New UI - Experiences Bad and Good

[Bill Myers 458]

@Dave-in-Decatur, here's a very early Evernote UI. Circa 2004. Very blue. Very Windows XP.

And here's Evernote circa 2008. So much green.

And now here's my idea for an Evernote UI:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very, very minimalist. Do you like it?

[Bill Myers 458]

By the way, for those people who have vision or other issues and are finding the new UI difficult to read, I mean no disrespect. I can't speak for anyone other than myself when I say that the new UI doesn't appear to change much of anything for me. I don't love it. I don't hate it. It's just different. But I think I will join the beta if they'll let me because I like playing with new toys. 

[Bill Myers 458]

Oh, Lord. I just looked at my sig. I went from Level 3 to Level 4. When did this happen? Does it come with extra added responsibilities? Because I don't want them!

[Paul A. 626]

9 hours ago, eric99 said:

For instance the note background color in the new dark theme is fully black which looks ugly and less readable.

I wonder if this change (if it sticks) is designed to look best with OLED displays? I've started to see some Android mobile apps with three themes, light, dark, and black. The black looks best with OLED displays, which are somewhat common in phones.

Full-size OLED monitors are less common but starting to get popular, and perhaps BS designers / execs have them? Just some idle speculation.

Another possibility is that the dark mode is simply not finished. No dark mode screenshots were shared on the blog post, and if I were designing a new interface I think I'd try to perfect the light one first and only then optimize the dark one.

[Danni P. 22]

I think the most important question being asked here is; what exactly is Evernote trying to accomplish with this upcoming UI update?

1. Effectiveness?
2. New features/functions?
3. Nothing really changed or added, but just for aesthetics?

Did you do a mass user survey asking us what we would like to see improved/missing in the UI? 
Did you ask us to rate different design templates? 

Did I miss this somewhere or could you explain, @Federico Simionato ?☺️

Personally, I was hoping for:

• Speed improvement (I still find it to be sluggish - Windows Desktop user)
• Tab-functionality (crazy that Evernote does not support this)
• Option of focused search "pop-up" taking more real estate of the screen (in addition to having the current sidebar search functionality). This enlarged focus view could f.ex. offer the option of displaying text snippets from inside each note with keywords highlighted, etc. This would go hand-in-hand with the value Evernote provides as an archive/retrieve system - with its search engine being a competitor killer and newly added AI search functionality.

Dear Evernote. Know your audience, improve your weaknesses, and build on your strengths.. 
 

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

@Danni P., it's pretty much just other users here. You can offer direct feedback at feedback@evernote.com. There's a blog post that gives us the best information we have about the aims of the UI redesign at https://evernote.com/blog/new-ui-2024. My impression of the aim is your #3, aesthetics. Definitely not new functionality or features.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

5 hours ago, Bill Myers said:

here's a very early Evernote UI. Circa 2004. Very blue. Very Windows XP.

Sigh. Windows XP. 😢

[Mike P 2,658]

6 hours ago, Paul A. said:

and perhaps BS designers / execs have them?

I think the designers are likely to be in their 20's and have no idea that gray on gray may cause some people some problems!

[Mike P 2,658]

It's perhaps worth remembering that operating systems have their own themes designed for people with less than perfect eyesight (e.g high contrast themes on Windows 11). It would be nice to know whether the new UI plays nicely with these themes. I'd only give the current UI about 6 out of 10 when using those themes.

[Danni P. 22]

5 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

There's a blog post that gives us the best information we have about the aims of the UI redesign at https://evernote.com/blog/new-ui-2024. My impression of the aim is your #3, aesthetics. Definitely not new functionality or features.

Thanks for this! Yes, it seems that is the sole purpose..sadly

[Danni P. 22]

I'd always spend my money on better tools rather than new clothes..

This is like the sweater you got for Christmas that you'd likely return 😂

[yolsgens 4]

Like others said, not fan of the extra spaces added here and then. Would love an option to have a more compact UI.

[eric99 985]

6 hours ago, Mike P said:

It's perhaps worth remembering that operating systems have their own themes designed for people with less than perfect eyesight (e.g high contrast themes on Windows 11). It would be nice to know whether the new UI plays nicely with these themes. I'd only give the current UI about 6 out of 10 when using those themes.

While it may be possible to implement the Windows 11 high contrast themes, there is a simpler solution. IMHO, there have been no visibility complaints about the current dark and light themes. Therefore, just providing an additional theme with the current colors and font sizes would be an easy solution since it's already there and approved (in terms of readability) by the community...

[mackid1993 754]

I agree that the contrast is reduced which could cause issues for both older people the those who are visually impaired. I'm also not a fan of all of the wasted space. Otherwise I think it looks clean and I like it overall particularly the typefaces. 

[eric99 985]

2 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

I agree that the contrast is reduced which could cause issues for both older people the those who are visually impaired. I'm also not a fan of all of the wasted space. Otherwise I think it looks clean and I like it overall particularly the typefaces. 

If there is one advantage of Electron web apps, it’s the ease with which themes can be created using CSS style sheets.

As already mentioned, If EN is serious about a modern UI, they should provide more than two themes or much better, allow users or the community to create or adapt their own themes. Since these are Cascading style sheets, only a portion of them may be made public to keep it simple and safe for the end user. So the real meaning of a modern UI  is flexibility and customizability, in contrast to the rigidity of a 1980s UI. 

For example, Obsidian is one of many web based (note) apps that provides dozens of themes, both from the developers and the community, which can be used to customize the app’s appearance to your liking.

