Page flow

[Feichtmeier]

In the first iterations of the UI there was this flow

StartPage (magazine endless scrolling kind of page) --> search query not empty --> SearchPage (snap/deb tabs)

Even if the UI looked much crappier back then I think the page flow was a little bit more intuitive and more logical. You can see this by the requests of filter the start page by name 😄 this makes simply no sense for this kind of attention grabbing magazine-like entry point into a store

Maybe we should remove the filters again on the StartPage and let it be a curated magazine like page?
As soon as people search we can show the filters again in the SearchPage. Ofc if we remove the filter dropdowns from the StartPage we need to show much more on the StartPage and make the categories somehow visible like in the windows11 store by sprinkeling little bits here and there "oh look at these wonderful fitness app" 🙄 😆 and so on. (for this we also need better store hygiene)

Additional Info: The categories shown are only coming from the snap-store! (the information is simply not there for the debian packages)

CC @madsrh @anasereijo

[madsrh]

+1 for a startpage makeover. It's not at all a great experience atm.
It feels wrong to remove the filters, but you're right that the user properly don't set a filter before typing a search query.

Earlier you (@Feichtmeier ) had a version with the category banner, then a few (6-9) apps and then a banner for the next category and so on. That worked better IMO, but I think this page needs some careful thinking and some design help. Can @Zoospora and the designteam have a quick brainstorm on this topic?

The Apple app store starts you on the discover page which is very inspiring - there's actually a category called categories 😆 https://www.macgasm.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/macos-ventura-app-store.jpg

[anasereijo]

I totally agree with you @Feichtmeier! The Explore page needs some love and TLC. It's our front page, so we really need to make it nice and intuitive.

If we go with a more catalogue approach, we will need to make sure things are updated regularly – let's bring this up with the Desktop team.

I hope I can start looking at this page next week, and hopefully will come up something soon for us to discuss.

[Feichtmeier]

Okay! I start by changing the explorepage tree to be a navigation from

Start -> Search
with a backbutton letting you return to the Start

[Feichtmeier]

Hello my dear designer colleagues 🥲 😏 @madsrh @anasereijo @Zoospora

The start page is now fully detached from the search page. This means the filter set in the search will not affect the start page.

This combination of mads' gradient banner plus a grid of app banners underneath is now "a component" we could re-use, modify or throw in the garbage.
Underneath this component we could show different cards/grid combinations if you want. Would appreciate if you could come up with some cool mock-ups. 👋

[anasereijo]

Hey! I am hoping I can (finally) look at the start page and focus on it for a while. It has so much potential, I am sure we will all come up with something nice :)
I just want to finish all the sections on app-page, and I'll move on to that.

Just to confirm: shall we use the Explore page discussion to add our proposals/ideas?

[Feichtmeier]

yes, or if the name is confusing we can rename it to start page discussion. since currfently the explore page consits of start and search page, which is a technical detail you might not care about and which might change