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As of #59888, all apps are located within the waffle menu. Quick access to some apps however is still desired by many.
I propose making the top bar work like the Windows task bar, macOS/iPadOS dock, GNOME dash, KDE panel, etc., etc. The idea: Show recent apps in the top bar, with the ability to pin some.
Top bar
At the left, the top bar should display pinned apps, then recently used, then the current app if it is in neither. The order of recently used apps should be based on when they were used. Pins should be in a custom order. The selected apps should be highlighted.
The number of recently used apps should be dynamic, so that there is always the same number of apps in the bar until you change pins. I'd say depending on the number of pinned apps:
Number of pinned apps
Number of recently used when current is pinned
Number of recently used when current is not pinned
0
5
4
1
4
3
2 or more
3
2
As for breakpoints, we should first hide recently used, then pinned, and the currently selected, never.
Menu
The bar for the selected app should shrink, and its background highlight should disappear.
Note
The edit button on the mockup is sticky, but there is no real reason to make it so. It can just sit at the bottom of the scroll container and allocate its own space, so that it doesn't overlap with anything.
Editing
Recently used apps should dim.
Note
The Cancel/Done Save buttons should be floating and sticky in case of scrolling. But if the edit button allocates its own space anyway, this should not be a concern for most cases, unless users have many apps.
Notes
One question is reordering: Do we still want to allow for user-side reordering of apps within the menu? There are two approaches to this. The list of apps in the Windows Start Menu, the iOS App Library, "Apps" on macOS, and the Android app drawer all do not allow for reordering. However, the home screen for iOS/Android, the GNOME app grid, and some KDE applets do.
The main argument for is that we already do allow for this. The argument against is that this may make drag and drop more annoying and less accessible for no real benefit, as users should just pin their favorites. I'm personally in favor of disallowing customizing the order within the menu itself.
If we do not allow for drag-and-drop reordering of the menu itself, we can just say clicking on an icon pins/unpins it. If we do however, we'll probably need icons to open a menu when clicked, with options to move up/down or pin/unpin.
We should probably pin Files and Talk by default. Not sure what (if anything) else.
Admins should also be able to customize default pinned apps instance-wide.
I'm pretty sure some of this is not clear enough, or I missed some things, so please please please ask questions :)
See the table above, but it probably wasn't clear enough.
The idea is to always show some amount of recent apps: 5 if none are pinned, 4 if one is pinned, and 3 if two or more are.
So even if 5 are pinned, we'd aim to show 8 in total. The number should only need to remain consistent as long as you don't change pins. But when you do, it could grow/shrink.
The exact numbers could be debated though, and I'm also interested in thinking about (the many) instances with only a couple of apps.
Alternative to #61274.
As of #59888, all apps are located within the waffle menu. Quick access to some apps however is still desired by many.
I propose making the top bar work like the Windows task bar, macOS/iPadOS dock, GNOME dash, KDE panel, etc., etc. The idea: Show recent apps in the top bar, with the ability to pin some.
Top bar
At the left, the top bar should display pinned apps, then recently used, then the current app if it is in neither. The order of recently used apps should be based on when they were used. Pins should be in a custom order. The selected apps should be highlighted.
The number of recently used apps should be dynamic, so that there is always the same number of apps in the bar until you change pins. I'd say depending on the number of pinned apps:
As for breakpoints, we should first hide recently used, then pinned, and the currently selected, never.
Menu
The bar for the selected app should shrink, and its background highlight should disappear.
Note
The edit button on the mockup is sticky, but there is no real reason to make it so. It can just sit at the bottom of the scroll container and allocate its own space, so that it doesn't overlap with anything.
Editing
Recently used apps should dim.
Note
The Cancel/Done Save buttons should be floating and sticky in case of scrolling. But if the edit button allocates its own space anyway, this should not be a concern for most cases, unless users have many apps.
Notes
One question is reordering: Do we still want to allow for user-side reordering of apps within the menu? There are two approaches to this. The list of apps in the Windows Start Menu, the iOS App Library, "Apps" on macOS, and the Android app drawer all do not allow for reordering. However, the home screen for iOS/Android, the GNOME app grid, and some KDE applets do.
The main argument for is that we already do allow for this. The argument against is that this may make drag and drop more annoying and less accessible for no real benefit, as users should just pin their favorites. I'm personally in favor of disallowing customizing the order within the menu itself.
If we do not allow for drag-and-drop reordering of the menu itself, we can just say clicking on an icon pins/unpins it. If we do however, we'll probably need icons to open a menu when clicked, with options to move up/down or pin/unpin.
We should probably pin Files and Talk by default. Not sure what (if anything) else.
Admins should also be able to customize default pinned apps instance-wide.
I'm pretty sure some of this is not clear enough, or I missed some things, so please please please ask questions :)
cc @jancborchardt