 

Here an example of a Obsidian style sheet, very simple and self explaining, just change the green values to your liking:

/* Change the font size of the editor */
.CodeMirror pre {
  font-size: 16px;
}

/* Change the font size of the preview */
.markdown-preview-view {
  font-size: 18px;
}

/* Change the background color of the editor */
.CodeMirror {
  background-color: #f8f8f8;
}

[Boot17 1,466]

I can't speak much to the new UI yet as I haven't experienced it myself yet. I've only seen the screenshots and what other people have written. But I thought it was interesting that on the blog post about the new UI they state this with regards to the new default font: "A great example of the subtle, strategic changes we implemented is the new Evernote typeface. The new default font—Inter—significantly improves note readability without compromising information density, as it’s more readable than the previous default". (See https://evernote.com/blog/new-ui-2024)

What strikes me kind of odd about that is that several months ago, they actually lightened the current default font making it harder to read as I documented here with this comment: https://discussion.evernote.com/forums/topic/147761-side-bar-text-lighter-weightfont-than-before-at-least-in-10617/#comment-710071 (a canary in the coal mine perhaps?) So it's like they made the Source Serif Pro font worse so they could more easily make it better with the new Inter?... I'm not sure, but it kind of looks like that to me.

In any case, I had already thought that there were a couple of things they had already done in the last few months to make things harder to read (both mentioned in that thread I linked).

[s2sailor 2,227]

1 hour ago, Boot17 said:

I can't speak much to the new UI yet as I haven't experienced it myself yet. I've only seen the screenshots and what other people have written

It got turned on for me this morning so I expect others will have it soon.

1 hour ago, Boot17 said:

A great example of the subtle, strategic changes we implemented is the new Evernote typeface. The new default font—Inter—significantly improves note readability without compromising information density, as it’s more readable than the previous default".

I’m not sure I agree with their statement here. I noticed less density and TBH did not notice the font change. Maybe I’m not terribly observant.  I prefer the left pane to be dark, and now it’s light.  I think it has been light before, the UI pendulum is swinging back. It doesn’t bother me much, but I would NOT say it is more readable. I can understand the complaints that others have made.

I can see maybe trying to freshen up the app a little but I really wish they would instead focus the effort on improving usability and fixing more of the long term bugs.

[PinkElephant 8,165]

If you came from Windows legacy, there never was a dark mode for that client.

It‘s such outdated 32bit code that Windows doesn’t even support dark mode for these apps.

[s2sailor 2,227]

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

If you came from Windows legacy, there never was a dark mode for that client.

It‘s such outdated 32bit code that Windows doesn’t even support dark mode for these apps.

If you were responding to me, I’m not sure what you are referring to.  I wasn’t talking about dark mode.  I was referring to the dark left hand pane that is present in light mode.

[PinkElephant 8,165]

Yes, I meant this comment.

In my comment I mentioned that the dark left pane is not visible as a contrast to the whole App, if it is in dark mode. With dark mode enabled it snuggly fits in.

Which was never possible with EN legacy on Windows. It worked with legacy Mac, this was already a 64Bit compile.

[s2sailor 2,227]

2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

In my comment I mentioned that the dark left pane is not visible as a contrast to the whole App, if it is in dark mode.

Ok, I understand now.  I’m not a dark mode user.  I’ve had too many years staring at green text on a black background.  I don’t miss it.

[Bill Myers 458]

1 minute ago, s2sailor said:

Ok, I understand now.  I’m not a dark mode user.  I’ve had too many years staring at green text on a black background.  I don’t miss it.

Bring back DOS. The only UI I ever loved.

[Bill Myers 458]

OK, I've played with the new UI for the better part of a day and it's actually growing on me. I think I may like it better than the old UI.

But I'm hoping @Dave-in-Decatur can tell me where all those little notebook, notepad, tag and other little icon thingies came from. Are those new?

[s2sailor 2,227]

9 minutes ago, Bill Myers said:

Bring back DOS. The only UI I ever loved.

I’m more in the XP fan club, but I also have fond memories of OS/2.  I’m sure I’m in the minority there..

[WilliamL 654]

I’m able to test it now, have to say I do like it, it’s clean and to ,stools good. I think the font on the navigation pane needs to be as dark black as possible for readability tho. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

18 minutes ago, WilliamL said:

I’m able to test it now, have to say I do like it, it’s clean and to ,stools good. I think the font on the navigation pane needs to be as dark black as possible for readability tho. 

Which is an important objection --  not only on the navigation pane, but elsewhere too, there is light text on light background, promoting general indistinguishability.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

@Bill Myers, @WilliamL, and others who like the new UI, can you say more specifically what you like about it? "Clean" is too vague for me to process. I'm not interested in arguing over it, I just want to know what those who like it actually like. Maybe I'll be able to see it too.

Bill, like you I tend to not notice stuff I see all the time. The icons have been around for quite awhile, I think, but I don't know when they arrived.

[gazumped 11,697]

I hopped on this bandwagon too.  I preferred the new layout because it's much more...  hmmn... modern / clean / open / attractive?  My notes look more professional somehow.  I live by side-lists,  so those columns have got to be width-editable,  and I hope while the team is at it they can throw in more sorting options than just dates and titles.  Plus it would be good to have some different colour options.  I actually think the resolution of tables and images looks better than it did before,  and the boxes around clips and PDFs look sharper somehow...

I did have one weird reaction when I searched for a note and got 30 hits - and then couldn't get rid of that list;  there was nothing in the search box,  no filters set - but clicking on 'Notes' which should take me back to the full list,  just refreshed the search list.  Might've been a random glitch,  but I'll watch out for that again.

Anyway.  Good job team - it's nice to have a tidied-up layout!

[s2sailor 2,227]

4 minutes ago, gazumped said:

so those columns have got to be width-editable, 

Interestingly, I could resize all the columns except for the Title one in top view.  In side view, I only had a couple selected, but the same there too.

[efx00 13]

On 1/15/2024 at 9:32 AM, gazumped said:

? Maybe suggest that they should add more colour options ?  I actually like it - have already reported that I have a ToC with lots of one-word links;  the pop-up tool tip completely blocks the link when I try to select it... 

The tooltip in the note list is absolutely my nemesis. My kingdom to have an option to remove them.

Otherwise, within a couple hours o fusing the new interface I found more and more and more wonderful things about it. Faster, cleaner, clearer text, no distracting colours, like Federico said, focus is on the content, minimized left sidebar is very attractive as well. Give it a chance y'all, I think it's a complete winner now, even though first impressions were all about that significant whitespace. 

Edit: In tables, while I do like the new table-cell colour selector, the selector (down arrow thing) is unfortunately invisible with any of the strong colours.

