Optimized Convergence

The design of KDE software, and by extension the KDE HIG, is made with convergence in mind. Convergence means that a piece of software’s user interface can immediately adapt its user experience to the particularities of each type of device that it can run on (desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, etc).

For information regarding the differences between a user interface and the user experience, see the Glossary.

Device Types

The KDE HIG defines an optimal user experience for each device type, as described in device type.

Convergence requires an understanding of the commonalities in the user interface. Convergence can then be implemented by providing variations of the common UI components which correspond with the optimal user experience for each device’s usage model.

Making convergent applications

The best way to create convergent applications is to follow the recommendations and best practices from the KDE HIG, and build your app using the Kirigami UI toolkit, which provides many of these patterns and components “out of the box” so that they can be easily integrated.