Complete mess with guideline and UI

WazaBe

Hello,

I don't want to be negative and my first impressions with the app are really positive, but unfortunately, the big UI flaws and the complete guideline break is an issue for the users, the app feels weirs and awkward in different points:

1) Navigation Drawer icon.

The icon you currently is the "up" arrow, which mean that the user expect to get at a top level screen
You really should use the official drawer and the official icon:

More readings: http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation-drawer.html

2) Navigation Drawer behavior.

From the doc:

As the navigation drawer expands, it overlays the content but not the action bar. When the drawer is fully extended, the action bar adjusts its content by replacing the current action bar title with the app name and removing all actions that are contextual to the view underneath the navigation drawer. The overflow menu with the standard action items for Settings and Help remains visible.

3) List height in Settings screen:

The list items feel very small and I think you didn't used a 48dp rythm
http://developer.android.com/design/style/metrics-grids.html#48dp-rhythm

4) Exit button

Please watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=631T7B8HOv4
And please do not tell us that you thought about it and that it looks usefull, IT IS NOT.

It's totally amibiguious with the lock button, why should we need an exit button?

I really hope you will take these suggestions in account and you won't let your great app be destroyed by a poor experience.

reden

Agree on all points.

myfreeweb

+1. The UX feels weird. Also, the visual design could be flatter. Android is not iOS 6.

saad

Hi @WazaBe! Thank you for the very detailed information about the improvements you would like to see. I have passed on these points to our developers and they will definitely look over it. They may even contact you directly, keep an eye out!

Please continue to send us any other thoughts and suggestions you may have about 1Password Beta. Thanks again!

gabrielvisser

I'd also like to point out that the notification icon is the wrong shade of grey/white compared to Google's own and the general guidelines. Should be much lighter.

[Deleted User]

+1 - was very disappointed that platform UI/UX guidelines are not followed. I don't want to be excessively harsh, but what is the point of building a new Android app if you aren't going to follow modern (4.0+) conventions?

dmacx

After a long wait I could test the Android beta and I'm also a little disappointed. The app doesn't feel nice and smooth. Please use the official Navigation Drawer, remove the exit button. Over all please have a deeper look at the official style guides.

MattDavey

Thanks everyone for your comments, I'm Matt the designer working on the Android project.

When we initially started building 1Password for Android, Android's navigation drawer functioned differently and since we have been watching Google closely roll it out through all of their own apps and some other apps implement it. Thank you for your passionate replies we will take them into serious consideration. We will work through and constantly improve other areas too, thanks for noticing the minor glitches too we are working on fixing those as soon as possible.

WazaBe

Hello Matt,

I don't want to bully you or criticise your work, I know creating such an app with an already huge user base is not easy, but I find your answer pretty strange.

The Navigation drawer takes about 10 minutes to implement, and it was introduced the 15th of may 2013, nearly 9 month ago...
While I uderstand you may have started the Beta earlier, it's very difficult for to get why someone in your team has not worked on it yet.

As a designer, I should not have to learn you that the left arrow imply going back to the menu, not to open a menu on the left. I guess that's quite the basis at design school ;-)

Also, anyone in the team should have noticed that the items in the settings are really small. Adding an height of 48dp will not break the app or require a lot of programming!

The exit button video goes back to 2012 and should be obvious ;-)
This video has gone through all developer channels and the concept of an exit button should not be explained such a qualified team.

I really hope that 1 password will not be "yet another crappy iOS port" and an "meh" application...

MattDavey

Thanks for your feedback, we really appreciate it.

We all want to make 1Password for Android a great app, its currently in beta and we still have many other great things to implement that we hope you will like. The exit button wasn't part of the initial design and I think removing it is still the plan. The spacing issues on certain devices are also being worked out.

Thank you again, we love seeing suggestions like these with such passion. Let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions.

saad

Hi @WazaBe,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your support of 1Password and for your excellent and thorough feedback. It is well detailed and all of the points you mention make perfect sense. 