Edited January 18 by efx00
feedback on tables

[gazumped 11,697]

3 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

Interestingly, I could resize all the columns except for the Title one in top view.  

Those sneaky little hobbitses seem to have fixed that overnight!  Obviously work is ongoing...

[s2sailor 2,227]

Just now, gazumped said:

Those sneaky little hobbitses seem to have fixed that overnight!  Obviously work is ongoing...

Yup, earlier someone mentioned a problem with the left pane icons when it is minimized, but they look fine now.  Also, the block on the home page looks fixed as well.  They are definitely tweaking.  I'm still hoping for a compressed data view and better contrast in the left pane.

[Bill Myers 458]

4 hours ago, s2sailor said:

I’m more in the XP fan club, but I also have fond memories of OS/2.  I’m sure I’m in the minority there..

OS/2 and laserdisc! The only platforms that ever mattered.

[Bill Myers 458]

2 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

@Bill Myers, @WilliamL, and others who like the new UI, can you say more specifically what you like about it? "Clean" is too vague for me to process. I'm not interested in arguing over it, I just want to know what those who like it actually like. Maybe I'll be able to see it too.

Bill, like you I tend to not notice stuff I see all the time. The icons have been around for quite awhile, I think, but I don't know when they arrived.

When did Evernote become this thing about notes? When did an elephant get involved?

Sorry. My question to you wasn't a serious one. I was riffing off your original joke. "See, Bill? Notebook icons!"

Wait, what are these... how you say... "tags?"

As for your query, I'm not sure I have an answer that will mean anything to you. I guess I realized that the prior UI, with all of its color contrast and "efficient use of real estate" now feels like it was cluttered and cramped to me. It took some time with a minimalist UI to realize I felt that way. 

Evernote now feels lighter to me, less claustrophobic, and has fewer things that distract me from my content.

I don't expect everyone to agree, and that's OK. But that's the best explanation I can give you for why I like the new look.

Which is, frankly, way better than my "Old West Brothels" idea. Please, nobody on this earth ever do that. I am so sorry I said anything.

[changweijen 0]

The original hyperlinks in the new version are being obscured and not functioning well.

[Grant837 114]

Well, this is new... I have been using the new interface and did not even notice... so I do not have anything to complain about (for once).

I will try harder 😉

[WilliamL 654]

10 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

can you say more specifically what you like about it? "Clean" is too vague for me to process. I'm not interested in arguing over it,

That’s a good question! In some ways it’s difficult to quantify but things that stand out - I like the removal of padding from the home page, it feels more spacious and less busy for me despite providing the same level of information. I’ve been indifferent to the black sidebar but I think the gray one adds to that feeling of space as it matches the Home Screen. I’ve not tested it massively yet but my main concern as I said is they need to deepen the black where the gray background is, thankfully that’s not an issue in the note itself which is either pure white or black.

[Barbamam 0]

Desperately waiting for the possibility to personalize the toolbar, because on my phone I can not display all and I would like to have the "insert link" button accessible.

Besides that, maybe I didn't find it out, but search operators would be enhancing efficiency a lot !

Thanks in advance

 

[eric99 985]

16 hours ago, s2sailor said:

Yup, earlier someone mentioned a problem with the left pane icons when it is minimized, but they look fine now.  Also, the block on the home page looks fixed as well.  They are definitely tweaking.  I'm still hoping for a compressed data view and better contrast in the left pane.

I hope they don't forget to tweak the dark theme too ...

[buckethead 219]

After using the new interface all day yesterday I do not mind it. Modernizing the UI so it is inline with other apps is nice. There are a few little things that are off and I do not like:

• The background color of the notes list for example - I just do not like the color. It does not seem to go well with the whites. Seems like a washed out light brown when I would prefer something more grey with a little more contrast than currently.
• I like that web clips and attachments are outlined now. However, I would think that pictures/screenshots added to notes would be outlined also? Though having a setting to turn the outline on/off for each type of attachment would be nice. Just like the view as attachment/title/preview option.

15 hours ago, s2sailor said:

I could resize all the columns except for the Title one in top view

This is the biggest thing driving me nuts so far. I should be able to resize the Note Title column.

[eric99 985]

17 minutes ago, buckethead said:

This is the biggest thing driving me nuts so far. I should be able to resize the Note Title column.

Yes, the fixed column width for the note title is disturbing my workflow too! I wonder if this was intentional or just forgotten...

[s2sailor 2,227]

I thought maybe it was tied to being the first column so I moved title column over to the second column position.  The fixed width followed the move so it is the title column.

[gazumped 11,697]

9 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

I thought maybe it was tied to being the first column so I moved title column over to the second column position.  The fixed width followed the move so it is the title column.

Agreed - that column's stuck although there are 'movable' bars each side of the Titles column,  they do not allow changes.

[eric99 985]

3 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Agreed - that column's stuck although there are 'movable' bars each side of the Titles column,  they do not allow changes.

Strange that the beta testers haven't noticed / reported that fixed title width yet

[gazumped 11,697]

34 minutes ago, eric99 said:

Strange that the beta testers haven't noticed / reported that fixed title width yet

?  I think if you are using the inteface,  you count as a tester!  I reported it.

[eric99 985]

6 minutes ago, gazumped said:

?  I think if you are using the inteface,  you count as a tester!  I reported it.

I haven't got it yet, except for 5 minutes by mistake.

Anyway, I hope they keep an eye on this thread too...

[gazumped 11,697]

21 minutes ago, eric99 said:

I hope they keep an eye on this thread too...

Hmmn.  One thing I forgot to mention was 'tooltips' - the pop-ups in the titles column and elsewhere (showing the full content of the line) get in the way and in many cases prevent me clicking the item without playing tag with the label.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

17 hours ago, efx00 said:

no distracting colours, like Federico said, focus is on the content

7 hours ago, WilliamL said:

I like the removal of padding from the home page, it feels more spacious and less busy for me despite providing the same level of information. I’ve been indifferent to the black sidebar but I think the gray one adds to that feeling of space as it matches the Home Screen. I’ve not tested it massively yet but my main concern as I said is they need to deepen the black where the gray background is, thankfully that’s not an issue in the note itself which is either pure white or black.

