Pagination of the Settings - Why?

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Swerve
Swerve
Community Member
in 1Password in the Browser

Hello,

I noticed a couple versions ago (I think it was 2.16.0) that the different sections in the settings of the browser extension became separated into their own pages. This was quite a jarring change, as I was used to scrolling through all of them to find what I wanted. Now, I often have to guess which section a setting is in, and an extra mouse click is often necessary to get to it. I contacted support at the time, but they merely said they forwarded the feedback to the product team, with no follow-up.

Could someone from 1Password provide justification for this change? Because to me, it seems like a regression in usability. Google Chrome did the same thing with its settings many years ago, and it was equally frustrating for me.

1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: 2.16.0 and newer
OS Version: Not Provided
Browser: Chrome

Comments

  • Dave_1P
    Dave_1P
    edited February 5
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    Hello @Swerve! 👋

    Thanks for the question! There were a few different visual issues that the new Settings page addressed but the main motivators for the new design that I'm aware of were to:

    1. Standardize the Settings page for both the browser extension and the apps so that they look and function more or less the same.
    2. Improve navigation for folks who rely on their keyboard.
    3. Make the Settings page more accessible for those who use 1Password with a screen reader.

    Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

    -Dave

  • Swerve
    Swerve
    Community Member
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    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for the reply. What were those visual issues? I don't recall seeing any. Were they just rare, specific bugs?

    And regarding your points:

    1. I understand wanting a similar interface across the extension and apps, but at the same time, I think it should be optimized for the respective platforms. I don't see why it would be an issue having pagination on some and not others. With the mobile apps, it makes sense, since you're accessing them on a small screen. With the desktop app, it also makes sense, because the settings window defaults to a small size, and cannot be resized (it would be great if it could!). But with the extension, most people (I would guess) use their browsers in a full screen mode, and with pagination enabled, it ends up leaving a lot of empty space, both on my 15" laptop and 24" desktop.

    2. Could you elaborate on that? I don't use keyboard navigation, but I don't understand how separating the settings into pages would help with that. Looking at the support page for keyboard shortcuts, none of them seem to apply to the settings page, so the only action that I seem to be able to do there is move up and down through the sections with the arrow keys. And I assume that would still be possible even if they were all on one page. Ironically, that support page still says "To customize these keyboard shortcuts, right-click the 1Password icon in your browser's toolbar and choose Settings, then scroll down to the Shortcuts section."

    3. I'll take your word on accessibility, since that's not something I'm familiar with.

  • Dave_1P
    Dave_1P
    edited February 6
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    @Swerve

    Thanks for the reply. The new tabbed interface helped with a few minor edge cases. Personally, I'm most excited about the improved accessibility experience for folks using things like screen readers.

    the only action that I seem to be able to do there is move up and down through the sections with the arrow keys

    My understanding, although I don't use the keyboard to navigate through the interface myself, is that navigation is improved for those that do use the keyboard in certain cases.

    But with the extension, most people (I would guess) use their browsers in a full screen mode, and with pagination enabled, it ends up leaving a lot of empty space, both on my 15" laptop and 24" desktop.

    That's good feedback which I can share with the team. Do you access the Settings page a lot? Usually the page would only need to be accessed rarely. Let me know your use case and I can pass that along as well.

    -Dave

    ref: dev/web/support.1password.com#4151

  • Swerve
    Swerve
    Community Member
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    Hey Dave,

    Apologies for the late reply.

    My understanding, although I don't use the keyboard to navigate through the interface myself, is that navigation is improved for those that do use the keyboard in certain cases.

    That wasn't really an elaboration - you just repeated what you said in your previous post. :)

    That's good feedback which I can share with the team. Do you access the Settings page a lot? Usually the page would only need to be accessed rarely. Let me know your use case and I can pass that along as well.

    I would guess that I access it maybe every two weeks on average. Mainly to check if anything has changed with a recent update. But regardless of how often I access it, the white space and lack of scrolling are still annoying. Btw, the support page that I linked to and quoted in my previous post still has not been updated - it still says scrolling is possible.