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Improvements to Evernote's user interface


jyc23

Idea

I've been using Evernote for awhile now and think that the user interface could use some improvement. Here are some ideas I've had that I think would make the program just a little bit easier to use. Some of these might be particular to me. 

  1. Make the icons for tag, notebook, and note more distinct from each other. Right now, at least for me, I have to stare at them for a little while to tell which is which. This would be especially helpful in the shortcuts list.
  2. Provide color-based cues that users can specify. Let us choose colors for notebooks, or perhaps colors for notes, so we can scan through long lists more quickly. It would be great, for example, if I could color a note red so I know, for example, that it's important.
  3. In note snippets in the snippet list, at minimum, list the notebook that the note is in. It's frustrating when going through the All Notes view and not knowing which notebook a note is in until I actually click on a note. IT's not hard, but I tend to skim and scan and the interface could be improved with regard to that. 
  4. More hierarchy! I realize this is something that people have been asking for for years, and Evernote shows no signs of adopting. But it would be simply amazing if we could add just one more level of hierarchy to the notebooks list. Stacks > Notebooks > Tabs. For people who think hierarchically, this would provide a better sense of where I am in my notes, much better so than tags plus the Stacks > Notebooks hierarchy we have now. And yes, I know you can create pseudo-hierarchies with nested tags, but that feels (to me) like a hack, and has its own problems as well (such as inability to have two lower-level "sections" with the same name). Plus, the lack of nested tags on mobile means any pseudo hierarchy I set up on desktop is lost on mobile, even on the iPad. 
  5. Provide consistency in the interface across platforms. I use Evernote on a Windows PC, a MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and Web. The Windows experiences differs from the Mac experience which differs from the iPhone / iPad experience and Web experience. It's frustrating when I can do something like nested tags on my desktop and web version, but can't on the iPhone / iPad versions. It's frustrating that the desktop version shows tags at the top of the note while the iPad version hides tags behind a little (i) button. It's annoying that the date and time are shown at the top of a note on desktop, etc., but again, hidden behind the little (i) button on mobile. Also frustrating is the fact that I can change notebook names directly from the left column in the Windows version, but not on Mac version. Reminders - when I set one, I see a little alarm clock in snippet view on Web, but not on Mac desktop. I know it's not easy to do consistency across platforms, and I do appreciate the efforts being made to make it happen, but it would be awesome if we could speed the process up a little bit.
  6. Allow tags to be listed in a user-specified order in the top of the note. Right now everything defaults to alphabetical. 
  7. For God's sake, in the desktop versions, provide the option to auto-complete tags with strings from the middle of the tag, not just the beginning! Unlike some people here, I'll sometimes tag something "red apple" instead of "apple - red". I'd love to be able to get "red apple" in the tags part of the note UI from typing "apple" rather than having to type "red". In other words, give the desktop version the same tag autocomplete that the web and iOS have, and let people turn that off if they don't like it. 
  8. Allow us to change the color scheme of the appWhile green is quite the soothing color, and I realize it is your brand color, not everyone likes it. Further, in my opinion, I think it makes things hard to read sometimes (this applies more to the web and mobile versions). 
  9. Allow us to change the size of the interface elements. Desktop version - Windows, in particular. On higher resolutions screens, interface elements are sometimes far too small. Can we get the ability to bump it up?
  10. Font consistency across platforms. Windows is one font, Mac is another, the web and iOS are yet another. Can we please get some consistency? And also ... the Gotham fonts has terrible hinting on less-than Retina displays (most typical Windows displays). It's not so pleasing to look at.
  11. Password protected sections. OneNote does them. Why not Evernote? 

I'd be more than happy to provide more detailed suggestions on how to at least design some of these things. 

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12 hours ago, jyc23 said:

For God's sake, in the desktop versions, provide the option to auto-complete tags with strings from the middle of the tag

Didn't know that God was an Evernote user...

I'm not saying that any of the suggestions are bad, but really, almost all of them in this omnibus list have been requested at one time or another; it would probably be more effective to find those individual requests and add your vote and/or comments pertaining to the particular feature there, particularly since some of the items are specific to certain Evernote clients, and some of them are more global in nature.

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On 12/20/2017 at 10:51 AM, jefito said:

Didn't know that God was an Evernote user...

I'm not saying that any of the suggestions are bad, but really, almost all of them in this omnibus list have been requested at one time or another; it would probably be more effective to find those individual requests and add your vote and/or comments pertaining to the particular feature there, particularly since some of the items are specific to certain Evernote clients, and some of them are more global in nature.

I have already found the relevant individual posts in other areas of the forum and upvoted as needed. I just wanted to say something about the lack of consistency across platforms, which I think is better done in an omnibus way in the general forum rather than individually in each version's sub-forum. 

In any case, it doesn't seem to matter whether anyone says anything anywhere. Clearly the Evernote developers have their priorities, and they happen to not align with what many in the community (not just myself, as evidenced by all of the upvotes to various requests which have been sitting unaddressed for years, sometimes) is important.

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6 hours ago, jyc23 said:

I just wanted to say something about the lack of consistency across platforms...

and they happen to not align with what many in the community

There is an ongoing Common Editor project for parity across the platforms

My thinking is that the developers are occupied with fixing bugs and keeping up with OS changes

There's a story about Henry Ford; if he asked his customers what they wanted, They would have said faster horses

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1 minute ago, DTLow said:

There's a story about Henry Ford; if he asked his customers what they wanted, The would have said faster horses

There is an ongoing Common Editor project for parity across the platforms

My thinking is that the developers are occupied with fixing bugs and keeping up with OS changes

Let's then hope that Evernote is ignoring our requests for "faster horses" and is hard at work coming up with a really innovative cloud-based note product that is so great, it'll make us wonder why we ever wanted to improve the old one. 

 

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