2 hours ago, buckethead said:

The background color of the notes list for example - I just do not like the color. It does not seem to go well with the whites. Seems like a washed out light brown when I would prefer something more grey with a little more contrast than currently.

15 hours ago, Bill Myers said:

As for your query, I'm not sure I have an answer that will mean anything to you. I guess I realized that the prior UI, with all of its color contrast and "efficient use of real estate" now feels like it was cluttered and cramped to me. It took some time with a minimalist UI to realize I felt that way. 

Evernote now feels lighter to me, less claustrophobic, and has fewer things that distract me from my content.

I don't expect everyone to agree, and that's OK. But that's the best explanation I can give you for why I like the new look.

Thanks for all this, friends. I'll try to keep my comments brief this time. Since I'm not actually testing out the new UI, I'm basing this mostly on comments in this thread and on the blog post.

• AFAICT, padding has been added to the Homepage, which is why it feels more spacious; and why lists (e.g. in the Tasks widget) show fewer items than before (which to me seems like less information).
• A couple of people who like the redesign overall say the designers need to improve the contrast, either by darkening the text or fixing the background color. This was one of my main objections, as with most others who don't care for the redesign. My fear, frankly, is that all this will be ignored, since lack of contrast is fundamental to the look that they're going for. I'm afraid they'll see positive feedback, ignore negative feedback about contrast as coming from people who just don't get it, and we're going to be stuck with the eyestrain.
• So I'd like for people who are testing it and liking it to comment again in a few days on whether it feels more of a strain to look at for long periods of time. Do you find yourself adjusting the contrast on your monitor, or zooming in?
• WRT the prior UI, "with all of its color contrast and 'efficient use of real estate'" now seeming "cluttered and cramped ... claustrophobic," and having "distracting colours" making it hard to focus on content: There may be some subjectivity involved here (as there is all over this discussion), but the idea that color contrast is distracting or cluttered seems fundamentally mistaken to me. Contrast makes things visible. I want the interface to be visible. Somehow that doesn't seem unreasonable. I don't want my eyes to have to scan hard to figure out whether I'm looking at the notes list or the navigation sidebar; I want them to pop. Grayed out, washed out indistinguishability is a hindrance, IMO (no H!), as well as being boring and aesthetically a losing proposition. But as I said, indistinguishability is the basic aim of the redesign, and I will probably have to live with it. (Thanks to those who are requesting stylesheet options; that's not going to happen, IMHO, because Evernote doesn't like a lot of options.) Fortunately, unlike some, I don't have a disability that will make Evernote unhealthy to use, only ugly and dull.

[agsteele 2,952]

51 minutes ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Fortunately, unlike some, I don't have a disability that will make Evernote unhealthy to use, only ugly and dull.

But those that do have a disability that makes the new UI a disadvantage for them should register this.  Anyone who has impaired vision and is disadvantaged by the new UI needs to underline the need for this to be taken into account.

[Jon/t 1,312]

Just 2 pence from someone with old man eyes and astigmatism and suffers from bright lights! (hate driving at night).

The new font & colours created more contrast for me in light mode in daylight/natural light.

That said in artificial light and low light I find the light mode very bright so this is when I switch to dark mode for a number of apps.

I find dark mode more difficult to read in natural light!

I also really like the spacing. Because of my eyes I tend to lose my space in cramped UI's. I hate spreadsheets and can never keep my place. More space makes things much easier to read for me.

[eric99 985]

1 hour ago, agsteele said:

But those that do have a disability that makes the new UI a disadvantage for them should register this.  Anyone who has impaired vision and is disadvantaged by the new UI needs to underline the need for this to be taken into account.

Why do people invest in high-contrast monitors only to have UI designers degrade the contrast back to that of an 80’s LCD monitor or less?

It's important to note that poor contrast can be a serious issue for anyone using (mobile) devices in real-world light conditions, such as bright sunlight, not just those with impaired vision.

 

[bmcl26 497]

2 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Thanks for all this, friends. I'll try to keep my comments brief this time. Since I'm not actually testing out the new UI, I'm basing this mostly on comments in this thread and on the blog post.

• AFAICT, padding has been added to the Homepage, which is why it feels more spacious; and why lists (e.g. in the Tasks widget) show fewer items than before (which to me seems like less information).
• A couple of people who like the redesign overall say the designers need to improve the contrast, either by darkening the text or fixing the background color. This was one of my main objections, as with most others who don't care for the redesign. My fear, frankly, is that all this will be ignored, since lack of contrast is fundamental to the look that they're going for. I'm afraid they'll see positive feedback, ignore negative feedback about contrast as coming from people who just don't get it, and we're going to be stuck with the eyestrain.
• So I'd like for people who are testing it and liking it to comment again in a few days on whether it feels more of a strain to look at for long periods of time. Do you find yourself adjusting the contrast on your monitor, or zooming in?
• WRT the prior UI, "with all of its color contrast and 'efficient use of real estate'" now seeming "cluttered and cramped ... claustrophobic," and having "distracting colours" making it hard to focus on content: There may be some subjectivity involved here (as there is all over this discussion), but the idea that color contrast is distracting or cluttered seems fundamentally mistaken to me. Contrast makes things visible. I want the interface to be visible. Somehow that doesn't seem unreasonable. I don't want my eyes to have to scan hard to figure out whether I'm looking at the notes list or the navigation sidebar; I want them to pop. Grayed out, washed out indistinguishability is a hindrance, IMO (no H!), as well as being boring and aesthetically a losing proposition. But as I said, indistinguishability is the basic aim of the redesign, and I will probably have to live with it. (Thanks to those who are requesting stylesheet options; that's not going to happen, IMHO, because Evernote doesn't like a lot of options.) Fortunately, unlike some, I don't have a disability that will make Evernote unhealthy to use, only ugly and dull.

