Feedback on the new 1Password mini

I love you guys and 1Password has been my favorite app for almost 10 years (I think... at least that's what it feels like), but this change is HORRIBLE. To the point that I want to get a refund for 1P 7 and go back to version 6.

@Nil: I'd encourage you to give it more than a couple days. Change is hard, but what's even harder is for us to know how our future selves will feel about it further down the road. And, as a point of fact, software isn't set in stone, and we'll continue to iterate on the new design in the coming weeks and months. So relax, give it time, and let us know if you have any specific suggestions for the new 1Password mini. :)

I think we should discuss the purpose of the mini and the full app. For me both of them always fulfilled two very distinct needs. And both were GREAT at their respective tasks. I think the new mini is WORSE at all of them.

You're certainly entitled to your own opinion and preferences, but I think it's important to note that the main 1Password app window is still very much alive and you can use that for the same stuff you did before. So let's remove that as a distraction and focus on 1Password mini and its new design. ;)

The mini was there just to fill a login or let me open a floating window for a login or credit card so that I can copy paste information quickly. It fulfilled the need quickly and efficiently

The full app was there to handle any "bigger" task that the mini couldn't like organize items, find something very specific like a note and so on. I use both on a daily basis and it was perfect the way it was.

I understand that you've probably grown attached to the old mini over the years. I have too! Bu when you say it was "perfect", I've gotta tell you, it wasn't. So I think it's worth taking a step back and taking stock of what's a visceral reaction — and understandably so, given how much we depend on 1Password. But "old mini" was no more perfect than "new mini" is. But new mini has a lot of potential, in addition to the things it can do already.

What about the new mini? The new mini is not better at navigating the entire library than the full app. And it is certainly worse at quickly filling in the login of the current page.

That hasn't been my experience, but we probably have different workflows. Can you give an example of where you're having difficulty navigating? There's probably something we can do to help.

It tries to solve a problem that it is not good at solving. It feels like it has an identity crisis. What is it trying to achieve and what is it better at than the full app?

In my opinion, it's giving quicker access to features (especially editing) that were once exclusive to the main 1Password window.

Why is it even a "mini"? At first I thought I launched the full app and that you suddenly changed the design from the dark sidebar to the light one. It replicates what the full version does, but in a worse way. And it takes a way efficiency of the original mini.

I think there's some agreement that it could stand to slim down a bit. But could you elaborate on specifically what it is doing worse for you?

Just launch the full app for that... Who needs that level of detail inside their browser... 99% the mini is used to fill logins on the currently visited page or "jump" to the login of another page. That has always been the point of it. To make it easier, add a button at the bottom of the old mini "Launch 1Password Maxi" And if a lot people didn't realize that they could fill a login by clicking it, then you should solve it by making it more obvious instead of changing the entire purpose of the mini. I like how you added the "Fill" text with the magic icon to do that. Just add that to the old mini and the problem is solved.

It's important to keep in mind that not everyone uses 1Password the same way you and I do. Many people use 1Password exclusively in the browser, and this new design can help them immensely. Is it ideal for all use cases? No, but then neither was the old design. What the new design has going for it is it's more flexible, so we can continue to improve it in ways that were impossible with the old one. On of the most popular requests in this area was, in fact, to make it bigger — to show more information, and allow better use of available screen real estate. So that's where we've started. I think we may have made the minimum size too big, but we can change that. It's only the first beta you've seen with it, after all. The best is yet to come, and with more feedback we'll hone in on something that's even more useful. Thanks for participating in the beta, and sharing your thoughts! :)

Yes, the size is tolerable on my 27-inch iMac but less so on my 15-inch MBP.

@verdi1987: Depending on what I'm doing on my 15", it's either in my way or I wish it was bigger. Really tough to find a sweet spot! :lol:

Maybe you could only show favorited credit cards by default in mini and have a way to expand all cards if needed. At a minimum please consider moving Identities above credit cards or allow us to set the order.

I can't promise anything, but I agree it would be nice to be able to sort them the way we want.

Can you give me a concrete example with the credit cards thing though? What is the context, and the exact steps you're taking? I'm just not seeing that they're getting in my way.

Yes, the credit cards are ALL listed in the right column after the list of logins every time I use mini in the browser. Since there's no way to hide it (say by collapsing the credit card list by default and only expanding it if I actually need to use a credit card, which is probably around < 3% of the time), it adds a lot of clutter to UI. I also don't like the idea of anyone near me being able to see my list of credit cards every time I need to fill a login.

@jsugarstuff: Ah, thank you! I think I'm starting to get what you mean. I can see your point there too. I guess I didn't think about it that way since I wouldn't even unlock 1Password with someone looking over my shoulder — they might see more than the names of my credit cards, like my Master Password, or the websites I go to. It's something we'll have to consider.

As for the keyboard shortcut, it's not always consistence. For example, the shortcut doesn't open mini when I'm on this forum page, oddly enough.