I want to let you know that we have gone through each and every concern you brought up and took the time to discuss it within our Android team. I’d like to share a few things we discussed and our view on the comments you provided. Let me start by telling you why we took the approach employed.

During the very first stage of development, we talked about what the main design requirements would be. It’s very important for us to provide our users with a more unified experience across all platforms. That is why the interface is similar between iOS and Android and each category icon you’re seeing on Android is the same as the one you see on your Mac, Windows and iOS devices. Having a different set of icons on Android will create confusion for our users as they switch between their devices. 

Now let’s talk about some of the great points you brought up:

1) Navigation Drawer

This is a common request, and for all the right reasons. As you mentioned, the navigation drawer was introduced 10 months ago and we have seen many developers taking advantage of it such as Business Insiders. Google is making it a standard and it’s always best to use built in libraries when provided. It’s also very easy to implement!

However, it does not provide us with the customization that we require. We are currently using the SliderMenu library, and it provides us with a lot of customization options that help us achieve the different UI you see on a tablet as opposed to a phone. A lot of applications still use this current approach, such as The Verge and Google Currents. SliderMenu is very well maintained and its customizable options gives us what we need to achieve that unified look.

As I mentioned earlier, you have a valid point. SliderMenu just works best for us, at this time. Perhaps in the future, we will make the switch to Navigation Drawer.

2) 48dp Rhythm

Thank you for letting us know about this. This is an error on our part and will be fixed in an upcoming update. Great catch! :)

3) Exit button

We completely understand your concern. Many Android users, such as myself, tap the back button to close applications and return to the previous app in the stack. However, 1Password is a little different and security is a priority. We need to confirm the user really intends to exit the app.

When the user hits the back button or selects “Exit” from the overlay menu, the user is prompted to confirm whether they really want to exit 1Password. Once the confirmation has been made, 1Password performs its cleanup task that includes overwriting sensitive information stored within the device memory before exiting the actual app. This approach is similarly used by Dolphin and Astro.

However, we understand that the action of the back button is not consistent with other apps and some users don’t want to see an exit confirmation. So we are looking into possibly adding an option to disable the confirmation dialog if the user prefers to. Please keep in mind, the back button will exit 1Password. When you open 1Password again, you will need to unlock it using your master password, a quick unlock code cannot be used. Michael has a great post explaining why this is the case.

Again, I want to thank you for your feedback. We are still in the process of gathering information from our users and plan on having more discussions on UI. Your comments are very valuable to us. Please continue to share other suggestions you have and let me know if you have any questions.

WazaBe

OMG.
I feel sorry, but as an iOS and Android developer, and user of both these OS, I understand your last post as a big failure for the app and I cannot trust your professionalism.

As a general feedback, I would just like to tell you out that pointing to other apps as an example will not make your company successful. Instead of looking at The Verge, have a look at succesfull apps: Foursquare and Pocket, they are doing a great job to provide consistent on both platform without ruining their apps.

There is a diffference between similar UI and consistent design.
It's exactly like company that invert the cancel/Ok button on different OS just to keep similar UI, that's just crazy, and I feel uncomfortable with such explanations..

"Having a different set of icons on Android will create confusion for our users as they switch between their devices. " => They will get confused with your apps Vs the dozens of apps they use everyday for an other OS they might have used one day???

1) Sliding Drawer and "official" navigation drawer work exactly the same way with a layout that can include Fragment or Child layout. If your devs are lazy, this argument is completely invalid.
The back arrow on Android and even on iOS clearly indicate a back behavior (or up in Android, that's another topic). If you want to use this icon instead of the "hamburger" icon, that's a complete design failure.
PS: I don't care if you use Sliding menu, but please use at least consistent icons!!!!

2) Great to hear

3) OK, that's your problem if you believe this is a great idea.

Sorry for my enthousiasm, I have tried to make your app "not yet another crappy port" like we have everyday.
I just invite you to read this as a last resort: http://www.androiduipatterns.com/2013/10/how-following-android-guidelines-can.html

Have fun with your app and good luck