"I fully agree with the concerns expressed by many users regarding the New UI of the software. I had a brief experience with it when it was accidentally released to a larger number of users than intended, and I found it extremely difficult to use due to the lack of contrast. As someone who underwent surgery on my left eye, I found the New UI very hard to read. My Professional Plan is due for renewal in May, and if this is the New UI with no option for comfortable reading, I will have to reconsider my subscription as it would be impossible for me to continue using the software. I have been a happy user of this software for the past 12 years with very few problems, but unfortunately, I am now starting to look for an alternative for my 28,000 notes."

[eric99 985]

13 hours ago, agsteele said:

But those that do have a disability that makes the new UI a disadvantage for them should register this.  Anyone who has impaired vision and is disadvantaged by the new UI needs to underline the need for this to be taken into account.

We are relying on beta testers to monitor this since it has not been released yet.

But I still don't get it,  why should anyone accept lower readability than before, is it just for cosmetic reasons, or am I missing something?

[Bill Myers 458]

3 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

WRT the prior UI, "with all of its color contrast and 'efficient use of real estate'" now seeming "cluttered and cramped ... claustrophobic," and having "distracting colours" making it hard to focus on content: There may be some subjectivity involved here (as there is all over this discussion), but the idea that color contrast is distracting or cluttered seems fundamentally mistaken to me.

@Dave-in-Decatur, normally I wouldn't even respond to something like this but I like you enough to say something rather than just walk away in silence. You asked those of us who liked the UI to explain why, and then quoted my reasons and described them as "fundamentally mistaken." You've also said "you'd like" those of us who have commented to come back and confirm we still like it. 

I was happy to give an opinion when asked, but your response makes me feel uncomfortable and even a little angry. I'm not willing to justify my aesthetic tastes, or do any additional work over this.

I think if you avoid putting people in a defensive position, you'll find there is a benefit to you as well. People will be more apt to converse with you.

I've unfollowed this thread and am going to go back to what I was doing. I respect everyone's opinions and I understand some people feel passionately about this. But I don't think my continued participation in this thread is good for me.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

3 minutes ago, Bill Myers said:

@Dave-in-Decatur, normally I wouldn't even respond to something like this but I like you enough to say something rather than just walk away in silence. You asked those of us who liked the UI to explain why, and then quoted my reasons and described them as "fundamentally mistaken." You've also said "you'd like" those of us who have commented to come back and confirm we still like it. 

I was happy to give an opinion when asked, but your response makes me feel uncomfortable and even a little angry. I'm not willing to justify my aesthetic tastes, or do any additional work over this.

I think if you avoid putting people in a defensive position, you'll find there is a benefit to you as well. People will be more apt to converse with you.

I've unfollowed this thread and am going to go back to what I was doing. I respect everyone's opinions and I understand some people feel passionately about this. But I don't think my continued participation in this thread is good for me.

Well, I asked for people's reasons for liking the new UI, and I'm expressing my reasons for disliking it. Maybe it's because I'm used to the give-and-take of academic dialogue; I may have expressed my disagreement too bluntly. I don't mean any disrespect. I do think that contrast improves readability and focus, rather than the opposite. Obviously, that's not the way Evernote, and a number of its users, view things. Apologies for giving offense. It was not intended.

[maxkxkx 7]

 

With all due respect, these bars simply don't make sense. They consume so much space at the top of the screen.

Additionally, I don't need the name of my notebook in a bar when it's already positioned to the left. Please make a change.

 

Normal Mode:

 

Fullscreen Mode (its a bit better in own window mode):

[panpiotrs 12]

Feedback for devs - just do 

* {
    -webkit-font-smoothing: auto;
}

instead of `antialiased` and it will (at least on macOS, no idea how it looks on Win/Lin), immediately improve the readability of the UI without changing any colors. This font is too thin outside the main note area.

[Bill Myers 458]

6 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Apologies for giving offense. It was not intended.

I'm back, and don't sweat it. I had a really crappy day at work and I may have overreacted.

9 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

There may be some subjectivity involved here

I see it as 100% subjective.

9 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

but the idea that color contrast is distracting or cluttered seems fundamentally mistaken to me.

I don't know how to articulate why the new UI just feels right to me. But it does. I'm not sure how I could be any more "fundamentally mistaken" than those who don't like it. We all feel the way we feel. 

If someone says "two and two is five" or "the moon landing was a hoax," we can call them fundamentally mistaken. We can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're wrong.

But if I say I like the new UI, and someone else says they don't, we're both right. Because we know what we like.

Bending Spoons has to look at the big picture, though. Not just my opinion and your opinion, but consumer sentiment in general. And they don't have the luxury of catering solely to current customers' predilections. They have to think about the larger market they want to capture. They may have to make changes that will upset a few existing users in the short term in order to bring many times that into the fold in the long term.

One hopes they're placing their bets well. Time will tell.

[Arantes 37]

Em 15/01/2024 at 09:00, cert712 disse:

I am using evernote since it's bin released, I had like 5 accounts, which I am exporting all notes now to one of evernote accounts. No complains about that. you made a good product, you choose price. But what a hell is happeing with GUI collors?

Guys if you need to give developers a job and just pay salary that's ok. Just give pople money. Or just buy another pool table or Grant Turismo simulator in the office.  No need changes!

Looks like "yellow snow" if you know what I mean.

I hope there's an option for a dark theme! I'm not a fan of light themes; it bothers me; it looks too pale.

[ChristianJB 93]

6 hours ago, Arantes said:

I hope there's an option for a dark theme!

I like the new dark theme UI ...

[eric99 985]

12 hours ago, Bill Myers said:

Bending Spoons has to look at the big picture, though. Not just my opinion and your opinion, but consumer sentiment in general. And they don't have the luxury of catering solely to current customers' predilections. They have to think about the larger market they want to capture. They may have to make changes that will upset a few existing users in the short term in order to bring many times that into the fold in the long term.

One hopes they're placing their bets well. Time will tell.

IMHO, this is a false dichotomy. EN can simply allow users to customize their UI settings like most contemporary note apps do (even the legacy Evernote had it).

As I mentioned before, the simplest solution is to make some of the stylesheets accessible, this gives optimal flexibility, everybody happy.

