[libreoffice-design] Modern LibreOffice Start Center – UI/UX Concept & Request for Feedback

Hello LibreOffice Design Team,

my name is Robin, and I am from Germany. English is not my native language, so I apologize in 
advance if some of my wording is not always perfect. I hope my ideas and intentions are still clear.

I recently came up with an idea for a modern alternative Start Center for LibreOffice.

I initially contacted The Document Foundation because I wanted to make sure that I approach the 
idea correctly and respect the LibreOffice project, its branding and the community. Mike Saunders 
kindly suggested that I bring the idea directly to the LibreOffice Design team, so I am contacting 
you here.

At the moment, this is only a concept. I have not started developing it yet, because before 
investing significant time into development, I would really like to hear what the LibreOffice 
design community thinks about the idea.

The basic idea is a modern, clean Start Center that still feels clearly like LibreOffice.

The concept includes:

• A modern sidebar for navigation
• Home / Start
• New Document
• Open
• Recently Used Documents
• Favorites
• Templates
• Documents
• Settings
• Extensions
• Help
• A central search field for documents, templates and files
• Modern tiles for creating Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base and Math documents
• A visual template gallery
• A clean recent-document list
• Light and dark mode
• LibreOffice's own configured accent colour instead of a permanently hard-coded colour
• An official LibreOffice support/donation link

One of the most important points for me is that this should not modify or replace LibreOffice 
itself.

My idea is to develop it as a non-destructive LibreOffice extension. Ideally, the extension would 
provide the modern Start Center experience while leaving the original LibreOffice functionality 
untouched underneath.

The user should always be able to disable or uninstall the extension and return to the standard 
LibreOffice Start Center.

I have created visual concepts for both Light Mode and Dark Mode to illustrate the general 
direction. I have attached both concepts to this email.

I also have a small LibreOffice-related project already available on GitHub:

LibreOffice Draw – PDF Dark Theme:

https://github.com/RP-LibreStudio/LibreOffice-Draw-PDF-Dark-Theme

I originally created that project because I personally wanted a more comfortable dark experience 
when reading PDFs in LibreOffice Draw. I decided to publish it because I thought other LibreOffice 
users might find it useful as well.

I am not a professional software developer or programmer. Over the last few months, I have simply 
discovered that I really enjoy developing small tools and solutions for my own everyday needs, 
especially around LibreOffice. When I create something that I think could also be useful to other 
people, I like to publish it.

I genuinely enjoy LibreOffice and would like to contribute something useful to the ecosystem rather 
than create something that competes with or works against the project.

Therefore, I would really appreciate your feedback on the concept before I start developing it.

In particular, I would be interested to know:

• What do you think about the overall visual direction?
• Does the concept fit the LibreOffice design language?
• Are there aspects you would change or approach differently?
• Do you think a project like this could be useful as an extension?
• Are there any design or UX guidelines I should be aware of before starting development?

I would also be very interested in hearing whether there are existing LibreOffice design 
discussions, specifications or ongoing work related to the Start Center that I should look at 
before developing anything.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and for any feedback you may be able to 
provide.

I am looking forward to hearing what you think.

Kind regards,

R. Petrovic 
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