Before I say anything else, let me just say that I do love Evernote, and while the minimalistic and clean look of the new Web Beta is very nice to look at... I don't use Evernote for its looks, I use it for the functionality. And that is an area I think the beta has a good ways to go before I would make a full switch to it. Until then I'll be sticking to the classic mode and checking back in on the beta from time to time. But then, that's why I'm writing this to give my feedback; I believe in Evernote and want to see the new UI grow and become as useful as the old one still is!
beta grievances ===============
* semantic misunderstanding -- I've seen a lot of backlash about the web beta and I'll be adding my input below, but I think most of it could have been avoided; what Evernote is calling a `beta`, is what most people developing software would call an `alpha`, and I think that this very much gives the wrong impressions to the overall user base: Evernote should call it an `alpha` version and clear up some of the confusion
* cannot easily remove a tag from a note -- yes, I understand that you can do so by using the `delete` key, but that is very counter-intuitive in a UI that is highly mouse-driven, especially when a simple `x` button when you select a tag while viewing a note would solve the problem
* list view made navigation much faster -- allowing the user to explicitly choose to collapse/toggle the sidebar I am completely ok with, however, having it automatically disappear upon taking certain actions can be frustrating
* dark color schemes -- as a programmer I always use sublime as my text editor since it makes it so simple to have a darker color scheme; I always use light text on a dark background anywhere possible, too much white is just unpleasant and strains the eyes
* unnatural account icon placement -- I'm really quite puzzled why in the world someone would put the account menu at the bottom left corner; while it feeling `natural` or not is more a result of my experiences and what I percieve as common or correct in UI design, I would still argue that its current placement is still far less convenient than placement at the top of the screen, in either corner
* keyboard shortcuts -- mappable key bindings, or at least enabling Evernote to be aware of OS bindings would be a huge plus; our company gives developers macbook pros to write code on... however I have a mechanical keyboard I use since its much nicer to actually type on; that keyboard has the normal windows layout so I've swapped most of the modifier keys in OS X (in the built-in system settings, no 3rd party app) to better resemble what the Mac layout is. It is very frustrating to hit ALT+SHIFT+<arrow key> (which is mapped to the mac CMD+SHIFT+<arrow key>) to highlight the line I'm on but just have it jump to the end of the word instead. This is true of several other very common operations that use modifier keys as well (copy/paste, word highlighting, jumping to beginning/end of a word or line). While I grew up on windows and know the shortcuts to perform those operations, its really annoying to write some code with the mac bindings, then go into evernote to write something down and have to use a completely different set of shortcuts since it isn't aware of any key translations the OS would do for a USB keyboard (gmail
and similar online interfaces don't suffer from this problem, however, I
don't know whether they accomplish the compatability through embedded
active content or simply pure javascript). EDIT: I hadn't been using it
on a Mac, but this also happens when using the built-in Macbook Pro
keyboard as well; CMD+<arrow key> does not actually jump to the
beginning or ending of the line, it only jumps words, so this key
issue is an inherent problem unrelated to the actual keyboard used
* elephant icon non-interactive -- this is more of an OCD thing, but it bothers me that the elephant icon in the top-left corner is not interactive and does not reload the page to the home screen; this is very common functionality in websites, and while it is certainly the least of my worries about the new UI/UX, it is still something I would like to see
feature requests ================
* Export capability for local backup -- while I understand that Evernote's
own internal redundancy is most likely sufficient, I would wager there are
a good number of people who would still feel more at ease being able to
simply export notes as plain text into their Dropbox (myself included)
* I highly value being able to use monospaced fonts -- I always write things in plain text using Markdown or RestructuredText which is very frustrating to do without using a monospaced font; all I want is the ability to have a
default font for my user so that when I open a note or create a new note,
I can just start typing instead of having to type something, then do the
awkward highlighting process to actually change the font (setting the font
to be different from the user default on a per-note basis would be very
much welcomed as well!)
* toggle between plain text and rtf editting mode -- as I mentioned above, I
really don't ever use normal rich text formatting options except once in a
blue moon; what I would *really* like to see added is to be able to create
`plain text` notes that would forego the normal formatting options and
automatically default to a monospaced font, making it very simple and easy
to write things like Markdown and code snippets
* Gravatar user icon default -- aside from the placement of the account
icon in the UI, the default icon before a user has selected one also seems
out of place with the rest of the UI; I understand that a base default is
needed, but I would like to suggest that you see if a Gravatar image
exists for that user's email address and show that if it's available, then
fall back to a normal menu icon (hamburger or settings gear icon since they
are universally understood to have a certain meaning) if a Gravatar icon
doesn't exist
I don't mind change so long as its an improvement; keep being awesome Evernote!
While I like clean UI as much as the next person... you can still have a clean UI
without sacrificing information density! I couldn't find the post again, but as
another user on this forum said:
"I often wonder who all these people are that struggle to focus so much that
UI designers have to create huge amounts of white space to help them..."
EDIT: turns out that you can indeed change the font... but only when you
highlight the text; I have updated the feature request accordingly
Idea
neuroticnerd 0
Before I say anything else, let me just say that I do love Evernote, and while
the minimalistic and clean look of the new Web Beta is very nice to look at...
