1PW8 - Missing Category view in left bar

kmkoni

One thing I liked about the old sidebar was that the app would remember which category I wanted to view. In v8, every time I return to the vault, the filter is reset to All Items. I generally am working in Logins unless I'm looking for something specific and I don't like having to switch the filter every time.

roustem

The sidebar in 1Password 7 has problems. It is overloaded, it does too much. There are two different states that present different information (vaults vs categories) and this is confusing, especially to new users. Even I got lost a quite a few times trying to use the sidebar. Dr Wave was extremely unhappy about it when we launched 1Password 7 and he was right.

We don't really have a perfect solution at this time. I personally like the current solution a lot but I also see how it might not be fitting in other users workflow and we should figure this out. (To be fair, I am mostly the "search" and not "organize" person and at the moment I am lobbying for the option to hide the sidebar completely).

So far I saw a few arguments for the old way of presenting categories:

• faster (one-click vs 2-clicks) filtering, let's say to quickly see all Credit Cards.
• showing item counts (to see how many Passports or Driver Licenses are in the vault/account)
• ability to keep the Category selection when navigating between vaults
• the old sidebar better represented the internal structure/model/taxonomy of the data (personally, I would disagree with that)

Did I miss anything else?

tomjepp

ability to keep the Category selection when navigating between vaults

That's the biggest point for me - I usually only want to see logins unless I am explicitly hunting for something else. But it's just easier because you can see all of your categories at once without having to do another UI interaction to find them.

This is a bit of a pattern with 1Password 8 in general for me - lots of things take an extra interaction or two over 7.

Tags are basically useless to me because they're a manual thing I have to set on my items - and I have hundreds of items in 1Password. Categories are a reasonable starting point that sorts data for based on what item type it already is - instead of requiring me to move it around manually.

edit: at a minimum, I would make it so that the current drop down remembers the last value you set for each vault. but that's still not great compared to the previous UI, in my opinion.

KirkMcPike

There is massive empty space (most of it wasted for blank white space that looks completely un-Mac-like) in this sidebar. Disclosure triangles make it simple to keep things decluttered (though they are completely broken in this app and do not animate because of Electron). Categories should definitely be listed here. There's plenty of room, particularly since you're forced to make the window tall to avoid the eyesore of the cut off "not really a menu" on the right side of the window.

gdinnebier

Hi, i would love to get the categories back on left side! Please! For me it's much easier to switch between categories on the left than to bring my mouse to top of the app every time i want to switch a categorie. maybe it's possible to bring an opinion to settings to let the user her-/himself decide where to have the categories.

gdinnebier

And for me it's absolut useless to have the tags on the left side, i don't work with it. so maybe it would be possible to define in settings i will have the tags on top and categories on left side or i will have the tags on left and categories on top.

andmade

Oh come on, if you're going to push the option to hide the sidebar completely, we should be able to have categories in the sidebar! Rather that address that it is currently useless for anyone with no tags and a zillion vaults, that's basically giving up and getting rid of it.

Edit: This also crept up with the continual degrading of the 1P Mini. There's some section of the base that absolutely has to have a bunch of white space with zero functionality (a common theme in Mac/iOS apps, let's be real) to the detriment of people who have things to do with little time and want to be able to do with the least amount of rigmorale and "workarounds" possible.

huffalumpy

I miss having the categories in the left sidebar, too. Especially in the browser, 8's attempts to help are frequently unhelpful. I find myself having to stumble through menus to get to what I want.
It feels like this was an attempt to dumb-down/simplify the interface, but at least for power/early access/beta users, I don't think it's an improvement.

huffalumpy

I hate the new layout.
Maybe "hate" is too strong. The browser helper isn't as helpful as it thinks it is, and especially then, the new layout is definitely a step backwards. If you're trying to simplify the interface, then move the vaults to a drop-down/pop-up, not the categories.

huffalumpy

+1

cortig

+1 for me too. I really REALLY used that and I’d love to have it back.

viswiz

+1

viswiz

Although the sidebar of 1PW7 wasn‘t perfect it was much better than the current solution. My account contains only two vaults and very few tags. I typically use category filters and search. The filters are now hidden and require more clicks. Search in 1PW8 is a mess rarely finding what I am looking for. I’ve never used drag and drop to the sidebar because I prefer context menus.
Maybe the sidebar content could be made switchable or separated by tabs.

rwakeford

I have tried to get used to the new method but it requires far too many clicks, particularly when "All Categories" is the one always chosen. I have never used that at all but prefer "Logins" so, maybe, the powers that be can give us a choice so that our preferred category is always shown rather than "All Categories"?

