Forum Discussion
Why is the top search result default instead of all results?
The way I search — like the vast majority of people in user testing I have done at my place of business — is to type a few things and hit return. Then you peruse a full list of filtered options. It is not to type a few things, stop yourself from hitting return and examine first item on the "suggested list" to see if it is the one you want and THEN hit return, and if it isn't... then continue perusing a list of suggestions in a menu dropdown, and when you don't find a suggestion with what you needed, select "Show all" at the very bottom and finally get the list you should have had at the very beginning.
That former was the old behavior in 1Password, and it is the behavior of almost every other app anywhere ever. Type, hit return, get filtered list. But now it's the latter. Type, hit return, get one result that is completely wrong. Redo the search, and go through three steps to get to the same thing that should have happened when you first searched.
Maybe this unintuitive UX decision is a preferred method for a few people at 1Password, after all, our user testing always shows outliers, so sure... keep it. But for goodness sake, please make it an OPTION, and not the unalterable default. When I type a search, I want ALL results. Every time. I don't want one, unless I slow everything down and carefully follow "procedure."
Yes, you can argue, "Well just hold down command key when you hit return." But since this is behavior used by no other app, I have to train my brain to change behavior for just this one app. And I've tried, but it won't stick. Please just give us the old style back as an option at least.
I have accidentally selected the top result 99% of the time in 1Password 8, and it has been the wrong thing 90% of the time.
1Password Version: 8.9.10
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: macOS 13.0.1
Browser:_ Not Provided
20 Replies
- 1P_Tommy
Moderator
On behalf of the team you're welcome.
I just discovered this is the new default behavior when hitting return. The old default of not filtering was so frustrating. Thank you!
- 1P_Dave
@daveu, Boosh, WhovianJohn, @Pres, @koelsh, and viswiz
1Password for Mac recently introduced a change in how search works and pressing enter now opens "Show all matching results". You can then look through the total list of results for a search term.
Please make sure that you're running 8.10.24: How to keep 1Password up to date
You might need to completely close and then reopen 1Password before seeing the change. Let me know if this new behaviour helps. 🙂
-Dave
It's been almost two years since you introduced the barely usable new search interface, but instead of fixing the problem by at least adding an option to return to the far better search interface of the previous versions, you ignore it. Even 1P_Travis, who did the usability testing that led to this change, has since admitted that a search behavior selection option would have been a better solution.
I've already stopped recommending 1PW since version 8 was released and will stick with 7 as long as possible. If this issue and the other usability issues (item counts, localized dates) are not resolved when 7 stops working, I will switch to another product.
Please listen to your users and make 1Password search sane again!
Do we have an update on making 1P8's "search" act as a search?
One way to put it is typing and pressing enter is acting as a "quick jump" whereas to get the expected behavior users have to press command+enter to "filter" and show all-and-only the items applicable to the search term.
1Password is the only application I've encountered that behaves this way. I'm trying not to be snarky about this but come on guys this is ridiculous.
At version 8.10.4 and I'm still pining for a "normal" search UX.
It's simple:
* Enter your search term
* Hit ReturnIn every other app in the universe this filters the current list of items to match the search terms. Only 1Password is in its own little universe of "I know! Whichever item happened to sort first today is surely the one you want!" and never filters the list at all. Maddeningly, it shows the exact result I want, but only in its temporary pop-up that disappears the moment I hit Return.
It should actually not even need the Return keypress and just filter in real time as I type.
I'm not seeing how the current state of dumping the user into the middle of the full list of presumably-unrelated items is in any way superior to a filtered list of only items containing the search terms, given that the Return Key leaves (or would leave) the user with the same item selected either way. If that was the right item, great; if not, now it's easy to find the right one in the filtered list. At least give us a checkbox in Preferences to switch it to expected behavior.
(Never even mind the strangeness of having duelin' "Search" and "Find" commands that return unpredictably different results. "Find" filters the list, but doesn't even have a dedicated input field, and even then confusingly returns a different number of results—e.g. Search in "All Items" may return 5 items, but Find returns 3...what?)
Search is the only thing in 1Password that seems to be messed up, most everything else seems to be quite smooth for me, which is why it stands out.
Almost 1 1/2 later and search the UI/UX is still not fixed/reverted. I've just checked all applications with search functionality I use daily. All of them search the same way as 1PW7 (and older) did, i. e. search as you type and immediatly show all results.
In contrast to the findings 1P_Travis mentioned"...better aligned with user expectations in circumstances where they were trying to quickly find a singular item..."
I typically expect to get many results as I often search using substrings/partial words.
Adding different variants of search/find which are partly hidden isn't a solution. Either completely revert this change or at least add an option to revert it with the old behavior being default.
As much as I would like to use 1PW8's new features like ssh integration the awful search experience makes me always revert within minutes to 1PW8. So I'll have to use 1PW7 for as long as possible and if search is still not usable than 1PW7 stops working, I'll have to switch to a different password manager.I specifically created an account here to request that the Search option be fixed. It was mentioned that the current Search configuration was chosen to make it easier for people to quickly select what they are searching for. It seems to me that if your vaults contain so few items that you can search and return only one item, you probably don't need the Search option. I have 1000+ items across multiple categories/vaults. The list of things that I could search for that would only return a single item is very short. As others have mentioned, the 'show all' option is how pretty much every other app that has a search field works by default. If you can't fix the default search setting, please at least give us the option to fix it in the app settings/prefs.
Please add an option in settings to make search function as it did in 1Password 7.
I absolutely despise this new Search behaviour in 1Password 8. 90% of the time, what I'm looking for is only revealed when I click "Show all matching items." It's so annoying to expect to see all you items returned when switching only to realize that you have to click again to actually see everything.
