Feature Request: Show full results immediately when searching in 1Password 8
In 1Password versions up through 7, when you used the search box to look for a specific entry it filtered the list to only show matching items. This was an intuitive interface and matched how search systems worked on websites, in other software, etc.
In 1Password 8 this UI was changed to add a second search popup that showed the filtered results, then selecting an item in this list closes the filtered list and jumps down to show the matching item in the full list of all records. If the selected item was not the exact item that was being sought, to check one of the other possible matches it is necessary to repeat the search, remember which item was not the correct one, and then try another.
This is not an intuitive UI, it's almost user-hostile in how it forces a slightly absurd search workflow on the user.
While I'm sure the developers who built this are proud of their achievement, however it's a poor UX and should be removed.
Is there any chance of bringing back the much simpler, much more intuitive search workflow from previous releases?
Thank you.
1Password Version: 8
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS
Browser: Not Provided
Comments
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It's one of the worst UI/usability changes I've ever seen. It was reported already two years ago during the early access phase of 1PW8. Some time ago even the developer who did the usability tests that lead to these changes admitted that at least the popup window with the extra step to show all results should have been optional.
Another problem of search is that it splits search terms at specific characters like .,@ and even worse instead of searching all items containing all (split) words combined (boolean AND) it searches for every word separately (boolean OR). A behaviour that is simply wrong in most cases.
The support people here in the forums typically tell you that an internal issue/work item to change this exists in their internal tracker and the product teams evaluates a solution. In reality the product doesn't care about this and other usability issues they've introduced with 1PW8.
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I concur for the reasons you mentioned. Search for a password is critical and the current process is a big step back.
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Hello @DamienMcKenna! 👋
I'm sorry that you've run into trouble with the search feature in 1Password 8. You can search for all matching items by following these steps:
- Open and unlock 1Password
- Type in the term that you'd like to search for.
- Click on Show all matching items or press Command-Enter on your keyboard.
This will show you a list of all items that match your search term rather than just opening the currently selected item from the search dropdown.
Thank you for feedback. Regarding search terms being split due to certain special characters, I see that Tommy has replied to you in the other thread that you posted in: https://1password.community/discussion/comment/692273/#Comment_692273
Let me know if the steps that I posted above to search for all matching items help.
In the meantime, I've passed all of your comments along to the team internally. We have a group working on further refining and improving search and they appreciate your feedback. 🙂
-Dave
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Dave,
Thank you for the response.
The approach you suggest should be the default behavior with the other behavior opt-in. Speaking as a web application developer for over twenty years I'd love to know the rationale for making the UX change in the first place, it just doesn't make sense for it to work like that.3 -
The goal of 1Password 8's search dropdown is to surface the most relevant item as quickly as possible rather than just presenting a list of all items that might possibly match the search term in some way and then requiring someone to go through the list to find the right item.
Our UX research group tested various approaches for search and this method of displaying the most relevant results in a dropdown was found to work best for the majority of users.
That being said, I do understand that this interface doesn't completely work for you and your feedback has been passed along to the team. For now, as mentioned, when the right item isn't available in the search dropdown you can still click on Show all matching items (or press Command-Enter) to view the full results.
-Dave
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Thanks Dave, but isn't the described behavior the express purpose of the quick access UI?
The behavior in the app is completely non-standard and unexpected on macOS, as well as on windows the last time I used it.
+1 for at least an option to have search follow standard macOS ux practices.
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1Password 8 provides a similar search experience in both Quick Access and in the main app itself so that folks can expect to see the same "most relevant" instant results in both places. The main app, where there is room to display more items, further provides the option to display full results with Show all matching items as mentioned above.
+1 for at least an option to have search follow standard macOS ux practices.
I've filed a feature request on your behalf with our product team to have them further look into adding an option to default to the full results list. Thank you for the feedback.
-Dave
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@Dave_1P I'm using 1PW almost from its beginning on and following the forums since 1PW3. I've seen complaints about the sidebar's influence on search results but I've never ever seen complaints about the search UI.
