GitLab

Current problems

• User cannot do actions in the list view that require no selection, given that actions are only in the right click context menu
• There is no way to clear selection in list view
• Clearing selection and performing actions that require no selection in the icon view requires to search for a white space, that the Nautilus view could think it's part of the icon, label, etc.
• Action with touch are hard to perform or impossible in some situations i.e. background menu actions or DnD.

Goals & use cases

Action bar

• User using touch devices
• User wants to know what actions are available based on the selection

Information bar

• User wants information about the current state of Nautilus (Searching, etc.)
• User wants to know information about the current selection, even if outside of the current view
• User wants to know what application will open when pressing enter or clickin

Requirements

• Small form factor friendly, for 3rd world TV, tablets, etc. That means a maximized Nautilus window has to fit in ~700-750px.
• Tiled support for at least the second biggest most common resolution for desktops, 1600x920px. That means, Nautilus window has to take maximum 750px (50px for possible translations taking more space).
• Extensible, given that we have to support Nautilus extensions adding menu items
• Content of the views should be the main focus, the solution must not take considerable space
• Keep consistency as much as possible with other apps, specially those with selection mode

Relevant art

Windows

It just have a slim info bar. Actions are in a ribbon style UI.

Mac OSX

Have info bar showing either the current folder size or the selected items. Actions are in the top bar, either as buttons or behind the gears button menu.

Dropbox

Selection mode as understood in GNOME with actions in a sidebar. Info bar together with the action sidebar. Background actions:
Selection actions:

Drive

Actions in an top bar with icons. Selection actions disappear when nothing is selected.

Drive Phone

Action bar but not info bar.

Actions for individual files as button near the item for both list view and icon view. Background actions are in the three dots menu in the top bar.

Multiple selection has an appearing action bar

Proposal & plan

Integrated an action and info bar on the bottom of the views in Nautilus.

Benefits of the proposed solution

• It addresses both use cases for info and action bar
• It's small-factor friendly
• The actions are clear, since they are natural text
• The overflow menu can be extended as needed, for example, for Nautilus extensions menus
• It removes the floating bar that we currently have, which has been a regular reported point of annoyance

Possible drawbacks

• Hiding buttons one by one based on size makes the UI experience unpredictable
• Hard to come with a button priority to alleviate the previous point
• gtk is honestly not ready for responsive design, and the resulting code is hard to maintain, doesn't in practice allow animations and will in general be buggy

Alternative solution

Instead of responsive design, make the action bar small enough to fit in a small screen and let the extensibility that we need to support in Nautilus to an overflow menu.

The trick is to reach a balance between using all buttons with labels or replace those that their icons are common enough by icons (cut, copy, paste, delete). Prototype:

Benefits of the second proposed solution versus first one

• Fixes the drawbacks explained above

Drawbacks of the second proposed solution vs the first one

• Buttons are not clear enough on what they do.