GUI and app feel improvements

[Alanon202]

Hi Nate,

As discussed, I’m opening a fresh issue for the GUI suggestions I’ve pointed out. I’ll list them in a bullet list form:

• Improve/unify GUI elements like the side menu, side menu separators, article counter pills etc.;
• Unify the grid list and other article list views to improve consistency across the UI;
• Improve the consistency of theme elements
• Replace the animations with better/snappier ones;

[NateEaton]

Stefan,

Please review release v0.9.1. It won't necessarily address all your concerns but it represents the following:

• A first-pass refactor for alignment with Material Design 3; this included many internal changes but also changes to various visual elements including...
  • placement and spacing of side menu separators
  • font sizes and spacing
  • size of pill counters
  • layout of sync settings dialog
  • changes to screen transitions and some animations
• A refinement of the grid and mosaic card formats, minor tweaks to the compact card format
• implemented a responsive layout for different form factors and orientations; on a tablet the app now presents the grid and mosaic layouts in multiple columns instead of just one. On mobile landscape and on tablet portrait, the side menu is replaced by a persistent rail

What has not been done yet are the changes I have planned for improvements in consistency of color-elements. It's not starkly obvious with the standard theme (when set to Light or when set to System and the system theme is Light) but if you enable Sepia (which is now a "reading theme" separate from the "application theme") you'll notice some inconsistencies in shading between different elements. By the time I am ready with release v1.0.0 I'll have finished the updates to address that.

When you have time, please review the latest release and reply here with your views on what other changes I should consider in line with this issue.

[Alanon202]

Hi Nate!

I noticed a lot of development going on, kudos!

I did periodically download new builds just to see what’s going on but didn’t want to bother you since you clearly had a plan. I just tested the latest version, I’ll list my thoughts and observations below. I know you’re probably aware of most of this stuff but I’ll list it all as I observed it:

Misc/random:

• The pills in the side menu, button spacing etc. all look much better!
• Sync settings layout etc. are looking great!
• I also noticed the improved animations, IMHO it looks and feels so much better.
• Should there be one of those "press/swipe back again to close the app" features?

Side menu:

• I think the side menu itself could be narrowed down a bit and would look better? For instance, double the amount of space left on the right side (just a shot in the dark from some other apps I use)?
• Also, I noticed that once opened, unless you click some button on the side menu you can’t make it go away? It would be nice to be able to swipe the menu away by pulling it to the left, or by clicking outside the side menu surface and having the menu slide out of view?

Article view:

• The grid view uses line separators to delineate the pills. Should it? It makes sense in the sidebar and other settings but the pills are already well-defined? They look kind of jarring on the dark theme.

Sepia:

• Maybe gray out/disable sepia mode switch when dark theme is selected, since it doesn’t work there? Or only have the option appear if light theme is active?
• Random question, does the sepia colour pull from the theme palette? I ask because for me it’s a bit yellowish, which fits in with my theme?

Article reading:

• Should the title font of the currently read article change based on the font selected in the reading settings? Currently it’s a generic sans serif.
• Both in light theme and the dark the article text background does not use the Material You background colour, they use some other colour. On the dark theme it’s really noticeable, but it’s present on the light theme too.
• This is also true of text colour and the link colour – the links should probably use an accent colour from the theme, and the text colour from the text colour.

Original article (not exactly GUI-related):

• I’ve noticed some sites like The Guardian do not scroll once opened internally.
• Maybe instead of opening as an internal browser you could use something like readability or mercury parser to retrieve a "readable" version of the text? For everything else there would be the regular open in browser button.

[NateEaton]

Apologies - I am really bad right now about not reviewing email so I had missed the one highlighting this comment until you referenced it in your latest post (which the Github app popped on my phone). I am working through this and will get back to you shortly.