UI Improvement: Start menu displays prefixes which slow reading down a lot and become chaotic

[t4777sd]

Please have a look at this screen shot for reference: https://www.qubes-os.org/attachment/wiki/QubesScreenshots/r2b2-kde-start-menu.png

You will see the start menu is organized in a hierarchy that has a bunch of things with the same prefixes. Example:

Domain: banking
Domain: personal
Domain: work

People are skimming this list left to right and having all the items with the same prefix slows down the reading. People are really looking for "banking", "personal" etc. Considering the frequency of times people would need to use the start menu, the confusion and time loss can be significant.

I propose instead to have an internal grouping in this menu:

---DOMAIN---
banking
personal
work

To clarify, by an internal grouping, I do not mean that the user hovers over "domain" and sub-menus popout. I mean that the positions stay exactly like they are now. However, "--DOMAIN--" header is placed above it and the relevant menu items "banking", "personal", etc, are placed under this. Perhaps all surrounded in a box with a different color / borders so that it is obvious what items belong under the domain heading so there is no confusion for the menu items that belong after the domain section.

In other words, instead of that menu being one long list of items using prefixes to differentiate different menu item classes it breaks up the menu into logical sections that are quicker to identify and utilize.

All the menu items that utilize the same prefixes can follow this model. For example, "Templates" would also be converted to this.

The Benefits of This

1. It will look much better. It won't look so cluttered. It gives some organizational structure to that main menu that is better than the prefix method being used now

2. It will be much more efficient to skim and quickly select the right items

3. It allows for longer names of domains, etc, because there is no longer a prefix that takes up space

[mirrorway]

Might be simpler to just use a different icon for templatevms vs appvms vs servicevms. Like how disposable VMs already have a special icon.

Sort first by qubes type, then by name. Use dividers between the different types.:

|Q|__________________
|a Terminal          |
|b Logout...         |
|c System settings  >|
|q Qubes settings   >|
|q Add Qube...       |
|--------------------|
|* personal         >|  ___________________
|* untrusted        >|>|q Qube settings... |
|* vault            >| |q Remove Qube...   |
|* work             >| |q Logs            >|
|--------------------| |q Edit apps...     |
|D fedora-26-dvm    >| |-------------------|
|D whonix-ws-14-dvm >| |e Files            |
|--------------------| |f Firefox          |
|x sys-net           | |g Terminal         |
|x sys-usb          >| '-------------------'
|x sys-whonix       >|
|--------------------|
|o debian-9         >|
|o debian-9-custom  >|
|o fedora-26        >|
'--------------------'

[mirrorway]

Might be simpler to just use a different icon for templatevms vs appvms vs servicevms. Like how disposable VMs already have a special icon.

Sort first by qubes type, then by name. Use dividers between the different types.:

|Q|__________________
|a Terminal          |
|b Logout...         |
|c System settings  >|
|q Qubes settings   >|
|q Add Qube...       |
|--------------------|
|* personal         >|  ___________________
|* untrusted        >|>|q Qube settings... |
|* vault            >| |q Remove Qube...   |
|* work             >| |q Logs            >|
|--------------------| |q Edit apps...     |
|D fedora-26-dvm    >| |-------------------|
|D whonix-ws-14-dvm >| |e Files            |
|--------------------| |f Firefox          |
|x sys-net           | |g Terminal         |
|x sys-usb          >| '-------------------'
|x sys-whonix       >|
|--------------------|
|o debian-9         >|
|o debian-9-custom  >|
|o fedora-26        >|
'--------------------'

[RefinedSoftwareLLC]

Mirrorway, nice idea. It takes up a little bit less height (maybe 0.5 rows per divider) and might be more ascetically pleasing. The issue with your idea is that it would be harder for new users & guests to understand, requiring a hover popup over each icon for them to understand what each icon means. And it may not be obvious to new users & guests that hovering over the icons explains them.

For either idea, having a tooltip popup when hovering over the icons or prefix dividers could display a tooltip popup that has more then just the prefix name, but also a short description of its intended use, like disposables do not save their changes, and that templates should not be used directly except for updates & configuration changes.

[RefinedSoftwareLLC]

Mirrorway, nice idea. It takes up a little bit less height (maybe 0.5 rows per divider) and might be more ascetically pleasing. The issue with your idea is that it would be harder for new users & guests to understand, requiring a hover popup over each icon for them to understand what each icon means. And it may not be obvious to new users & guests that hovering over the icons explains them.

For either idea, having a tooltip popup when hovering over the icons or prefix dividers could display a tooltip popup that has more then just the prefix name, but also a short description of its intended use, like disposables do not save their changes, and that templates should not be used directly except for updates & configuration changes.

[mirrorway]

Or make the icons for template/system/dvm qubes have a unified theme.
I think all qubes icons should be variant of current appmenu icon (white Q on blue square).
but with "Q" replaced by "T" (for template), "A" (for appvm), etc...
instead of blue square, the square should be the assigned VM color.

This way the icon for each qube will be a cube (haha!), so you can tell immediately from the icon "this is a VM"...

[mirrorway]

Or make the icons for template/system/dvm qubes have a unified theme.
I think all qubes icons should be variant of current appmenu icon (white Q on blue square).
but with "Q" replaced by "T" (for template), "A" (for appvm), etc...
instead of blue square, the square should be the assigned VM color.

This way the icon for each qube will be a cube (haha!), so you can tell immediately from the icon "this is a VM"...