Please default to NOTE to start a new note for NOTE application, don't make me choose note from note or task

[deborah0302 5]

Hi Evernote, I've used your product since around 2013.

Evernote is a note application. I'm deeply annoyed that I have to CHOOSE "note" from a choice of note or task to start a new note. Please default to note and allow user to create a new task some other way.

Additionally, there was a feedback button for a long time at the bottom of the left sidebar. I used this many times to submit feedback. However, no one ever responded and none of my submissions were ever implemented. It all went into a black hole. I'm a UX designer. This is shameful.

One of my feedbacks was to default set the focus on a new note to TITLE, not note content. I want to title my note before I paste or create content, the same way I want to title a Google document before I write anything in it. By making me go back up to the top to put in a title, you're making my workflow backwards. It is a UX violation to make the user go back up to a previous part of the page to finish accomplishing their goal.

I've relied on Evernote daily for a long time. But the UX is declining steeply. 

[Mike P 3,072]

14 minutes ago, deborah0302 said:

Evernote is a note application.

I think they are moving out of being a purely note taking application. If that worries you, it might be time to move to something that has no desire to be anything other than a note taking app.

I certainly would also prefer not to have to choose between a note or a task. I am slowly getting used to using ctrl-N (on Windows)

The point about starting in the title or the body of the note has supporters on both sides. Again shift-Tab quickly gets you where you need to be if they don't reverse the decision.

[mtgentry 3]

 Agreed. I hate having to choose when I click the New button. I will never use tasks. 

[rafikiphoto 24]

+1 to support having the option to set what "New" defaults to. I also find it irritating to have to choose each time. "Note" is chosen 99+% of the time here. 

[PinkElephant 9,014]

The „New“ and the „New note“ buttons are located at exactly the same position.

It is simply a double click to get a new note. Since some releases you can click 2x as fast as you want (or can), and it creates the note.

Only if you want a task, it is a click, a mouse move and another click.

The current solution is elegant and avoids to clutter the GUI with New, another New… and maybe one day more New… buttons, all taking up space.

[rafikiphoto 24]

I don't agree.

[PinkElephant 9,014]

You can agree to yourself - we are just exchanging opinions among users here.

IMHO just because you personally don’t need to get at Tasks, it does not mean that other users must not get at them neither. EN builds an app for all users, which means balancing a clean GUI with accessibility to all major functions.

This one click / double click „New“ button  does the job for „Noters“ as for „Taskers“ with just one button on the desktop. You just need to train your muscle memory a bit.

[rafikiphoto 24]

That's why I included the word 'option'.

[MountainMike 2]

@deborah0302 I am a frontend developer with a passion for UX. I agree with your criticism.

I've seen a few of these threads, and I'm tired of seeing people justify Evenote's decisions in a way that minimizes or negates the UI/UX concerns of other users. Instead of invalidating the UX concerns of other users, folks like @PinkElephantcould consider solutions that serve ALL users.

This one is rather obvious, as are most of the UX failings (they are failings, and there are many) of Evernote's design decisions over the ~15 years I've been using it. 

The solution is to PROVIDE THE USER OPTIONS to configure their own interface.

It is the most obvious, utilitarian and essential method to allow a broad range of users to get an efficient UX in a complex, multi-functional app.

Any app that does not work in this direction is doing UX wrong. Evernote.

PROVIDE THE USER OPTIONS and never justify extra clicks or hidden information.

This thread provides another strong example of terrible UI/UX decisions by Evernote, and I'm not the only one with the obvious insight to provide users options (in this case, allow users to configure metadata in note headers and views)

 

[ForestD 1,555]

Having an option to only have the green "+ New" button create a note sounds good to me... or even having an option to hide it altogether.

I'm also good the way it is now too.

I personally always use Cmd-N to create a new note or (better yet) Cmd-Control-Option-N to create a new note in a new window. I don't think I really ever click the button to create a new note (on Desktop anyway), but if I did, I'd probably just double-click it to create a new note vs waiting for the drop down to show.

 

[PinkElephant 9,014]

Any option that influences the actions of an app means what ?

Correct, a piece of code basically in the form of an IF - THEN - ELSE clause. And it needs to be executed EVERY time, for EVERY user, for those (I take it from the forum participation) few geeks that would like to get an option. This means bloated, hard to debug code, and it means measurably less performance in most interactions, because the options need to be checked again and again.

It is not the solution (as suggested) to run after any option some users promote, bloating the option sheet and the underlying software. It is bad UI design to give everybody any possibility to switch functions on and off at their liking.

EN has cut back a lot on options, and in my opinion they did the right thing. The old clients were full of options, and they were not harmonized over the clients. Building unified clients with all the individual options would have bloated all clients, by taking over options from other clients in addition to the ones already in existence. This would have been a highway into disaster when launching the new apps from scratch.

There will be more options, the trend is already visible in UI adaptions like the new settings page in desktop clients. But there will be less than some people expect, and more selectively tuned to serve large groups of users to make some people with narrow use cases happy.

But OK, everybody’s darling is everybody’s fool … so we will have more lively discussion about some optional wishes promoted here in the forum.

[Dave-in-Decatur 4,014]

@MikePeiman, I'm a big fan of options, and I too would like to see the interface be more customizable. I'm optimistic enough to hope that that may be coming, but at the moment there are places where I sorely miss it (such as customizable styles and selectable global default styles).

That said, as one person who tends to speak in absolute and dogmatic terms to another:

1. This particular spot seems ill-chosen to plant one's "what a terrible UX" flag, since (as others have pointed out) all one needs to do is double-click rather than single-click in order to open a new note immediately, or use Ctrl/Cmd+N, which keeps fingers on the keyboard.
2. As a UX professional, you undoubtedly notice and react to what seem like bad design decisions more readily than most of us ordinary users. The relatively few who post suggestions or complaints here represent only a tiny fraction of Evernote's users, though probably a larger fraction of people who are annoyed, but not enough to spend time here. It may be necessary to realize that what seems broke to a pro may not need fixing for most others.
3. You've posted in these forums occasionally for 10 years, but still treat them as places to deliver direct rebukes or demands to Evernote, when they are obviously user-to-user almost entirely. Direct feedback can be given in other ways, such as opening a support ticket. The only purpose for such a post is to enjoy the pleasure of delivering a stern public finger-wagging (as I am doing at this moment).
4. You've been using Evernote for 15 years, yet you find its UI/UX unendurably "wrong, failings, terrible." I can only conclude that you find something else about Evernote reasonably useful, or you wouldn't still be using it. Those of us who spend time here and often "defend" Evernote--such as by pointing out that there are already ways of doing what people want to do--nevertheless do also acknowledge things that we agree need fixing. As a long-time EN user, I would bet that you could offer some helpful advice or positive suggestions once in awhile as well as jumping on bandwagons of beefing.