These past few months have been full of work on the KCMs. Our developers have been able to tackle more and more of them for the upcoming version of System Settings.

In the process, there have been a few changes to note. Many of them deal with work that needed to change as we went through. The overall vision of a more clear and concise settings page is still the same. However, I have learned that through compromise we can move forward. That’s what we have been doing.

Here is a list of KCMs that will get some revision with their design:

Icons > Advanced (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/408/)

Screen Lock (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/397/)

Task Switcher > Alternative (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/390/)

Window Management > Window Behavior (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/385/)

Shortcuts > Standard Shortcuts (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/382/)

Startup And Shutdown > Desktop Session (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/379/)

Personalization > User Manager (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/372/)

Applications > Default Applications (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/363/)

Applications > Locations (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/365/)

Accessibility > Accessibility (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/361/)

Settings > Connection preferences (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/352/)

Settings > SSL Preferences (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/357/)

Settings > Cache (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/356/)

Settings > Cookies (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/355/)

Settings > Browser Identification (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/353/)

Settings > Connectivity (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/350/)

Bluetooth > Devices (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/447/)

Input Devices > Mouse (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/445/)

Input Devices > Touchpad (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/443/)

Multimedia > Audio and video (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/432/)

Power Management > Activity Settings (https://phabricator.kde.org/M112/426/)

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done. We have a huge amount of KCMs. Some of them are very technical and tailor to specific audiences while others have very few options and we discussed ways to move those into other categories where they may fit better.

Overall, the main changes have been the new alignment pattern for title labels and controls. They are now centered and titles are on the left while controls are on the right. There has also been plenty of work in explaining KCMs more naturally, especially in English. The idea is that the title labels are short and concise, and that the control options read more like a paragraph. That way, it feels more natural for the user to find the right settings and not be lost in word puzzles.

Another cool thing that we are considering is to include this new design on more application settings, for example Dolphin:

https://phabricator.kde.org/D12571

However, this is a work in progress. We will see if it gets implemented. If other applications want to follow the System Settings direction, it only makes sense to extend the work further.

The touchpad KCM is also getting some love:

https://phabricator.kde.org/D13141

My next step is to create new “model KCMs” that can showcase some of the design changes we have made as we set out to redesign System Settings and that way, more people can use them as a basis for their designs or contributions.

Feedback is always welcomed. Just add a few comments below.