If they are reluctant to do that, they should at least let users configure the system font (from the whole Inter list), fontsizes, font colors and background colors

How come a 100€/year app cannot do what the free note taking apps can?

[WilliamL 654]

17 hours ago, agsteele said:

But those that do have a disability that makes the new UI a disadvantage for them should register this.  Anyone who has impaired vision and is disadvantaged by the new UI needs to underline the need for this to be taken into account.

It’s gonna be a trade off when it comes to accessibility - options to tweak things would be best here I think. I have a, I guess what could he termed a neurodevelopmental disability and I find the new home much easier, but others might have the opposite especially if it’s vision issues and not sensory. I think they should have options to tweak these things.

[helentr0py 0]

hi guys..so basically i wanted a "main" note in the personalized home; the problem is that the note that i pinned isn't long enough and as far as i understood is not possible to increase the height of the note just the width ( small, medium and large). What are the possible solutions? again i need a note bigger in the home;

another question is, if is possible to put an evernote note pinned on the windows wallpaper like sticky notes for example

[eric99 985]

3 hours ago, ChristianJB said:

I like the new dark theme UI ...

Great! Is the note title column width in the notelist already resizable now?

[buckethead 219]

15 minutes ago, eric99 said:

Great! Is the note title column width in the notelist already resizable now?

I just tried again - no resizing it. Quit app and reloaded and not able to resize the note name column.

[MvdH 415]

14 hours ago, maxkxkx said:

... They consume so much space at the top of the screen.

...I don't need the name of my notebook in a bar when it's already positioned to the left. ..

@Federico Simionato Evernote could/should place the (editable) subject of the note there, so when you edit the note and scroll down, you still can edit/view the note subject you are working on. Would help 1000% for my ADHD and it is something I've read a few times being requested for v10. (If I remember correctly v6 had that, if not, then it should have had that.) 🙂 

[agsteele 2,952]

15 hours ago, maxkxkx said:

Additionally, I don't need the name of my notebook in a bar when it's already positioned to the left. Please make a change.

I can see what you imagine but, in fact, it is common for me to have different labels in those two places.

The notebook list when you use the All Notes column says 'Notes'. If I've made a search it will say 'Search Results'. At the the top of the note it tells me where the note is actually located. That is also the place to click if I want to move the note to a different notebook.  So I can see an argument for having the notebook location moved to a different position but it does need to remain somewhere on view. Acxtually I'm content with its current location but I wouldn't be devastated if it moved

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

4 hours ago, helentr0py said:

hi guys..so basically i wanted a "main" note in the personalized home; the problem is that the note that i pinned isn't long enough and as far as i understood is not possible to increase the height of the note just the width ( small, medium and large). What are the possible solutions? again i need a note bigger in the home;

another question is, if is possible to put an evernote note pinned on the windows wallpaper like sticky notes for example

Hi, and welcome to the forums. As you can see, you've jumped into the middle of a fairly intense discussion of Evernote's beta-testing of a redesigned user interface. I'm not sure how that will affect the placement of notes, etc. on the Home page. But I get what you're asking about, so let me try to resooind. You're right, home page widgets, whether they're for a single note, a set of tags, the result of a saved search, or whatever, can only be adjusted for width, not height. I just tried pinning a note at maximum width, and it seems to allow for maybe 250-260 words to appear at once in the visible area. Of course, there's a scrollbar at right that allows scrolling the note down to see more. I don't know if that's any help.

As for having an Evernote note pinned to the Windows wallpaper like a sticky note, sadly that is not possible from within Evernote itself. You can create a shortcut on the Windows desktop that will open a specific note in Evernote, but it will not display the note on the desktop. There is, or was, a separate program called Evernote Sticky Notes that was supposed to draw content from Evernote and place it on the desktop in the form of sticky notes. It can still be downloaded and installed from here: https://filehippo.com/download_evernote_sticky_notes/. But it hasn't been updated since 2015, and I don't know whether it will work correctly with the current version of Evernote. In all honesty, the most reliable way might be to use a separate sticky notes app (I think one now comes with Windows) and copy the content of the note from Evernote and paste it there, maybe with the link to the note in Evernote. Again, hope that's some help!

[s2sailor 2,227]

5 hours ago, helentr0py said:

another question is, if is possible to put an evernote note pinned on the windows wallpaper like sticky notes for example

Would opening a note in a separate window achieve what you want?

[Paul A. 626]

I just got prompted to install 10.72.2, which fixed one annoying bug I was experiencing with the top frame of the window only responding to click to drag at the very top of the window - that's good. However, since I received the new UI I now can't copy tags from the bottom of a note window to paste into another note - that's annoying and bad.

In general, I'm a little blasé about this UI refresh. In general I like UI refreshes, I believe it's good for apps and websites to get a "fresh coat of paint" periodically, and so far I think the updates are OK. I would usually provide detailed feedback but I'm not motivated to invest the time when there are so many other areas of concern with the app, continued data loss concerns, an Android app which needs a huge amount of love, and so on.

Even in the desktop app and UI-adjacent, the very first thing I checked once I received the UI beta was whether the Tag Kingdom had been updated to provide a multi-column view - nope. I only have 150 tags, but it can be difficult to find what I need in a single column view. I miss the legacy app's ability to put far more tags on-screen at the same time, and I know I'm not alone. (I imagine the same issue applies to people who use a large number of notebooks.)

My subscription expires this month and with the lack of focus on areas that I deem important I've decided to cancel and take a wait-and-see approach to see if Bending Spoons starts sharing specifics on their plans to improve what I consider core functionality.

[jh1989 41]

1 hour ago, Paul A. said:

In general, I'm a little blasé about this UI refresh. In general I like UI refreshes, I believe it's good for apps and websites to get a "fresh coat of paint" periodically, and so far I think the updates are OK. I would usually provide detailed feedback but I'm not motivated to invest the time when there are so many other areas of concern with the app, continued data loss concerns, an Android app which needs a huge amount of love, and so on.

My first thought when I saw that the UI was being reworked was, "This is where resources are being focused?". Not that I'm against it, but it seems to me this should be a low priority. I can think of dozens of things that would go into making the application better before spending time on a new UI. It's not like the current UI is extremely outdated. It would've been fine for a few years at least IMO. I have submitted defects since June of last year that still aren't fixed. I would like to see those fixed before a new UI.

