User Interface Issues / Suggestions
I would like to make some suggestions to improve the user interface, specifically those things relating to the Android User Interface Guidelines, improving efficiency, aligning with user expectations, or contributing to a cleaner design.
Login screen
The primary login screen is misleading when an incorrect password is entered (usually typo). The log animation turns green (indicating success) and then a failure is presented in red.
This leads the user to believe they've entered the password correctly only to find out 2 seconds later they did not. I would suggestion this stay blue until the password has been verified (there seems to be a delay where green could be displayed before the home screen is presented).
Primary use cases
Since I use the Chrome browser on my Android devices (with password sync), I never want to directly login to a website. Obviously, others will use 1Password in other ways.
If Chrome or a mobile app requires a password, I will bring up 1Password to view my username and copy the password to the clipboard. I may also want to reveal a password to type into a desktop computer that does not have 1Password installed.
Ideally, I would like this workflow to be minimal:
- Bring up 1Password
- Enter master password
- Tap search
- Start entering search term
- Tap to select and view record
- Tap to copy password to clipboard
- Return to previous app (via recent list or pressing back button)
Currently, the beta requires additional work:
- Tapping on the category before search becomes available
- Tapping on the disclosure next to the password which displays a popup menu from which I can select Copy
These additional taps are not necessary and should be removed (think Zen of Palm).
1Password should support the Android concept of a user task and allow me to get back to entering the password by simply pressing the back button a few times.
Action bar / navigation
The action bar is always displaying "top" navigation as indicated by the left-point caret. This is an incorrect cue to the user. The home screen should never display top navigation as the app is already at the top level of the hierarchy. (This is one of the indicators to the user that pressing the back button will exit the app.)
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html
Navigation drawer
When pressing the icon to display a navigation drawer, three vertically-aligned horizontal lines should be used to indicate the presence of the drawer.
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation-drawer.html
Home screen
The home screen lists the categories, but I would suggest it should list all items with the categories and folders listed in the navigation drawer. This allows easy access to search or add from the action bar, letting the user perform the action most likely intended on a mobile device.
When displaying the All items list view, I would place the search and add actions in the action bar, moving sync to the overflow menu. Syncing should be transparent to the user, but the menu would provide quick access when it's needed.
Sort options for most recently accessed (or updated or added) would be awesome by providing quick access to recent items without having to search. Maybe a recent list in the navigation drawer?
Restore view
The home screen should be remembered between invocations of 1Password. For example, if I choose Favorites or All Items from the navigation drawer, 1Password should use that as the home screen the next time I start 1Password.
This supports the user's conceptual model of never starting and stopping applications. If the app is restarted for whatever reason, then it should return to the same top-level I picked previously.
Disclosure
A disclosure it shown for each and every item. This is not idiomatic for the Android platform ever since action bars were introduced.
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/actionbar.html
Long pressing an item should enter selection mode, changing the action bar to hold actions for the selected items. Optionally, single tapping on the item icon left side can also activate selection mode (see Gmail).
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/selection.html
This has the benefit of less visual noise and allows the user to perform an action on multiple items at once. A split action bar can be used to display up to five actions for the user before resorting to the overflow menu.
Detail view
It seems more natural for the favorites star to be part of the view and not an action.
Disclosures
The disclosure indicator is very small and when trying to press on the visual cue, I often miss, hitting the area just below the hit zone.
A larger indicator would be more effective for hitting the target, but not visually appealing. An alternative would be to make the entire horizontal space act as the hit zone.
I would recommend removing the popup menu altogether:
- Single tap (the entire width) to reveal the password or login to the website
- Long press to copy to the clipboard (or have a clipboard icon on the right to single tap for the copy operation)
Notes
The notes should be displayed inline. As it stands, the user does not know whether the item has a note until they bring up another screen.
Program exit
Google has been very specific about never prompting users to exit an app. This leads to end-user confusion as they are required to remember how each app behaves. Prompting and toasting the app exit is not necessary.
Most action bars have a menu option to exit the program. This is strictly prohibited in the Android interface guildelines.
Syncing
Synchronization should be transparent to the user, up until there is a problem. Notifications of the sync taking place or completing successfully require my attention without telling me anything important.
If I'm in the app and sync fails, provide a dialog or toast. Placing something in the notifications area should only be when I'm not using 1Password.
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/notifications.html
Conclusion
Some of the things mentioned may be considered my personal perferences, but that's what feedback is for, right? I really tried to keep my comments related to stuff that matters.