Which OS, browser, and extension versions are you using? As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time here, and I'm not having trouble bringing up 1Password. That would really drive me nuts!

@brenty of course I will give it a few more days and I will reserve my final judgement until the final version. The reason why I am taking the time to reply here is, because I am confident that you guys will consider all of our feedback. I am doing this because I care about 1Password, because I want to continue using it and be happy with it :)

@Nil: Thank you so much for that! It's clear that you're passionate about making 1Password the best it can be, just as we are. :chuffed:

This is exactly right and the main point why I don't understand the changes to mini. You are duplicating functionality. In v6 the mini had a focused purpose. Now you are recreating the functionality that the full app handled (and still handles) very well at the expense of the functionality the mini handled well.

I don't see where mini has lost something, but if you have examples we're listening. :)

My question is still, what is the purpose of the mini now? What are the problems it is solving? What are the use-cases for it? I just don't understand it.

I didn't at first either, but perhaps it was easier for me to come to understand it given just how many people I interact with that only ever used mini because 1Password is, to them, something they use in the web browser. You'd be surprised just how many people that is. I know I was.

But is the mini the best place to do editing? it happens rarely that I need to edit an item.

I don't think it's meant to be. But I can tell you I do most of my editing there now, because, like you perhaps, I don't spend a lot of time editing; but I spend even less now because a quick change is doing right in mini.

And whenever I had to and it was a quick and easy change, I was fine with the inline edit function of the old mini. Not once did I feel it was bad.

Well, I've got to tell you, it really drove me nuts that the anchor window — which was the only way to get into editing from mini — was not keyboard friendly, and required me to click a tiny, tiny (x) to close it. You're probably just more dextrous with a mouse than me. But I've heard similar complaints from others.

Whenever I had to make bigger changes, I was fine with going to the main app. And even with the current design, for anything beyond generating a new password, I would still prefer to go into the full app.

That's fair. I did the same thing myself (for the reasons above), but there's nothing stoping us from going to the main 1Password window for edits now.

This how I see it: The primary purpose of the mini is to give me quick access to information that I need on a page.

Agreed.

It was extremely efficient in the past. Whenever I clicked it, the logins for the current page were literally one click away. Slightly below it I had access to my identities and my credit cards. Now it defaults to the last viewed section. If I fill an identity on an online shopping website and then move on and come to another website where I need to login, I have to click around to switch to the suggested section first.

It sounds like this is a timing issue. We've had a lot of requests that mini "remember" for a time, like Spotlight. We tried something like that in the past and it wasn't great. it sounds like we need to teak it some more. What would you recommend as far as timing?

It also requires much more "looking around", I have to look at the sidebar, interpret what's going on there, then switch to the right and figure out what to click there. Then it takes me to another view and I have to go back. It just feels like a lot of effort for really simple and basic tasks. The old design allowed me to do this much easier. It gave me access to everything in one view with fewer clicks. It blended in and was almost invisible. It was there when needed and out of the way when it wasn't. The new design takes over and occupies my entire attention.

That's reasonable. I think that's partly the attention since, arguably, most people are opening it intentionally to try to find something. It sounds like it might help if 1Password just gets smarter about showing you what you're looking for right away. Can you give a concrete example of a case where you have trouble getting the thing you want quickly?

The new design also doesn't seem to have a primary purpose anymore. It's trying to do a lot and ends up not being good at any of it.

That's fair. Fortunately we can continue to make it better for quick access (though the keyboard navigation is already really great for this). What do you use mini for most?

Sure, but then is the best solution really to allow people to use 1Password exclusively in the browser? If the answer to that question is yes, then why not get rid of the full app altogether? Why add another way that does not actually significantly improve the workflow?

Some people like the full app. And, frankly, it enables some really great features like Touch ID, integration with a wider variety of browsers (like Safari, which is really popular on macOS, but 1Password X cannot work there), speed, and more granular security settings. There's a lot that we can't do only in the browser.

Or perhaps a better solution is to find ways to guide people to how to use the software in the best possible way. I still think adding a button to the mini that opens the full app is a much better solution.

Those are good suggestions. We'll continue to work on it. :)

The old mini was the best way to interact with the current page and get quick access to needed information. The new mini can do more, but it is not "the best" at any of those tasks anymore.

Even though it looks different, I'm not having trouble accessing the information I need in the new mini, so I'm interested in the specific workflows you have in mind. Mostly I'm just hitting ⌘ \ to fill a login, or copying a note here and there.

I agree that the old mini was not perfect. You, or perhaps a colleague of your's mentioned in another post for example that many people didn't even know that they could click to autofill logins. That's a problem worth solving. And I think you guys did by adding the "Fill" text on hover. That's a great solution to a real problem.

Indeed, glad you're liking that.

But I don't see how turning the mini into a copy of the full app solves a significant problem. The new mini feels like a change for the sake of change instead of change in order to solve specific problems users have with it.