Also, it's not a UI update as much of a theme change. I haven't used it, but from the screenshots, it just looks like tweaks the theme to me.

As far as feature enhancements, why not improve the code blocks that provide no syntax highlighting and you can't modify the font? Why not enhance the backlinks to take you directly to the spot in the note where the note is linked? These are just a couple of things off the top of my head. Seems silly that modifying the colors of the application was more important.

[helentr0py 0]

16 hours ago, s2sailor said:

Would opening a note in a separate window achieve what you want?

Nop, has to be in the home and editable from there.. i think im going with the block note widget..it's a pity i cannot personalize it with fonts and activities

[bmcl26 497]

54 minutes ago, helentr0py said:

Nop, has to be in the home and editable from there.. i think im going with the block note widget..it's a pity i cannot personalize it with fonts and activities

I regularly Pin Notes that I am Currently working on in the Pinned Note Widgets on the Home Screen.  I have three Pinned Note Widgets, so I can have quick access to them.  I do not find any problem with the fact I cannot see all of the content, as it is only one mouse click required to open the entire note, edit it and close it again. 

[Momofthrees 20]

Well I had the new UI and was loving it, but this morning it was gone again. How do I get it back?  Please don't take it away!  I absolutely hate white text on a black background and loved the new font.  Please let me have it back.

[Momofthrees 20]

On 1/16/2024 at 5:01 PM, Bill Myers said:

By the way, for those people who have vision or other issues and are finding the new UI difficult to read, I mean no disrespect. I can't speak for anyone other than myself when I say that the new UI doesn't appear to change much of anything for me. I don't love it. I don't hate it. It's just different. But I think I will join the beta if they'll let me because I like playing with new toys. 

The new UI made it easier for me to read, but this morning it is gone.  I hope they roll it out soon as an option.

[Momofthrees 20]

On 1/16/2024 at 6:32 PM, Danni P. said:

I think the most important question being asked here is; what exactly is Evernote trying to accomplish with this upcoming UI update?

1. Effectiveness?
2. New features/functions?
3. Nothing really changed or added, but just for aesthetics?

Did you do a mass user survey asking us what we would like to see improved/missing in the UI? 
Did you ask us to rate different design templates? 

Did I miss this somewhere or could you explain, @Federico Simionato ?☺️

Personally, I was hoping for:

• Speed improvement (I still find it to be sluggish - Windows Desktop user)
• Tab-functionality (crazy that Evernote does not support this)
• Option of focused search "pop-up" taking more real estate of the screen (in addition to having the current sidebar search functionality). This enlarged focus view could f.ex. offer the option of displaying text snippets from inside each note with keywords highlighted, etc. This would go hand-in-hand with the value Evernote provides as an archive/retrieve system - with its search engine being a competitor killer and newly added AI search functionality.

Dear Evernote. Know your audience, improve your weaknesses, and build on your strengths.. 
 

 

Well I personally have been constantly requesting it. I use the Windows Desktop and find it is so much faster than a year ago.  And my laptop is ancient. Justg because it is not on your wish list doesn't mean there aren't overs of us begging for it. 

[gazumped 11,697]

 

See Federico's post here...

On 1/15/2024 at 4:08 PM, Federico Simionato said:

If you want to keep exploring the new UI, you can put your email address here (needs to be the one linked to your Evernote account): https://waz9zvkd1f2.typeform.com/to/tvTldYzV#source=forum

 

[Momofthrees 20]

On 1/17/2024 at 5:20 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

@Bill Myers, @WilliamL, and others who like the new UI, can you say more specifically what you like about it? "Clean" is too vague for me to process. I'm not interested in arguing over it, I just want to know what those who like it actually like. Maybe I'll be able to see it too.

Bill, like you I tend to not notice stuff I see all the time. The icons have been around for quite awhile, I think, but I don't know when they arrived.

Well I will tell you why I liked it when I had it. The bolder fonts on the notes list was much easier to read.  I find it difficult to read white text on a dark background.  I liked the lighter colors. Granted the ideal would be allow the user to define the UI.  I only use the WIndows 10 app, so can't say on other platforms.

 

[agsteele 2,952]

1 hour ago, Momofthrees said:

Well I had the new UI and was loving it, but this morning it was gone again. How do I get it back?  Please don't take it away!  I absolutely hate white text on a black background and loved the new font.  Please let me have it back.

It is a beta test. You can follow the link offered and sign up to join the test or wait a little longer for the final version to be made available to all.

[Twitchly 28]

On 1/16/2024 at 1:45 PM, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Smaller, lighter type on a light background degrades readability

Yes, yes, yes. 

[Momofthrees 20]

2 hours ago, agsteele said:

It is a beta test. You can follow the link offered and sign up to join the test or wait a little longer for the final version to be made available to all.

I did follow the link and signed up. Haven't been accepted yet.  We'll see.  I will definitely request that it be an option, not mandatory for all users. I think people like to be able to choose or not choose colors based on their own preferences. My office is blue. I tend to pick blue tones because of the aesthetic. But it's not for everyone and some colors can be quite cartoony and no one needs that!

[Momofthrees 20]

54 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

Yes, yes, yes. 

Yet, Ironically the forum is exactly the same and no one seems to complain about the colors here.

[Bill Myers 458]

4 hours ago, Momofthrees said:

Well I personally have been constantly requesting it. I use the Windows Desktop and find it is so much faster than a year ago.  And my laptop is ancient. Justg because it is not on your wish list doesn't mean there aren't overs of us begging for it. 

Yes. This. We can't assume everyone feels the way we do. Or should. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

5 hours ago, Momofthrees said:

Well I will tell you why I liked it when I had it. The bolder fonts on the notes list was much easier to read.  I find it difficult to read white text on a dark background.  I liked the lighter colors. Granted the ideal would be allow the user to define the UI.  I only use the WIndows 10 app, so can't say on other platforms.

