Forum Discussion

Former Member's avatar
Former Member
3 years ago

Adopt v7 look in v8?

I personally think the updated look in v8 of 1Password is a major step down from v7. The v8 UI does not feel native to macOS, it feels more like an attempt to adopt a 3rd party look that can be used across platforms. That does not help me at all as a macOS user. Is there any chance you guys can make that UI theme optional? For now, I am downgrading (or upgrading, I suppose) to v7.


1Password Version: 8.7.0
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS 12.4

9 Replies

  • FredericC's avatar
    FredericC
    Frequent Contributor

    I agree that even with the evolution since beta, the design still seems weird on MacOS. This is sad to ear that the design of the app will not evolve to stick to Apple global design.

  • 1P_PeterG's avatar
    1P_PeterG
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager

    Hi folks, thanks for your feedback here.

    While as @ben noted we're not looking to do a major overhaul of the Knox design (and we acknowledge that visual aesthetics carry some element of subjectivity for everyone), there are a few things you can use to customize your experience: namely the compact mode and interface zoom options in Preferences > Appearance. I'd note that for some folks, dark mode can also provide the kind of visual contrast they find works best for them. The ability to resize the three major panes of the app and collapse the major elements of the sidebar can also provide you with improved screen real estate, depending on your needs.

    We are still making some tweaks to the UI for the sake of readability, making sure that elements are able to be clearly differentiated, and so on. That's of course important and we want your experience to be an excellent one.

    I would add that, if you look elsewhere on this forum, you'll find folks requesting that we do make the fonts bigger, space things out more, (and so on) for the sake of visual clarity and accessibility. I have a lot of sympathy for that viewpoint. We also want you to be able to set parameters that work for you and your device as well, hence the options mentioned here.

  • mlondon's avatar
    mlondon
    New Contributor

    +1 on the problems with the v8 UI/UX.

    The color scheme in v8 is NOT conducive to clearly differentiating the sections/panes.
    The UI is wasteful in its use of font sizes and padding around objects.

    It looks and feels like some teenagers where let loose to "fix" a problem that didn't exist.
    Very disappointed with this "downgrade" from v7.

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member

    1P_Ben It would seem that the decision to go non-native was arbitary, at least with regards to the user — it has resulted in a less functional, less stable, and potentially less secure solution.

    And yet, inspite of all the discussion here about the fundermental problems that 1Password 8 presents and the critical bugs that still exist in this first release, Agilebits's response has been to consistently double-down — we know best.

    I'm sorry to hear you aren't as thrilled with our new Knox design language as we are ...we're not looking to make further major changes to the design for 1Password 8

    MacOS is not perfect but its intuitive for a reason — the Mac UI/UX only exists because of the consistency of its guidelines and the APIs that Apple provides — 1Password did not need a 'new design language' from a usability perspective, but clearly the javascript-based technologies underpinning version 8 have limitations that no amount of childish eye-candy can compensate for.

    With the launch of 1Password 8, 1Password 7 is no longer supported ...it’s best to use the latest version ...I wouldn't encourage you to downgrade to 1Password 7.

    How on earth is it best to use the latest version — that's disingenuous, it's certainly deluded. 1Password 7 is the upgrade here.

    None of this bodes well. Agilebits have clearly chosen a direction of travel that shows contempt for its most loyal customers, and particularly their role in growing the company through the evangelising and supporting of 1Password to their extended circles of less tech-savvy friends, family and colleagues — misunderstanding this relationship is a massive miscalculation.

  • FredericC's avatar
    FredericC
    Frequent Contributor

    A lot was made since the launch of the beta, it fell more polished… but the design is so poor compared to v7. V7 is a little outdated now for sure but when it came out it was spot on one of the best designed Apple App. Now it is at best a "well designed cross platform app" but far from any macos dedicated app. It makes me sad as I'm pretty sure it won't evolve anymore.

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member

    Thank you for confirming I am not alone in this. You have perfectly voiced the same issues I have with the Knox approach. While I understand that from a development perspective, it is useful to go with a cross platform approach, the decision has been detrimental to the end user experience, which includes look & feel. IMHO of course.

  • skatch's avatar
    skatch
    Frequent Contributor

    I'm with you @mobidutch. I'm a bit bummed by the cross-platform web feel of the new design language, even though it's clear a lot of work has gone into it. (If it weren't a native app, I'd rate it highly.)

    Aesthetics aside, I have a functional gripe, which is that Knox is much more wasteful of screen space, even in compact mode:
    - The default font size is bigger than the standard for Mac apps. (For example, compare the text size to Messages.app, Safari, Mail, etc.)
    - There's a lot more padding around elements throughout the app compared to v7, which I felt struck a good balance between aesthetics, readability, & density.
    - Some of the above can be mitigated by scaling with "zoom out", but this setting doesn't apply everywhere.
    - Also, the browser extension takes the font size + padding to extremes and is completely non-adjustable, so very little info fits in the view and text is often truncated.

    It feels like maybe the font size + spacing was designed around web/mobile-first standards, rather than native desktop app standards? I hope that the 1Password team considers some platform-specific tuning of Knox as it evolves in the future.

  • Former Member's avatar
    Former Member

    Hello Ben,

    I appreciate the quick reply. For as long as v7 gets security updates, I’ll opt to postpone the move to v8. I am already plenty satisfied with v7 features.

    Thank you,

    Arjen

  • 1P_Ben's avatar
    1P_Ben
    Icon for 1Password Team rank1Password Team

    Hi @mobidutch

    I'm sorry to hear you aren't as thrilled with our new Knox design language as we are. While there may be room for small adjustments, we're not looking to make further major changes to the design for 1Password 8, but I'm sure we'll do another refresh at some point in the future. With the launch of 1Password 8, 1Password 7 is no longer supported and will only receive important security updates. Although you can continue to use 1Password 7, it’s best to use the latest version of 1Password that includes all the latest features and security updates, so you I wouldn't encourage you to downgrade to 1Password 7.

    Ben