Every single application I use on macOS, Windows and iOS uses exactly the same pattern 1PW used up to version 7, i. e. show all results and don't filter results unless explicitly requested.
Starting with version 8 the complaints about search started to appear in the forums. Even the person in charge of your usability tests (@AG_Travis - https://1password.community/discussion/comment/692075) admitted that the change should have been optional.
If the majority of your usability test users preferred the current dropdown solution then this group was perhaps not a representative one.
Looking at the releasenotes I found many internal/backend bug fixing, changed wording and shifting icons around but no fix for the many usability problems 1PW8 introduced with the current search being the worst of all.3 -
I just want to add that it's considerably slower to use the current default approach in the common case that you have multiple logins for a single site, as is often the case for accounts that you use at work and at home; a use-case popularized by comingling multiple vaults.
- You accidentally click the one account, when you meant to click the other one, and now you have to type in the search terms over again.
- You do not adequately label the accounts and you have no easy way of differentiating between them. This isn't necessarily "user error" because you may not have control over how your team chose to label a shared item.
It sounds from this thread that many of us would prefer the ability to simply choose how search behaves from the Settings pane.
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Have you considered using collections? Collections allow you to specify which vaults and items you see and search so that you can exclude the vaults you don't need during your regular day. You can read more about Collections here: Use collections to create custom groups of vaults
You would use your work collection when doing work things and then switch to your personal collection when doing personal things. 🙂
-Dave
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In addition to the problems I mentioned above I would like to add my main use case for 1PW.
Its main feature might be managing online identies and associated credentials but for me it's more - a personal secure information manager. I use it to store not only credentials but software licences, network information, personal documents, vouchers, tickets and many more. Your own homepage advertises 1PW's features as follows:1Password comes with everything you need to protect, fill, and securely share your passwords, credit cards, and other private information.
The more data I store in 1PW the more results I get by searching for something and that is exactly what I expect. But the change of 1PW8's search makes it much more difficult to efficiently get the result I'm looking for. The relevance filtering never gets it right. It's just a major obstacle in getting the desired results... all results and not something prefiltered.
As this major pain point still hasn't been fixed in two years and the team doesn't seem to be willing to change anything in the near future I've started to move my data (except for credentials) into Devonthink, a personal information manager that has proper search functionality and even proper item counts.1 -
The team would like to learn more about how specifically search isn't working for you and your particular use case. Our search team is continually working to improve 1Password's search tool and your specific feedback would be very helpful. Would you be willing to provide the following:
- Some examples of search terms that you're using.
- Examples of items that you expect to see in the search dropdown for those search terms.
- The search results that you actually see in the search dropdown for those search terms.
- Whether you see the results that you're expecting to see if you use the "Show all matching items" option for that particular search.
Please make sure that nothing sensitive is included in the examples that you provide. If you're able to provide screenshots, with sensitive information redacted, then that would help as well.
Please send an email to support+forum@1Password.com with the information requested above. Once you've sent the email, you should receive an automated reply from our BitBot assistant with a Support ID number. Please post that number here. Thank you!
-Dave
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Hey y'all, in the latest update the new default behaviour for search should be "show all matching results" when you press enter now.
Thanks,
Max
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The new behavior is indeed great! 2 things I've noticed:
There is an 'enter' glyph at the top of the results, implying that pushing enter will result showing that single result.
If I hit CMD-F and execute a search, then hit CMD-F again, the original search is still present in the input field. Perhaps some folks want to revise and extend their original search, but I would expect the search box to be cleared for a new search.
Thanks!
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Thanks for the reply! I'll respond below:
There is an 'enter' glyph at the top of the results, implying that pushing enter will result showing that single result.
Pressing
Enterwill indeed open the highlighted item and select it in the results lists.If I hit CMD-F and execute a search, then hit CMD-F again, the original search is still present in the input field. Perhaps some folks want to revise and extend their original search, but I would expect the search box to be cleared for a new search.
Thanks for the feedback, I've passed this along to the team. 🙂
-Dave
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