KDE User Interface Guidelines

The KDE Human interface guidelines (HIG) offer application designers and developers a set of recommendations. Their aim is to improve the experience for users by making application interfaces more consistent and hence more intuitive and learnable.

Structure

This section answers questions like: What constitutes KDE software?, Who are the users of an application and what tasks are they trying to accomplish?, and How is the content and functionality of the software structured with all that in mind?

Design Vision and Principles - Covers the overall vision and principles that guide the design and development of user interfaces for KDE software
Conceptual Model - Covers the specific vision of a particular application, determining the users, and the scenarios of use.
Task Flow Model - Provides guidance on the manner in which users’ complete specific operations.
Organizational Model - Provides guidance on how the system’s content and functionality are ordered and categorized.

Behaviour

This section contains guidelines for aspects of application behaviour which can be changed by the developer.

Viewing and Navigation - Encompasses the wide variety of behaviors and operations that allow users to navigate the interface and affect its presentation.
Editing and Manipulation - Considers the behaviors that result in permanent changes to user’s stored information.
User Assistance - Considers behaviours that inform users of the application’s activity and status. This includes help, error alerts, and status alerts.

Presentation

Presentation deals with visual design of the user interface. It’s all about the appearance of the application including layout, spacing, colours, fonts, icon designs, etc.

Layout - Guidance regarding the placement and ordering of onscreen elements. In addition to providing an ordered visual flow, the Layout guidance also supports the Behavior guidance by arranging elements in a manner that helps communicate behavior, importance, and usage.
Style - Style is concerned with emotion, tone, and visual vocabulary. Style is influenced by the use of colour, the design of icons throughout the interface and the typography.
Text - Guidance for the written, language-based elements of the interface.