Search needs to be changed & simplified. It is almost unusable right now

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fletchni
fletchni
Community Member
in Desktop betas (Mac, Windows, and Linux)

So, I am a GUI person and I don't use keyboard shortcuts so often. I also have more than one vault.

Here is a use-case:

  1. I have selected the vault I want to search in on the left-hand side
  2. I click in the search bar and search for something
  3. It returns results from all my vaults

This makes no sense at all!

I have since discovered (after coming here for feedback) that using CTRL/F will only search in the selected vault. But that is horrible. Plus the _=vault:Personal _ in the search bar is even more horrible. We are users, not programmers.

I would prefer a default search option... but if you decide that is too much, then at least fix the use-case I mentioned above. If I have selected someone on the LH side, then respect that when I search.

P.S. I was an early adopter (and paying customer) of 1Password at your very beginning. I use it on a Mac, Windows, Linux and iOS. You have reatined my loyalty because of your focus on privacy and security and designing a UX that works. Please don't destroy that now! :)

Thanks for listening!

1Password Version: Windows 8.2.2
Extension Version: 2.1.3
OS Version: For this report, Windows 10 21H1

Comments

  • ag_Gabriele
    ag_Gabriele
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    Hi @fletchni! Thank you for your feedback. We've worked hard to strike a balance between picking the right search scope and making search effective (i.e. surfacing the stuff you expect to see without requiring more clicks or leaving you without results) but I can see from your feedback that this still causes confusion for some.

    I can't guarantee that we'll change this but I've raised your feedback internally and we will have a discussion to see if there is a way to address it. I'll be sure to come back to this thread and update you if we decide to make a change here :)

    Cheers,
    Gab

  • fletchni
    fletchni
    Community Member
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    I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Sure, you cannot promise. And I hear your reply. But when you mention the number of clicks and what I expect to see, I should point out there is no way with a click (need a keyboard shortcut) to change the scope of my search, and no way to change its default.

    You may not have so many customers with more than one vault, where this would not be an issue.

    Last point (does it sound like I am trying to lobby? ;)) - the reason this is such a bad UX (not just that I personally do not like it) is that it is a major change in how your UX has previously worked. And that it seems best practice with many other developers (including the giants like Microsoft) is to start a search scope wherever one is at the moment. Sure, make it easy to widen that scope - or even inlclude suggestions in the results that make it clear they are outside of the search scope. But to assume that always, 100% of the time, with no visual or non-keyboard action to change, that a search scope must be everything feels plain wrong.

    Once, again, thank you!

  • ag_Gabriele
    ag_Gabriele
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    Thanks! Yeah, we've definitely been hearing similar feedback on the search scoping so we're thinking it through and considering a few changes. You might see some improvements soon! Let me know if I can be of further help :)

    Gabriele

  • fletchni
    fletchni
    Community Member
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    Partly to bump to see if others have similar feedback and partly with some more feedback:

    1. Finder app on MacOS has this behaviour as a preference ("When performing a search" - a choice of current folder, all my Mac, or previous search scope).
    2. Microsoft have a similar function in Outlook for both Mac and Windows
    3. I have found that using collections is a workaround... but for a customer with only one vault this makes no sense.

    Thanks again for listening!

  • ag_andrew
    ag_andrew
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    Thanks @fletchni, we've got some upcoming work spec'd out that will hopefully go a long way to alleviate the frustration that search is causing you. We don't have a timeline for it yet but stay tuned.

    As you said, leveraging Collections for a single-vault user doesn't make much sense, but the power of Collections for a user with multiple vaults is (we think) really incredible. Being able to organize your vaults into several different sets depending on context and then searching and filtering in those Collections can be a great way to zero-in on just the things you care about.

    For myself I have a "My Stuff" Collection that contains my work account Personal Vault, my family account Personal Vault, and my family account Shared Vault, and it's a great way to avoid being distracted by items (in other vaults) that I don't need unless I know I need them.

    Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback 💜

This discussion has been closed.