Privacy: panel layout lacks intuitiveness and expandability
Panel Issues
The layout of the Privacy panel currently is too limited to be expanded and the controls we expose aren't obviously presented to users.
- the list rows contain very little indication that they are interactive and appear to just be text fields
- navigating between settings requires going in and out of dialogs
- some of dialogs triggered by these list rows have enough settings to justifiably be a settings panel itself, e.g. Location Services
- the design of this panel currently isn't optimal for adding more privacy settings (that would come in from app permissions, etc.) or further control over other aspects of the system
Proposed Solution
I propose we convert the Privacy panel into a group of several individual sub-panels, much like Details or Devices, some of which would house the settings that were previously in the dialogs-in-listrows.
This would both improve navigation between privacy settings, instead of going in and out of dialogs users would be able to use the sidebar to navigate and see the controls displayed plainly.
This new layout would also be able to accommodate other privacy categories potentially related to application permissions and the device hardware itself, such as Camera and Microphone, and display applications that make use of them.
I've created a web mockup of this proposal, but a screenshot follows.
I've imagined two "categories" of Privacy panels (hence the sidebar separator) for users, those related to access and permissions: Location, Camera, Microphone, Background usage and Devices, and those related to their data/privacy: Usage & History, Screen Lock, "Diagnostics" (a.k.a. where I put problem reporting and where other potential developer analytics etc. could go) and the Trash and Temporary Files settings.
This design allows us to make use of other patterns such as the headerbar switch and empty states with regards to enabling or disabling these features/services globally, such as turning off Location Services entirely.
Happy to discuss this and explore this proposal to evolve it.
Relevant Material
Implementations of a subdivided Privacy settings panel on other platforms:
mac OS
iOS
Windows