GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 737671
Show partitions as a list
Last modified: 2018-05-24 10:32:43 UTC
Created attachment 287471 [details] mockup This is a design idea that I've had floating around for quite a long time. I thought I might as well post it here to see what people think. The current partition table UI is problematic for a number of reasons: * It doesn't scale well - it's hard to fit in lots of partitions comfortably, and long partition names don't fit. * The use of the background to indicate remaining space is unclear. It is only shown for the selected partition. * It is unclear that you have to select a partition to access information and options for it. * It uses an attached toolbar, which I'm not very fond of in general. There are intelligibility issues with the use of icons there. My feeling is that a list is a better option than a table. A list can scale easily, nested partitions can be simply shown, and there's no need to struggle with complex custom drawing. I've attached a rough mockup to give you an idea.
I've iterated a bit on the above mockup. Other versions are available to view here: https://github.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/tree/master/disks This the latest, and my preference: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/master/disks/volume-list-embedded-bars.png
Created attachment 356280 [details] mockup with jobs I've modified it a bit to include UUIDs since they are used in many error messages, mount settings dialog, boot parameter etc but hard to find anywhere. Also the mount point is currently shown which I think should be kept, so I added it. For the extended partition I changed it to only display its size because it has not direct content itself except for the listed partitions below and I would not double it. It was confusing for users to find the drive actions in the header bar, so I moved them beside the drive symbol. We need to find a good way on handling jobs and the idea was that we relate to the way Nautilus is doing it (with some more padding), so I used the now free position in the header bar. Feedback welcome :)
Created attachment 356281 [details] mockup with jobs (source svg)
Created attachment 357417 [details] mockup SVG
Created attachment 357418 [details] mockup with jobs changed: separate the partitions a bit, show the job result
Created attachment 357419 [details] mockup with extended partition
Created attachment 357420 [details] mockup with no partition table
Created attachment 357421 [details] A mockup for disks
Created attachment 357518 [details] alternative mockup with color volumes SVG I've changed your proposal a bit (now as SVG). Pulling some buttons out of the drive menu is just an idea (and then maybe it's ok to have them in the header bar again?). The extended partition is drawn around the enclosed partitions, same for e.g. LUKS. The GPT partition name could be displayed in brackets after the device path like '/dev/sda2 (home_part)'.
Created attachment 357519 [details] alternative mockup with color volumes PNG
Created attachment 358124 [details] Allan's "not a pie chart" mockup from #gnome-design
Created attachment 358125 [details] "disks-partition" mockup from #gnome-design (Who?)
I was to file a bug, but that design would fix it, I picked an Android image, that has 28 gpt partion, the partition run-out of screen and I need to make the window bigger then the screen in order to reach the empty spot and add more partitions.
Though, it means the level on top, with the colors, would need to be scrollable at some extent.
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-disk-utility/issues/28.