AdieB

This has been raised a few times and to be honest seems to be falling on deaf ears.
Can't even bulk tag things to make your own side bar categories, from what I can tell.

ag_ana

@huffalumpy, @rwakeford:

I have let our developers know that you would both like the categories in the sidebar better :+1:

ref: dev/core/core#9299

ag_ana

Thank you all for the feedback, noted :+1:

RichardLinter

Yes Categories in sidebar for me too. Also preferred in when "open in new (floating) window" was more accessible (maybe a button where the Feedback button is now?)

martinlange

+1 ... the sidebar is where the categories belong.

Jack.P_1P

Thank you both for the feedback, noted as well. :+1:

telephoneman2

I opened that thread and I didn't change my mind. Although using the app now since weeks - I still miss that a lot!! Bring it back!

11p

+1 for Categories back in sidebar. Select a new vault, Categories change when selecting a new vault, simple.

danvpeterson

Thanks so much for all the feedback folks! I wrote a reply about the re-organization of the sidebar recently here (we merged threads so they're all together now, this is in the first page of what is now this thread):

https://1password.community/discussion/comment/607327/#Comment_607327

It explains some of the reasoning behind the decision and some of the research we did around it. Definitely something we'll continue thinking about and consider how to improve going forward.

As discussed in that post, the previous sidebar had a ton of it's own issues and was a fairly consistent source of confusion for a lot of folks ever since the release of 1Password 7. This change was our attempt to remedy that and make it simpler and easier to understand how our vaults, tags, and categories work. In most of our user testing so far it was regarded very well overall, but obviously some of you disagree and we will take that into account. We are never finished trying to improve things and will keep an eye on this, thanks again, greatly appreciated!

huffalumpy

Since the threads have been collapsed into this one, and we were just notified of that, today, +1.
I would call the new workflow "awful", but that is my gut reaction based on my frustration with using it, and that sort of feedback does not help.
8's new organization is much less convenient than 7's, especially when trying to use it to fill a webpage. With 8, I am frequently having to launch 1P to grab the information I need to fill the form, because 1P frequently does not guess, correctly, and then navigating through the pane to get what I really need is so inconvenient that it is faster to launch the app and then grab the info.

PeterG_1P

Hi @huffalumpy, your point here is well taken. I'm not sure in this case that 1Password 8 is the cause, though, if you are finding that your credentials aren't filling into websites properly. It's more likely to be an issue with the extension - but wherever the snag may be, we're happy to look into this for you. You shouldn't have to launch the 1Password desktop app to grab the information you need most of the time.

If you'd like us to follow up on this for you, you can send a quick email to support+extensions@1Password.com, and include a link to this thread so we know it's you. We'd love to make sure everything is working smoothly for you!

mia

+1 support bringing collapsible sections that 1PW remembers

Ben

:+1:

Ben

EnerJi

@danvpeterson +1 on the 1pw7 sidebar being confusing.

I'm still on 1pw7 as I'm waiting for a more polished 1pw8 experience (although tracking updates and feedback closely to see when the water is warm enough for me to jump in), but personally 1pw6 brings back the fondest memories. Despite using 1pw7 regularly since the beta days, 1pw7 still occasionally frustrates me. In contrast, my recollection is that 1pw6 was a delight to use.

So I just wanted to weigh in and say I'm very happy that you're re-examining the sidebar and organizational model in 1pw8, and I hope that I eventually find it as delightful to use as 1pw6. 👍

OAW

I know it makes it more complicated from a DEV standpoint but from a CUSTOMER perspective I’m thinking this is a situation that truly warrants a preference to control how the sidebar is organized. Go ahead and default it to the new way. But for those of us who don’t use lots of vaults the new way is, quite frankly, useless and cumbersome even if it is an arguably “cleaner” presentation of the data. So please just implement a way to optionally utilize a sidebar organized how it is in 1PW7.

andmade

Not the threads getting merged like clockwork....sigh. Also, regarding user testing, that is a one-time experience with a product and depending on how the question is worded, not necessarily that indicative. Something that seems "okay" when using it once can quickly become annoying in practice when you have to deal with it regularly. Anyway, it's sad when even some of the most common biggest complaints are being "triaged" and likely just won't be addressed and the latest comment from dan is basically a nail in the coffin for this, so I'm just going back to 1P7.