Rather than only trying to solve a problem, I think the main goal of the new design is to help expose functionality that many people didn't know 1Password had from using the old mini, such as quick filling, editing/anchoring, and a ton of items and categories hidden "below the fold". There are many, many discussions about that last one right up to this year. People resorted to Terminal commands to expose more information at once. So what's interesting is that this is a case where we've had both novice and "power" users after the same thing: the former asked us how to find stuff that was hidden, and the latter knew it was all there but wanted to have it available to them at all times. The challenge is trying to find something that strikes a good balance.

And I hope I am wrong, but based on your answer and the other replies I've read, my impression is that the decision to redesign the mini didn't start with "We have problem X, Y and Z. How do we solve it? Well, the best solution is to turn the mini into a maxi...". Instead it seems like it started as "Let's redesign the mini for version 7. Because... well... we could improve editing in the mini... maybe..." I am sorry if I sound harsh or rude. I don't mean to be. I just have a lot of love and passion for this software. :)

Haha it's no problem! I'm not sure there's a simple, satisfying explanation, but hopefully my comments above help illustrate where we're coming from. It's kind of a bummer to make stuff and then have people ask you if they can do X when you put a lot of work into making it, because they just couldn't find it or figure it out. So we're working to make 1Password's capabilities — and people's data — more easily accessible.

Edit
I just realized cards and identities continue to show up in the suggested tab. I guess I could just ignore the rest of the new features and it wouldn't change my workflow too much.
If you used only icons in the sidebar without the full text so it doesn't feel as heavy, I would be ok with it. Even better if you could disable the whole thing and let me have something as close as possible to the old mini. Perhaps I overreacted. I apologize. :)

Hey, no need to apologize. It's a BIG change from what we'd grown accustomed to! I think we're going to slim it down a bit, and I personally would like to be able to collapse the sidebar into icons. So we'll see. Thanks for your feedback on this! :)

I like the new design! This redesign and some reactions makes me remember when you redesigned the extension before, it was like 200 years ago (when the extension itself provided the UI) but I wrote a very rude post on this forum, just because I was so angry and couldn't believe you dared to change my precious workflow. Since then I tell myself I've matured. ;)

@Xe997: That's awesome! I remember those days too. It was not an easy transition for anyone, but getting through it made us all tougher — and made it so that 1Password was able to integrate with browsers for the last many years since then!

Anyway, the only complaint is that, if I choose to display a password in large type, I can't seem to dismiss that password window with the Escape key. Instead I must click on the window to give it a frame and a close button, then clicking the close button.

Indeed, that's one thing I've always disliked about those "anchored" windows (and why I LOVE being able to edit right in mini now). I'm not sure there's a good solution, but we'll see what we can do. Thanks for the feedback! :chuffed:

I can't bring myself to move the window.. I like how the developers intended an application to be, so if I move the window from its original position it'll annoy me.. weird I know.

@defiant: I have the same impulse, but when it saves me minutes and hours over time, I force myself to make an exception! :lol:

The way I have the laptop positioned on the couch arm rest, sometimes it's easier to use the mouse to interact with 1Password mini as I'm using one hand - it's somewhat awkward using one hand to press command+option+\ to invoke it

That gives "couch surfing" a whole new meaning! I used to play MMOs like that. One thing I did was reassign a bunch of keybindings. You can also change the keyboard shortcut in 1Password Preferences > General. I know you probably don't want to for the aforementioned reason, but try something that's more convenient for how you using it. You can always change it back if you don't like it. :)

Hey, I had to try! :lol :+1:

Using ⌘ ⌥ \ to call up the new mini from anywhere feels right now that it doesn't look like a menu. I kind of wish the shortcut was one-handed, though.

@dem: What kind of keyboard/layout are you using? I always do it one-handed, with my right thumb on ⌘ and my right ring finger on \. And don't forget, you can always customize the keyboard shortcut in 1Password Preferences > General!

Here's an odd cosmetic bug in new mini. The first Secure Note in my list sometimes has a lot of white space appended to it. It doesn't always appear this way, and corrects itself if I begin to resize the mini window. It only happens to the first note in the list, and seemingly only when that's the first note I click on when entering the Secure Notes category.

I'm not seeing that here. Can you tell me more about the context? What vault format are you using, and how old is the item involved? Anything else interesting about it?

ref: apple-1045

Just another observation on placement and mouse/trackpad travel. For those of us who use multiple browsers or browser windows, even if we move mini close to the toolbar in order to minimize mouse travel, inevitably it will not be near the toolbar icon when we’re in another browser or window.
I am all for using keyboard shortcuts as much as possible. The problem is that for those of us on a desktop with a detached keyboard and pointer, our hands are more likely going to be on the mouse already because we are clicking around the browser. Invoking mini with the keyboard actually interrupts the workflow. On a laptop that is less of an issue.

@verdi1987: That makes sense. Thanks for sharing that! I don't think it's possible to satisfy all use cases, but it's certainly something we can consider as we continue to refine the new design. :)