iPad UI in portrait and general thoughts [Thanks for sharing your feedback, it'll be considered]

gregspeechley

The beta is coming along really nicely but I had a couple of thoughts:

• In portrait on the iPad things feel too cramped with the vertical list of items on the left, I would prefer if you went back to the horizontal list across the top like the current shipping version
• I prefer the star icon for favorites at the top of an item view which you can select/deselect rather than text at the bottom of an item (and to a lesser extent move to folder and share), similar to the current shipping version. I know that buttons are "outlawed" in iOS 7 but the star provided a nice combination of information and action.
• I also agree with a previous comment that a bit more translucency inline with iOS 7 would be nice

I would be interested to hear what others think too.

Overall it is looking really great, thanks for all your hard work!

ethansisson

I don't mind the favorite/folder/share buttons at the bottom, since they aren't everyday actions for me. On the other hand, I don't really like that they are inline with my item data. I wanted something interesting to do during my lunch break, so I made a mockup of an idea (attached). I'm not necessarily in favor of this approach, since I haven't really thought through the potential implications/pitfalls. Off hand, though, I like it.

You mentioned the star icon being informative. That doesn't matter to me personally because I use my favorites all the time, so I know what's favorited and what isn't. I also prefer to unfavorite an item via the Favorites tab, rather than going to the item itself.

gregspeechley

Wow I wasn't expecting a mockup! I quite like that idea too although I wonder if it is stretching the metaphor of the share icon? A lot of apps are doing that these days so perhaps it is an accepted standard now.

On reflection, I agree that these actions don't need to be prominent since they are not everyday actions for me either.

Thanks for your thoughts. Does anyone have an opinion on the iPad UI in portrait?

MrRooni

Wow, thanks for the great feedback, guys! I agree with Greg that moving those actions to the share icon might be stretching the metaphor a bit, but it does make for a cleaner item detail view. I'll open an issue for it internally and we'll see if it gets any traction.

In terms of bringing back the portrait UI from the current shipping version of 1Password for iOS, that most likely will not happen. There were a number of usability problems with that approach (scrolling was awkward, layout for larger items was troublesome) that outweigh the benefits of having a larger detail view.

gregspeechley

Thanks for your reply! Actually the more I think about it the more I like the idea of being able to perform those actions from the share button at the top of the view (as per the mockup). I don't like that the text buttons at the bottom feel like they are part of the item details. Currently you have swipe right on a login item to copy password, I think it would be nice to have swipe left on any item in a list to reveal favorite, share or delete icons as a power user feature.

The portrait UI currently feels a bit like "we couldn't think of anything better" and looks a bit cramped to me but I understand where you are coming from. I guess that is what makes iPad UI design so tricky ;)

danvpeterson

Portrait mode is actually one of the things that we have gotten the most positive feedback from. While I liked the horizontal list view on top I definitely ended up being in the minority from the amount of feedback we've gotten.

Regarding the share button, I think putting an icon button on the top right would make it awefully easy to mis-tap the Edit button. The default apps generally set an expectation for where to find certain types of functionality and they do put these buttons at the bottom of the details. I would like some more space separating the item details from the buttons. Might want to revisit it in the future if I hear back from more people having trouble with them but, for now at least, I think these buttons should stay on the bottom.

The swiping right suggestion unfortunately won't work well because it interferes with that gesture being used to go back in the list hierarchy. We do have some plans to do more than just the copy functionality (including sharing, etc.) with the right-to-left swipe in the future, just haven't been able to get to it yet :)

Thanks so much for the feedback!

ethansisson

Portrait mode is actually one of the things that we have gotten the most positive feedback from.

Thanks for that, @Dan V Peterson‌. I much prefer the new design.

The default apps generally set an expectation for where to find certain types of functionality and they do put these buttons at the bottom of the details.

They do very often have those kinds of buttons at the bottom, but never (with the exception of Contacts) at the bottom of content that you have to scroll through to get to them. That's basically what I dislike about the current approach (I dislike it in Contacts too), in addition to mixing the item data/actions contexts.

In Apple's default apps the share button, et al, are normally on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. But since 1Password has a tab bar, it would be tricky to use a toolbar in the detail view. The only stock app I've seen using both is Photos, where the tab bar transitions to a toolbar (complete with a share button) when you tap a photo. I don't see that working for 1Password because the user would have to navigate back to the item/category list before they could switch to another tab, which adds too much friction to navigating for an app like 1Password where fast navigation is important.

I took the idea of putting the share button in the navigation bar at the top from the App Store & iTunes Store apps. Since they have a tab bar at the bottom, an item's share button and Wish List button are both at the top right in the navigation bar:

iTunes Movie Trailers is another tabbed Apple app that uses this approach, though it doesn't have multiple buttons on the right side of the navigation bar.

You've done a great job redesigning the app for iOS 7, but this is one area that I think needs some rethinking.

I think putting an icon button on the top right would make it awefully easy to mis-tap the Edit button.

