Background

Set the background image for the session and for the lock screen.

Participants

Thomas Wood, Bastien Nocera, Design team.

Goals

• Set the session or lock screen background using
• Default set of images, including dynamic time aware (changes depending on the time of day) images
• Photo from personal library
• A flat color
• Do so efficiently without too many clicks
• Easily preview new wallpapers
• Easily revert back to the previous wallpaper

Non Goals

• Set a default background for all users on a multiuser system
• Background slideshows (as in defining individual images to be part of a slideshow)
• Set a different background per display
• Combine an RGBA image with color or gradient background.
• Set image for lock screen separately (?)

Relevant Art

Discussion

• Dynamic / Web service wallpapers relying on data connection should only pull data when on wired and wi-fi, not cellular. Indicate with a message notification when trying to pull.

• While settings are instant-apply, windows and this setting panel itself obscure the view to get a full visual feedback on how things will look in the end >> big monitor preview (There is a slight disconnect in the case of multiple displays).

• There is no obvious way of choosing another folder for the wallpapers. Eg, a wallpaper subdirectory under Pictures.

Proposed Redesign

Advantages

• Background for both desktop and lock screen can be changed with a single click
• Previewing wallpapers is much easier (hover a thumbnail and click preview)
• Undo setting a background via in-app notification

Disadvantages

• It's not obvious that this applies to both desktop and lock screen
• Desktop and lock screen wallpapers cannot be changed separately

Guidelines

See Also