Thanks. I'm only looking at the samples in the blog post, and in the notes list I'm not seeing bolder type, only smaller type. But I take your point about white-on-dark in the navigation sidebar. I agree that there ought to be choices.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

1 hour ago, Momofthrees said:

I did follow the link and signed up. Haven't been accepted yet.  We'll see.  I will definitely request that it be an option, not mandatory for all users. I think people like to be able to choose or not choose colors based on their own preferences. My office is blue. I tend to pick blue tones because of the aesthetic. But it's not for everyone and some colors can be quite cartoony and no one needs that!

Personally, I find it interesting that evernote.com itself has gotten a makeover with brighter, splashier colors, and, yeah, maybe a little cartooniness. I would like that kind of liveliness in the Evernote app, rather than what I perceive as a grayed-out look. At least I think I would--maybe after awhile I'd get a desire to eat Captain Crunch and gummi bears. 😁

[Bill Myers 458]

1 hour ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

At least I think I would--maybe after awhile I'd get a desire to eat Captain Crunch and gummi bears. 😁

Are you attacking my dietary preferences now, too?

[Paul A. 626]

3 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Thanks. I'm only looking at the samples in the blog post, and in the notes list I'm not seeing bolder type, only smaller type.

Presumably the screenshots were taken at the default zoom level. Is it possible you have an increased zoom level, thus you are used to larger text?  I have mine zoomed one level, using command - +. Control - + I think on windows. Cms/Ctrl - 0 to reset to default zoom.

[eric99 985]

5 hours ago, Paul A. said:

Presumably the screenshots were taken at the default zoom level. Is it possible you have an increased zoom level, thus you are used to larger text?  I have mine zoomed one level, using command - +. Control - + I think on windows. Cms/Ctrl - 0 to reset to default zoom.

Regarding zooming: this is not very effective in the current version, because the steps are too large. It would be better to reduce the step size by half or more, as most other apps do. Also, please add the option to zoom with ctrl-wheel.

[janndk 513]

Any news about the new UI?

I got to see the new UI briefly when it was accidentally released, and then quickly pulled back again. I was totally horrified: buggy, and with very strange color choices that made EN directly unpleasant to use 😰

And what about the UI in EN mobile? Are we going back to those old times, where Evernote looked and worked totally differently on different platforms? 🤔😱

Grrrrr. However - I can't stop what is coming, so I need to find out if I can use the new UI (maybe it has gotten better?) or not (and I finally find my way out!). Let's get it overwith. Activate the new UI again, so we can see what and how it is! If the worst bugs are now fixed and colours adjusted a bit, I might even like it 😘

[gazumped 11,697]

19 hours ago, gazumped said:

See Federico's post here...

If you want to keep exploring the new UI, you can put your email address here (needs to be the one linked to your Evernote account): https://waz9zvkd1f2.typeform.com/to/tvTldYzV#source=forum

 

[janndk 513]

32 minutes ago, gazumped said:

See Federico's post here...

If you want to keep exploring the new UI, you can put your email address here (needs to be the one linked to your Evernote account): https://waz9zvkd1f2.typeform.com/to/tvTldYzV#source=forum

Thanks, but I have seen that already, and (after my worst rage was faded a bit) also already signed in. It was several days ago, but I haven't got any response. Maybe I have been too critical, and poor everspooners don't want to hear my opinions and ideas?

[Cristiano478 155]

I hope that this new UI brings some Legacy features to version 10, such as the possibility of filtering and mainly sorting notes in the "side list" option.

[agsteele 2,952]

14 minutes ago, Cristiano478 said:

I hope that this new UI brings some Legacy features to version 10, such as the possibility of filtering and mainly sorting notes in the "side list" option.

I think that is highly unlikely.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

17 hours ago, Paul A. said:

Presumably the screenshots were taken at the default zoom level. Is it possible you have an increased zoom level, thus you are used to larger text?  I have mine zoomed one level, using command - +. Control - + I think on windows. Cms/Ctrl - 0 to reset to default zoom.

Well, I was just comparing the two screenshots, Before and After, in the blog post, so I presume they're equally zoomed.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

8 hours ago, Cristiano478 said:

I hope that this new UI brings some Legacy features to version 10, such as the possibility of filtering and mainly sorting notes in the "side list" option.

The new UI is specifically addressed only to the aesthetics or appearance of Evernote, not to functionality, based on what they've said.

[KMix 0]

Is there a general length of time that I should expect to wait to see it after the email request is submitted?

[silentquest 69]

Many times when new UI's are introduced the development team, usually younger people, don't take into account those with visual handicaps and older adults whose vision is not like it once was. By removing contrast, small fonts, etc. you make the system very hard to use for a large number of users. Please keep this in mind when rolling out changes. Lots of white space, low contrast, small fonts make an unappealing and difficult to use interface for many people. 

[janndk 513]

2 hours ago, silentquest said:

Many times when new UI's are introduced the development team, usually younger people, don't take into account those with visual handicaps and older adults whose vision is not like it once was. By removing contrast, small fonts, etc. you make the system very hard to use for a large number of users. Please keep this in mind when rolling out changes. Lots of white space, low contrast, small fonts make an unappealing and difficult to use interface for many people. 

Agreed 👍

I think they focusing on design trends first, and readability and functionality comes second. In this case probably influenced by Microsoft Office colors and shaded backgrounds? For me it seems that everspooners don't really use Evernote in their daily life, as a lot of very obvious bugs get through unnoticed 🫤

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,971]

3 hours ago, silentquest said:

Many times when new UI's are introduced the development team, usually younger people, don't take into account those with visual handicaps and older adults whose vision is not like it once was. By removing contrast, small fonts, etc. you make the system very hard to use for a large number of users. Please keep this in mind when rolling out changes. Lots of white space, low contrast, small fonts make an unappealing and difficult to use interface for many people. 

I 100% agree. To make this point directly to Evernote, you can email feedback@evernote.com; or join the UI beta test:

 

[Booey97 0]

Can anyone confirm what app version the new UI is under?  I'm running 10.72.2 on Win10.  I do not see any of the changes noted in the UI notes and have checked several times for an update to my client app and web.

 

TYIA,

B