It might. I personally don't have any trouble with it in the App Store/iTunes Store, and I use both the share button and Wish List fairly often.

parasight

Just throwing in my +1 that I much, much prefer the new portrait mode in the beta. I thought the horizontal approach in the currently shipped version was super awkward to use and I often flipped my iPad over into landscape mode because of it. To be honest, I hadn't even noticed it was changed in the beta until reading this thread, because it just feels right now. There's much less friction in use.

gregspeechley

Thanks for your reply Dan, if the general consensus is that the portrait view is better now then I humbly concede :)

The swiping right suggestion unfortunately won't work well because it interferes with that gesture being used to go back in the list hierarchy.

I am little confused, currently swiping from left to right on a login activates the copy functionality and edge swiping from left to right goes back in the hierarchy. I was suggesting adding a gesture swiping from right to left on a login (like Instapaper does) which could contain add to favourites, move to folder, share and maybe copy password. Then you could just use swiping left to right for going back. Hope that makes sense!

MikeT

Hi @gregspeechley‌,

I believe that's what Dan was trying to say, we have plans to do that via the right to left swipe features (think Mail.app). I think he meant that we're not going to add much to the left>right swipe because we want to keep it as Copy Password and the other for actions in the other side.

ssdeg7

@ethansisson you have my +1 for that feature request, I also prefer those buttons not inline with my data.

gregspeechley

@MikeT Oh yeah I can see that we just got our wires crossed a little, glad to hear that you will be adding the actions to the swipe left gesture. I don't really like that the swipe right to copy password completes automatically rather than following your finger like the back gesture does. I would also prefer to perform 1 long swipe to copy the password rather than swipe and tap, I don't think it needs confirmation since it is non destructive. Just thinking out loud but I quite like apps that have multi-state swipes like Tweetbot and Mailbox, perhaps that is something you might consider incorporating?

Thanks again for all your great work :)

MikeT

Hi guys,

@ssdeg7:

I also prefer those buttons not inline with my data.

Thanks, I've added your vote to the report on this in our tracker, it has everybody's feedback from this thread in the report already.

@gregspeechley‌:

I would also prefer to perform 1 long swipe to copy the password rather than swipe and tap, I don't think it needs confirmation since it is non destructive.

It's not that that it is not destructive, but that it's being sensitive to handling your private data. We do the confirmation because it is your password after all and once it is in the system clipboard, any apps running in the background can read it when you resume them. That's why we're very careful not to automate anything. It's best to make you tap for it instead of doing things you didn't want us to do, especially if it is related to sensitive data.

gregspeechley

Hi @MikeT‌,

Thanks for your reply. I understand your point of view but if you are so concerned about putting the password in the system clipboard then why is the default behaviour of the Clear Clipboard setting never?

I was thinking that you would have to swipe more than 75% of the cell to copy the password, similar to how you delete a message in Mailbox but with no action for a partial swipe. That way the user has to perform a long, intentional swipe and it animates as you swipe to show the action that will be performed. I think it would make for a more fluid experience but that's just my opinion :)

MikeT

Hi @gregspeechley‌,

why is the default behaviour of the Clear Clipboard setting never?

I didn't realize it was set to never. I'll check into that and see what's going on there.

That way the user has to perform a long, intentional swipe and it animates as you swipe to show the action that will be performed.

I'll file a request to see if we can make this happen.

Thanks!

gregspeechley

Hi @MikeT,

Thanks again for your response, I will keep an eye out for it :)

I am really impressed with how you run your betas and I appreciate the time you take to respond and discuss issues on the forums, it is no wonder that you build such great products!

MikeT

Hi @gregspeechley,

Thank you for your comment, that really helps us to hear that!

ethansisson

I'm strongly in favor of the current swipe, then tap flow. I dislike apps that use swiping to perform an action on content because it's inconsistent with the platform. On iOS, swiping is for navigating and hiding/revealing actionable UI. Standard gestures such as this one should work the same way in every app. Nobody likes an app that doesn't feel native.

Besides that, it takes more effort because my swipe must cover a greater distance and there is no feedback to indicate at what point during my swipe the action is invoked until I reach that point. And if I change my mind, I can't just abandon the interaction and move on, I have to slide the item back to the left to avoid invoking the action.

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/InteractivityInput.html

gregspeechley

I agree that the app should feel native but what about all the apps that had swipe right to go back and pull to refresh before they were native to iOS? The platform and the paradigms will continue to evolve and the inspiration will most likely come from the apps that push the envelope and try new things. I would be surprised if the use of gestures to perform actions doesn't continue to increase as it really provides a more fluid experience in my opinion. Anyway it's just food for thought I guess; I enjoy discussing these ideas and appreciate your thoughtful input :)

idaviddesmet

I also like ethansisson's mockup of not having those actions inline with the data.
It's more cleaner and is also easily accessible, despite that I don't use this actions commonly.

gregspeechley

@ethansisson‌ I have been thinking about this some more and I think what I would like is:

• "sloppy swiping" to go back i.e. remove Copy Password from the Swipe Right gesture and make swiping right from anywhere (not just the edge) go back
• Swipe left anywhere on a login to reveal Copy Password, Favorite, Move, Share
• Maybe long tap on a login to copy the password?

MikeT

That's a very good article, I've added it to our tracker, and it will help us decide what to do.

The fact that 1Password 4.5 is finally out, will mean that we're going to start polishing up the interface more often now. We're hearing a lot of the feedback from everybody, including this thread. :)

We're really excited here, so many praises on the long work we've done along with the awesome beta team here.