Icon and differences

rctneil

Not posted on here for a while but i'm back!

Really liking 1Password X but I do feel that the icon in the Chrome extension area is definitely not as clear as the normal Chrome extension. It looks a bit muddy and not sharp. Could this be simplified and improved?

Also, I consider myself rather computer literate (especially as I build websites on a daily basis) but it did take me a short time to figure out the difference (aside from UI) of 1Password X to the existing extension. Are there any plans to try to provide a clearer explanation of how they differ and which one is best for a particular user?

Thanks,
Neil

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1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided

Kyle DeMilo

1Password 6.x: "Full version of 1P that runs on your PC or Mac, that works system wide"
1Password X: "Full version of 1P that runs exclusively in Google Chrome, for Google Chrome users on PC, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS users"

dteare

Welcome back, @rctneil! We've missed you! <3

I'll ping @danvpeterson here so he can chime in, but just to be sure we're talking about the same things, can you take a screenshot of exactly what you're seeing? I know that incognito windows don't look nice with our icon but I thought on the default theme it looked pretty good. Are you using a different theme perhaps? We want to eventually add the ability for you to choose the icon from within settings so you can match your colour theme, but the icon itself shouldn't be blurry.

As for how 1Password X compares to 1Password, the reality is there's only a single 1Password and eventually the X will fade away into the background. The reason 1Password X needs to exist separately at the moment is we need a place to experiment and explore what's possible in an extension that lives 100% in a browser. We've packed a lot of cool features into 1Password over the last 10 years on 4 platforms and you can imagine it is difficult to bring all these features over into an initial 1.0 release that's been rewritten from the ground up. With that said, 1Password X already has new tricks that aren't possible anywhere else.

So yeah, it's admittedly a tough thing to define. You might enjoy seeing how we originally described it in an early draft of the announcement:

X is for eXperimental

1Password X is a place for us to experiment with some ideas that have been in our heads for a long time but haven't made it into a shipping product yet.

Over the years we've had hundreds of discussions about cool new features that would be great additions to 1Password. Wouldn't it be cool if 1Password could do X? is a phrase heard often throughout our work days and play nights.

As great as these ideas where they all had something in common: none of them fit within our existing schedules. We all have many responsibilities, existing timelines, and project deadlines. And with 1Password being such a polished product on so many platforms, it was difficult for us to experiment with radical changes without rocking the boat and upsetting people.

So these ideas laid dormant. Not because they weren't good ideas, but rather because there wasn't a way to actually /ship/ them. Real artists ship so we knew we had to find a way to get these ideas out of our heads and into your hands.

1Password X was born out of this desire. It provides us a safe place where we can explore the boundaries of what's possible and actually implement those Chipotle-fuelled dreams we had over the years as Game of Thrones played in the background.

So what have we been experimenting with? Let's jump in and see...

You can see a lot of this was removed in final editing as the eXperimental part made it feel like a beta, which it isn't. So after several intensive editing sessions, we arrived at 1Password X: A look at the future of 1Password in the browser. It's not perfect by any means, but I enjoy how we focus on what 1Password X can do and then invite you to try it out to see if it's for you, while being clear it isn't meant for everyone. At least not yet :)

rctneil

I don't think it's blurred but I think, due to the fact it's more detailed than the standard extension it comes across visually as being blurred. I do think it needs to be different in appearance to differentiate the two but I think the logo should be the same but have something else to do the differentiation.

Love it otherwise!

khad

Thanks for that screenshot, @rctneil. I agree that it's not blurred, so perhaps we are seeing it the same way. What's funny is that in my opinion the 1Password extension has more detail with the notch in the keyhole. 1Password X is just a rectangle. The only other detail is the addition of another concentric circle, but I'm not sure how that would be any blurrier than the circle in the other icon.

Maybe @danvpeterson has more to say about it. :)

rctneil

I think it's the extra circle that looks wrong to me. The addition of it obviously makes the rest smaller and lowers the clarity. The simple'ness of the original is perfect. I like the notches in the keyhole.

I think they should be differentiated in a different way but right now i'm not 100% what that way is. If I think of something i'll post!

It's great being able to comment on such a small detail in a product! I too try and put this kind of detail into my projects!

AGAlumB

@rctneil: I hear you. I am a bit change-averse too. I get used to the way something looks, and then it looks "wrong" to me for a while if it's changed. But in this case I can get behind it because there's a good reason: the light "ring" with dark rings inside and out may be the secret to making the 1Password logo readable both with the default UI and also with a dark theme down the road. :sunglasses:

danvpeterson

Hey @rctneil! Thanks for the feedback :) There are a few reasons for the icon change but to directly address the initial "not as sharp" comment, I think a part of that at least is the styling change of how Chrome styles it's toolbar icons. I try to make the 1Password icon match the default Chrome icon styling which used to have a dark inset drop shadow (you can see a similar example really clearly in Pocket's icon in your screenshot). Chrome no longer does this so I removed that styling. I think the benefits of the new icon outweigh the cons though.

The primary benefit in my eyes is that it much more closely resembles the "real" 1Password logo. Familiarity is key here (pardon the pun). If someone is familiar with our logo from our website, or from launching one of our native apps, I think the dual circles with rectangle keyhole is much more quickly relatable to that than the old extension icon. That familiarity lends itself to users recognizability and being able to find it quickly.

The other problem is that the old extension icon was often confused with the generic "info" icon that people are familiar with (circled "i") or a warning icon (circled exclamation mark). I recognize that some of that is subjective of course but that's the reasoning behind the change and why I don't think we'll be changing it back. I will definitely take another look at ways that I can make it appear more crisp on screen though! Might be able to adjust some of how the sub-pixels lie on the circles to fine-tune that.