Shell 41: Enhanced design for search bar + app folder and cohesion
GNOME shell 40 has a few visual inconsistencies in the overview regarding colors — especially in the app grid — which should be addressed in GNOME 41. Below is a rough mock-up that fixes my complaints.
TLDR
- Search bar uses dock colors (same gray background, white text)
- App folders use dock colors and roundness values
- Hover effect over apps in the grid should use same roundness as dock
Search bar
Currently, the search bar in GNOME 40 is reused from pre-3.3x builds. It uses its own shade of gray and the text inside is also a light shade of gray.
My mock-up uses the dock color for the search bar. In my opinion, it helps blend the search with the rest of the interface. I also changed the text to white, as every other instance of text in the overview is white.
Finally, I centered the search text, following the initial GNOME 40 mock-ups and this merge request for gnome-shell. This change isn't necessary by any means. However, I personally like it.
App folders
For whatever reason, instead of using a lighter color for the app folders, the shell uses a darker color to indicate app folders. Not only does this clash with the overall aesthetic of the shell, it's not even consistent with the folder popups, which use a lighter color.
In my mock-up, the folders use the same color and corner radius as the dock. Unfortunately, this change will likely require modifying the highlighting hover effect over apps to remain consistent.
Alternative approach for folders
An alternative way to fix folders is to redesign them. Here is a screenshot from the Materia GTK theme. Instead of holding both the application icons and the folder title, folders could instead draw a rounded square around the icons only. See screenshot below.
The implementation isn't perfect in this theme, but the general idea is there. Digging further, it appears the early GNOME 40 mock-ups also toyed with this approach. In my opinion, this is an all around better design choice, but the implementation would require extra thought.