Screen real-estate

[Mark. 19]

Hi,

With the latest release there seems to be some lost screen real-estate.

In the notes pane (left-hand side) the notes only have about half of the available column space.  This is used all the time, day-in day-out, so should be maximised where possible.  The other items (account, search, new note, 'need a little help', 'send feedback') I'm sure could be compressed into much less space.  See image below with the usable space highlighted in red.

 

[mczin 68]

I agree with you, I was thinking the same. I prefer to have more space for favorits, ...

I cannot understand why the EN Team were wasting so much space there.

[DMiddleton 302]

I have ben banging this drum since the preview version took part in, the entire UI is shockingly oversized and there is lots of wasted space and padding added to everything, on top of the ridiculous default 16 font size. There has been no feedback from staff on this whenever raised before. Even the top of the app:
Granted some notebook names could be a bit longer but still!

I personally use the interface zoomed out two places just to account for the oversized text everywhere.

[PinkElephant 8,114]

You have now what is basically a responsive design. It will adapt to the device it is running on. This is similar to what web sites do when running on different devices. In fact it IS a web site in disguise. These web designs will look completely different (but using the same basic GUI features, like logos, fonts and colors) when opened on a PC or a phone. And it will never grab the last square inch possible, because it adapts to any device. This means compromising to cover it all.

Ridiculous font 16, wasting space ? OK, we had another thread in the forum where a user complained that font 16 was too SMALL for him. If you take the average of feedback, they probably got it just right.

For me there was not much changed from the version before, in terms of use of space. I like the new interface better (in general), and it is IMHO usable on all devices, from iPhone over iPad and MacBook Pro to my 32“ 4K. I think in v10 there are other issues to improve.

[DMiddleton 302]

9 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

You have now what is basically a responsive design. It will adapt to the device it is running on. This is similar to what web sites do when running on different devices. In fact it IS a web site in disguise. These web designs will look completely different (but using the same basic GUI features, like logos, fonts and colors) when opened on a PC or a phone. And it will never grab the last square inch possible, because it adapts to any device. This means compromising to cover it all.

Ridiculous font 16, wasting space ? OK, we had another thread in the forum where a user complained that font 16 was too SMALL for him. If you take the average of feedback, they probably got it just right.

For me there was not much changed from the version before, in terms of use of space. I like the new interface better (in general), and it is IMHO usable on all devices, from iPhone over iPad and MacBook Pro to my 32“ 4K. I think in v10 there are other issues to improve.

I am glad you have not noticed much difference which is why it may not seem as important to you personally, but it looks like you are an Apple user from your device list and the previous version was different to the windows version in many ways. I am primarily a windows user (I also have a Mac for development purposes so did have the previous EN on that too) and the differences in design and waste of space are huge, as an example the note list in Snippet view on the legacy version shows 11 notes on my screen, v10 in default view only fits 6 on screen! Responsive design does not account for large amounts of padding and oversized fonts, they can all be accounted for with decent design that actually adapts to screen size and display density.

Also in Windows, I have yet to find another app running the default font at 16, as an example of the size difference on my screen, on legacy 2 notes almost fit into the space of one on the new version. Both screenshots take with the apps running in default view.

I appreciate there are other things that need addressing as well but for some users this is a big deal.

 

[PinkElephant 8,114]

In fact the only client I have not in use is Android. But yes, on Windows I am still running legacy.

Maybe the situation will improve when Settings return to the desktop clients. There are other issues related to this (like being able to switch off the spell checker), so probably there will be some options then.

Let´s hope this will happen soon.

[CalS 5,280]

22 hours ago, DMiddleton said:

I have ben banging this drum since the preview version took part in, the entire UI is shockingly oversized and there is lots of wasted space and padding added to everything, on top of the ridiculous default 16 font size. There has been no feedback from staff on this whenever raised before. Even the top of the app:
Granted some notebook names could be a bit longer but still!

I personally use the interface zoomed out two places just to account for the oversized text everywhere.

<snark>The important space recovered when those pesky tags were moved to the bottom of the screen.</snark>

[carofonow 0]

Well buying a house is now a very difficult task. I never managed to save enough money to buy a house right away.

