Custom header artwork for the app view
In June, Canonical held a design sprint for gnome-software.
One question we considered was how the app view could be more attractive and interesting to users.
A popular idea, as voted on after sketching, was header artwork for the app view that can be customized by the app publisher. This could be an evocative photo (for example, a pen and notepad for a to-do app, or a table of food for a recipe database), a partial or stylized screenshot from a game, or anything the publisher prefers. The artwork should not feature sharp text or other busy details that would distract from the information on the app screen.
Here are the relevant sketches from the sprint:
The artwork could help reassure you of your location as you navigate to secondary views for an app, for example a reviews listing or a details view:
Since not all publishers would provide this artwork, there would need to be a fallback for apps that did not have it. This might be a generated pattern based on the colors of the app’s icon.
The next step in exploring this idea would be to produce mockups showing custom artwork for example apps, plus mockups showing fallback generated artwork for other example apps.