I don't use Evernote for its looks, I use it for the functionality. And that
is an area I think the beta has a good ways to go before I would make a full
switch to it. Until then I'll be sticking to the classic mode and checking
back in on the beta from time to time. But then, that's why I'm writing this
to give my feedback; I believe in Evernote and want to see the new UI grow and
become as useful as the old one still is!
beta grievances
===============
* semantic misunderstanding -- I've seen a lot of backlash about the web beta
and I'll be adding my input below, but I think most of it could have been
avoided; what Evernote is calling a `beta`, is what most people developing
software would call an `alpha`, and I think that this very much gives the
wrong impressions to the overall user base: Evernote should call it an
`alpha` version and clear up some of the confusion
* cannot easily remove a tag from a note -- yes, I understand that you can do
so by using the `delete` key, but that is very counter-intuitive in a UI
that is highly mouse-driven, especially when a simple `x` button when you
select a tag while viewing a note would solve the problem
* list view made navigation much faster -- allowing the user to explicitly
choose to collapse/toggle the sidebar I am completely ok with, however,
having it automatically disappear upon taking certain actions can be
frustrating
* dark color schemes -- as a programmer I always use sublime as my text
editor since it makes it so simple to have a darker color scheme; I always
use light text on a dark background anywhere possible, too much white
is just unpleasant and strains the eyes
* unnatural account icon placement -- I'm really quite puzzled why in the
world someone would put the account menu at the bottom left corner; while
it feeling `natural` or not is more a result of my experiences and what
I percieve as common or correct in UI design, I would still argue that its
current placement is still far less convenient than placement at the top of
the screen, in either corner
* keyboard shortcuts -- mappable key bindings, or at least enabling
Evernote to be aware of OS bindings would be a huge plus; our company
gives developers macbook pros to write code on... however I have a
mechanical keyboard I use since its much nicer to actually type on; that
keyboard has the normal windows layout so I've swapped most of the
modifier keys in OS X (in the built-in system settings, no 3rd party app)
to better resemble what the Mac layout is. It is very frustrating to hit
ALT+SHIFT+<arrow key> (which is mapped to the mac CMD+SHIFT+<arrow key>)
to highlight the line I'm on but just have it jump to the end of the word
instead. This is true of several other very common operations that use
modifier keys as well (copy/paste, word highlighting, jumping to
beginning/end of a word or line). While I grew up on windows and know the
shortcuts to perform those operations, its really annoying to write some
code with the mac bindings, then go into evernote to write something down
and have to use a completely different set of shortcuts since it isn't
aware of any key translations the OS would do for a USB keyboard (gmail
and similar online interfaces don't suffer from this problem, however, I
don't know whether they accomplish the compatability through embedded
active content or simply pure javascript). EDIT: I hadn't been using it
on a Mac, but this also happens when using the built-in Macbook Pro
keyboard as well; CMD+<arrow key> does not actually jump to the
beginning or ending of the line, it only jumps words, so this key
issue is an inherent problem unrelated to the actual keyboard used
* elephant icon non-interactive -- this is more of an OCD thing, but it
bothers me that the elephant icon in the top-left corner is not interactive
and does not reload the page to the home screen; this is very common
functionality in websites, and while it is certainly the least of my
worries about the new UI/UX, it is still something I would like to see
feature requests
================
* Export capability for local backup -- while I understand that Evernote's
own internal redundancy is most likely sufficient, I would wager there are
a good number of people who would still feel more at ease being able to
simply export notes as plain text into their Dropbox (myself included)
* I highly value being able to use monospaced fonts -- I always write things in
plain text using Markdown or RestructuredText which is very frustrating to
do without using a monospaced font; all I want is the ability to have a
default font for my user so that when I open a note or create a new note,
I can just start typing instead of having to type something, then do the
awkward highlighting process to actually change the font (setting the font
to be different from the user default on a per-note basis would be very
much welcomed as well!)
* toggle between plain text and rtf editting mode -- as I mentioned above, I
really don't ever use normal rich text formatting options except once in a
blue moon; what I would *really* like to see added is to be able to create
`plain text` notes that would forego the normal formatting options and
automatically default to a monospaced font, making it very simple and easy
to write things like Markdown and code snippets
* Gravatar user icon default -- aside from the placement of the account
icon in the UI, the default icon before a user has selected one also seems
out of place with the rest of the UI; I understand that a base default is
needed, but I would like to suggest that you see if a Gravatar image
exists for that user's email address and show that if it's available, then
fall back to a normal menu icon (hamburger or settings gear icon since they
are universally understood to have a certain meaning) if a Gravatar icon
doesn't exist
I don't mind change so long as its an improvement; keep being awesome Evernote!
While I like clean UI as much as the next person... you can still have a clean UI
without sacrificing information density! I couldn't find the post again, but as
another user on this forum said:
"I often wonder who all these people are that struggle to focus so much that
UI designers have to create huge amounts of white space to help them..."
EDIT: turns out that you can indeed change the font... but only when you
highlight the text; I have updated the feature request accordingly
EDIT: added plain text / rtf mode feature request
EDIT: https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/68882-the-new-evernote-web-ui/page-2#entry306930
EDIT: added update about key shortcuts and gravatar suggestion
(https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/85949-the-account-icon-feels-misplaced/)
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