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posted 2018-11-03 16:53:23 +0200

Make Sailfish UI consistent and easy again. Please!

With Sailfish 1, the UI was really consistent, beautiful and easy. I especially loved the fact that almost everything could be done by dragging/swiping. No need to hit small buttons.

Version 2 already changed for the worse. The quick actions on the app covers were no longer a swipe action, but required me to tap on the tiniest icons. This was, as far as I remember, a consequence of the introduction of a mysterious "partner space" that, as it turned out, nobody was interested in ever since.

During the end of 2.x, an even worse change was introduced: The new image viewer: Everywhere else in Sailfish, you drag from left to right in order to leave a view and return to the previous; the navigation path is indicated by a glowing circle on the upper left. Now there's one single view that you close by swiping from top to bottom - without any visiual indication at all that this is possible. To add to the chaos, there's an additional Windows 3.11 style [x] for closing on the top right. The easily accessible menu items (remember? just drag down...) have been replaced, yet again, by tiny symbols.

Now with 3, the situation became even worse. To save one single swipe, the status menu was made accessible from everywhere. (Before it was a swipe from left to right to reach the events screen, then you could swipe down. Now you can swipe down without the one swipe to the right before.) Because this conflicts with the well-known gesture for closing an app, the upper edge of the screen has been divided into 3 (!) parts... and if you're lucky, you hit the right one. Within the status menu, the various status indicators no longer follow the Sailfish style language.

What used to be a pretty and consistent UI when it started is now a wild mixture of SFOS remains, Android and things that were probably just thrown in because nobody had the time to finish them.

It seems to me there's nobody responsible @Jolla for UI and visual design at the moment. I don't feel the visions of a master mind behind all this.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to advocate one certain style (although I really loved 2014/2015). Jolla could copy iOS 1:1 if they had the lawyers to do so, they could go down the Android route, could invent something new yet again... That's not all that important to me. What is important, though, is that the UI should be consistent and easy. And yes, it doesn't hurt if it looks good.

Please. Maybe for SF4...

Make Sailfish UI consistent and easy again. Please!

With Sailfish 1, the UI was really consistent, beautiful and easy. I especially loved the fact that almost everything could be done by dragging/swiping. No need to hit small buttons.

Version 2 already changed for the worse. The quick actions on the app covers were no longer a swipe action, but required me to tap on the tiniest icons. This was, as far as I remember, a consequence of the introduction of a mysterious "partner space" that, as it turned out, nobody was interested in ever since.

During the end of 2.x, an even worse change was introduced: The new image viewer: Everywhere else in Sailfish, you drag from left to right in order to leave a view and return to the previous; the navigation path is indicated by a glowing circle on the upper left. Now there's one single view that you close by swiping from top to bottom - without any visiual indication at all that this is possible. To add to the chaos, there's an additional Windows 3.11 style [x] for closing on the top right. The easily accessible menu items (remember? just drag down...) have been replaced, yet again, by tiny symbols.

Now with 3, the situation became even worse. To save one single swipe, the status menu was made accessible from everywhere. (Before it was a swipe from left to right to reach the events screen, then you could swipe down. Now you can swipe down without the one swipe to the right before.) Because this conflicts with the well-known gesture for closing an app, the upper edge of the screen has been divided into 3 (!) parts... and if you're lucky, you hit the right one. Within the status menu, the various status indicators no longer follow the Sailfish style language.

What used to be a pretty and consistent UI when it started is now a wild mixture of SFOS remains, Android and things that were probably just thrown in because nobody had the time to finish them.

It seems to me there's nobody responsible @Jolla for UI and visual design at the moment. I don't feel the visions of a master mind behind all this.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to advocate one certain style (although I really loved 2014/2015). Jolla could copy iOS 1:1 if they had the lawyers to do so, they could go down the Android route, could invent something new yet again... That's not all that important to me. What is important, though, is that the UI should be consistent and easy. And yes, it doesn't hurt if it looks good.

Please. Maybe for SF4...