[dramaex 0]

Design changes and application bugs are terrible. Is it really just impossible to initially make everything comfortable and beautiful? Recently I realized that I want to buy my own house and thought about a mortgage. I downloaded a lot of apps to find a home to buy. And many of them were constantly hanging. In addition, it was not easy to issue documents for a mortgage. I applied to Mortgage Advice Essex who helped me collect the necessary documents and get a positive response from the bank. Soon I will become a happy owner of my house.

[lulzrawr 5]

The only things that I want to see in the sidebar are:

New
Notebooks
Tags
Trash

There should be an option to toggle off all of the other clutter.
 

[PinkElephant 8,114]

No such setting, and I doubt it will be added.

If you want to drop your request with EN PM, use the feedback function build into the clients.

[smaher324 9]

Is it possible to get this space back?

[PinkElephant 8,114]

No - it is part of the UI.

[smaher324 9]

Sorta like renting a car and having the rental company force you to have a two people in the back seat.  Sorry bud, it's in the rental agreement.  

[PinkElephant 8,114]

No, nobody forces you, you decided yourself to use EN. 

The space is needed to show applied and proposed filters, to allow users a good oversight and an easy picking option. As any UI decision it is a compromise between what to show, and what to hide.

The forum is user2user - you can send your idea to EN PM through the feedback function. My gut feeling is it will end up in the round folder - this space allocation is no accident, it is by design.

The alternative may be to learn how to use the functions behind this "wasted" space.

[smaher324 9]

...and that is why I don't frequent these forums.  

[PinkElephant 8,114]

You now learned 2 things:

• Not everybody has the same opinion than yourself, and (oooops) is not holding back to discuss
• How you can drop your idea on the right desk

Maybe you got insight into some more things, you seem to be capable of sorting it out, and make the best use of it.

Good luck !

[Mike P 2,642]

4 hours ago, smaher324 said:

Is it possible to get this space back?

An alternative question is "Has anybody ever found these suggested tags helpful?" I can't recall a single time when the tag I want to add next is one of the tags suggested..

[agsteele 2,950]

I think I concur with @Mike P. The concept is good but in practice the suggestions provide nothing for me. YMMV.

[PinkElephant 8,114]

For me it works - first by showing applied filters, second with some probability to quickly pick another filter to narrow search down further.

For users not so familiar with search language it is IMHO good to have. And even with better knowledge it shows a nice overview.

Anyhow, it means 1 note less showing in the search results list - hardly a big miss.

This „screen real estate“ mania reminds me of an phenomenon from art history called „horror vacui“. Who doesn’t know: Wikipedia is your friend.

My opinion - let’s agree to disagree a little 😎

[smaher324 9]

13 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

You now learned 2 things:

• Not everybody has the same opinion than yourself, and (oooops) is not holding back to discuss
• How you can drop your idea on the right desk

Maybe you got insight into some more things, you seem to be capable of sorting it out, and make the best use of it.

Good luck !

I didn't need to learn anything new about opinions, my work lives on divergent opinions.  They are the fertilizer of progress.

I also knew that online forums are fraught with misunderstandings, making it easy for you to misinterpret my comment.  So that's my bad for forgetting that exchanged text between complete strangers can't adequately communicate tone or meaning.

This exchange was simply an the unambiguous reminder there are strangers out there ready to use their assumptions to make a conversation contentious, and perhaps, feel better about themselves in the process.

If you want the last word, have at it.

 

[Mark. 19]

I previously used evernote for many years (with joy!) but have been struggling to like the new release.  Screen real estate is just one example, such a shame.  I've recently moved over to using Joplin - much more like the original evernote, clean and simple, and lightening quick.

[PinkElephant 8,114]

Not everybody will be happy when an app gets a major update. If you don't change anything, you don't need to update. Or as you say: You can't bake a fresh omelette without breaking some eggs. It is always the long term, intense users who notice the largest impact on their workflows.

We have discussed that the area used to show the filters is not wasted - it has functionality behind it, and it is part of the search and filter options. Not everybody will use it, some for employing other workflows, some for not knowing what it does, and can do. But this is normal for any complex app - there will always be functions that only a part of the users will utilize.

If you want an app with less functions, and by that less complexity, then you seem to have made the right move.