I am very excited to have a fully functional app for Android and want to thank the team for the great effort!
Comments
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+1 on the Primary Use Cases, in particular search.
My usual approach to 1Password on mobile is either to use Favorites (good on Android), or Search for a particular entry. This is complicated and non-obvious given the current UX. It would be good to have a top level search, in addition to the folder/category specific search.
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Additional UI suggestions:
- In 4.0.0b9 the font is very small when entering your master password on high resolution screens
- You can still see the password in the app switcher. That looks insecure. The competition (LastPass) has a feature where it blurs the username/password in the app switcher on Android
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User option suggestion:
The Dropbox sync notification is annoying and I wish that it was possible to turn it off.
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@hudren, thank you for your detailed and very well reasoned feedback! Many of your concerns and suggestions have also been expressed by others, so whether they are personal preferences, you are not alone in your opinions. Several of the areas that you mention are areas that we are currently working to improve, including search, action bar, navigation drawer, and detail view disclosures. I will pass this feedback on to the development team as we are working on these items.
For the login screen, I'm having trouble replicating this issue on my device. When I type in an incorrect password, the lock remains blue until the password fails to validate, at which point it changes to red. The lock then remains red (along with the password entry field) until a correct password is validated, at which point it changes to green before animating off screen.
Could you please let me know which combination of device, OS version, and 1Password version you are using so that I can better try to replicated this on our end? Also, if you notice that this occurs in one set of circumstances and not another, please let me know so that we can try to identify the source of this bug.
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@gmwils, we are currently examining different options for making search more universally accessible within the app. We agree with you and many others that search would be much more useful if it could be accessed with fewer taps.
@gizmoms, we are reexamining our use of notifications for handling dropbox sync. We have received a few other reports of the font being too small when entering the master password, and will be looking into the appearance on high resolution screens.
Displaying the screen without obfuscation in the recents list (app switcher) is temporary and deliberate. We've provided some details about this in our known issues post.
Thank you all for your feedback. Stay tuned for more improvements in the next beta release!
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Actually, a few days ago I noticed the login icon stayed blue until the authentication was successful. I'm not seeing that behavior anymore.
Thanks so much for addressing our concerns!
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One other thing I noticed is that the "password recipe" used for generating passwords is different from the desktop version. I would much prefer to have consistency across all platforms.
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As Hudren suggested in post #8 I also think the menu to copy or reveal the password is a little difficult to find. It would be helpful if the click area would include more of the password and other fields to edit, copy, and reveal. The current target area near the triangle to the right is very close to the right edge of the app and may be more natural to be extend across the width of each field.
As Hudren said, I also think their layout would be a good alternative:
"I would recommend removing the popup menu altogether:-Single tap (the entire width) to reveal the password or login to the website
-Long press to copy to the clipboard (or have a clipboard icon on the right to single tap for the copy operation)"
I am looking forward to this full featured version of 1Password for Android. Thank you for the great work.
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@hudren, I'm glad to hear that the lock image is behaving as we expect it to behave. It is possible that we created the issue that you observed in one release and then unknowingly fixed it in a subsequent release. Let me know if the behaviour ever comes back. Regarding the password recipe, our development team was discussing this just the other day. I will make sure to pass on your request to have it be the same as the desktop version.
@rbikerrider2005, I've passed on the numerous requests we've had for this to our design team. They are exploring alternative designs for making copy/reveal easier to use. I'll add your vote as well.
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+1 for easier search access, better copy/reveal access, generator consistency (also an easier way to access the generator like one can on the desktop, without having to "add item"->"password").
Also, having immediate access to all items, instead of having to navigate categories (even having to click "all items" is IMO an unnecessary extra step) would be nice.
Thanks for all your hard work!
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On both my Galaxy S3 and nexus 7 I think the copy/reveal buttons are too far to the right. On the S3, because the buttons are so far right, it interferes with scrolling, or in some cases causes the navigation to jump. On both devices there seems to be enough room to move the copy/reveal more to the right.
Also, I noticed that the copy/reveal buttons are different on the two devices: three dots on the S3 and a triangle on the N7. I recommend that the art should be the same on both devices.
Lastly, I agree that the font on the login screen should be a little larger.
Otherwise I think the new design looks great and I appreciate the work that you're putting into this app!
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I passed on your suggestions and feedback. You can expect UI changes in upcoming updates, with a lot of focus on the lock and detail view screens.
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment on the beta. We really appreciate it. Let us know if there is anything else you would like to share. :)
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