One thing to add not already mentioned, I compared old vs new from a PC which hadn’t updated yet, and it is about 19 extra vertical pixels per line - it’s not just the extra height of the Item, but the spacing between Items as well to consider.
If we could go back to the old style - and keep in mind that BitWarden is pretty much a productivity app where functionality and speed is most important to most users, that would be ideal.
From a UI perspective - I think that I can see what you were aiming for here - but I don’t think that it’s the kind of thing that I think that someone would get overwhelmed from, where the difference is having less on the screen at once, and still having the same information but also having to press more buttons to scroll because all the same steps are still there except now it’s harder to get to and find what you are looking for.
the visual changes are in alignment with modern design standards.
No. I’m a longtime customer and recommender of this product who has come to this forum just because of this change, and “modern design standards” are not usable or empirically based. This is like adding 1000lbs to your wheelbarrow because “modern vehicle design standards” have increased average gross vehicle weight by that much. The standards are wasteful and not productivity motivated, and they anyway have no bearing on your specific tool and market. If your UX overhaul begins with increasing margins and padding, overhaul your UX goals instead. Bitwarden is – was – one of the exemplar usable, clear, and efficient UX products out there.
I do not use Bitwarden to stare at hero glamour shots of the UI, I use it to quickly manage, navigate, search, and use secrets in a productive way. I now have almost 50% fewer affordances available in the same screen space as before. Previously the most frequently used favorites in my vaults – items I interact with dozens of times per day – immediately fit in the default drop-down/pop-out window size. Now they do not, and I have to scroll and perform a second visual scan to find them.
Relatedly, other things seem to have broken in this “improved” update. E.g., in Firefox the vault notification icons indicating locked/# of matching items have disappeared.
Thanks for the additional feedback! The team is already working on an update to addressing the spacing issue. The badge counter is a separate issue and currently being tracked on Github.
I too am seeing 3-5 second lag on filling and will attempt to roll back the update. Thanks for posting this, wish this thread had more discussion about the lag issue as it’s a massive problem. I will agree the added space is a waste when I’ve got tons of passwords to fill from on various sites. I wonder if its related to the fact that I have way more entries that your average user. macOS Monterey, Firefox version 108.0.1, Extension version 2022.12.0.
Yeah, it is a bit nuts because in the changelog they specifically mentioned the reverse, that the update is supposed to help people with thousands of entries in their vault. Instead, the reverse happened – as you said, it is taking 4-5 seconds to load entries, switch tabs, or autofill. Maybe this is only specific to the Firefox version, but somehow it looks like something broke there.
I’d just like to add that I agree that it looks visually slightly nicer, but the large spacing does ruin the usability of the feature. I’d rather have the old UI back, but a compact version of this UI would be very appreciated.
This is a rare miss from the Bitwarden team - letting a designer loose on the UI without considering the severe UX debasement of the product. Hopefully you can pivot quickly and rectify this.
I will defer a full review until I get the update, but based on the selected screenshots in PS-2078, it looks like the 2022.12.1 version is suitable for a “Medium” option in a user-configurable “Compact/Medium/Expanded” setting…
There is evidently a significant part of the user base that wants to maximize information density, so offering a true “compact” mode for these users would be appreciated!
Thanks @bw-admin for listening to our complaints and taking our advice so fast!
Without trying to sound hurtful, I’d like to add that Bitwarden should really consider hiring some designers.
The app is great but it looks very bare bones, to the point that you immediatly see that it was made with Bootstrap/Tailwind without much thought about design.
Even the Bitwarden logo itself is simply taken from a Font Awesome icon. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it clearly shows that the team behind Bitwarden is way more focused on dev than on the design.
Bitwarden also looks very dated and inelegant in comparison to other password managers (like 1Password for example). I’m not saying that you guys should add whitespace, margins and padding everywhere, but at least polish your user interace so it looks alike on mobile, on the web and in the browser extension.
Maybe add some nice details like subtle gradients, shadows and colors (but without compomising on spacing, etc.). I don’t really know how to explain it but Bitwarden as a whole looks like of dated and not modern at all. Which is a bummer because the rest, including the functionnality is top-notch!
A blend between the current Bitwarden design and the Bitwarden concepts on Dribbble would be great and make the app feel way more modern and welcoming!
Yep, I have to agree with the majority, this was not a good update and should be reverted until a better balance is found.
We need as much info on the screen as possible, both as in the lenght of the login info in when having to select the correct credentials to use as well as when actually going into the settings etc …
It should always be thought of as what is most important, a ‘pretty’ look or a useful look and feel.
Please please please, revert back to the old UI until you do get this right (and I would suggest using a large feedback group on any new design Before you roll it out).
Thanks as always for the continued feedback, the team is continuing to review feedback as a fix for the spacing issue roles out. Rest assured, this is ongoing discussion and your feedback has been passed along to the team
I can certainly appreciate that different design aesthetics are subjective. I personally enjoy the utilitarian look of the older BitWarden UI. Getting to a cohesive and usable design for both mobile and desktop platforms is a difficult task. On a project of my own, I am facing similar challenges. My default position on design is mobile first then desktop. But I still make exceptions for desktop where it makes sense. Keyboard only input for example.
Good design work is hard. It certainly doesn’t seem like it. The team can go through 100s of potentials before a winner design is identified. Even if that magical design is found, there will still be people who prefer the old way. Most people don’t like UI changes for the sake of UI changes. This whole design ethic has been exacerbated by the mobile platform and how rapidly things change for seemingly unknown reasons. And to be honest, that just doesn’t work for elderly computer users out there. As much as we may want rapidly innovate, there is some value to sticking with a good and reliable UI.
It seems to me that something has already changed, right? My extension now reports version 2022.12.1. I have no way to take a look at the previous version again, but it seems to me that everything has been compacted a bit (though not to the level of version 2022.11.x)
Yes the latest version 2022-12.1 (Firefox 108.0.1 & Chrome 108.0.5359.125, Windows 10 Pro) has changed. It looks so much better. A reply above mentioned the ‘Gestalt principle of Proximity’ and it appears the dev team took that to heart. I’d still prefer a toggle in settings for restoring the old way of visualizing entries, but this is a great step forward.
To the BW Team and everybody else, a hearty Well Done and your beverage of choice is in order!
I just got the latest update and it’s better, but I still hate it. The original UI before these changes was still the best. Please consider making a toggle restore the old UI, or continue cutting the bloated space so that a larger number of items can be visible on the screen, like it was before.
