[One info for context in the beginning: I mainly target the BW browser extension with this Feature Request - and my text only references the browser extension. But, a Home button might be a good idea for the other BW apps as well (and could be applied/adapted to their different circumstances/situations) that’s why I chose the app:all tag.]
Core Suggestion / Requested Feature:
- Add a Home button to easily get back to the main view of the browser extension.
Context:
- This suggestion was (AFAIK) first made here by @grb and I asked him for permission to make it into a Feature Request. I recommend reading his post also. (see the link before)
Suggested implementation:
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The Home button should bring you back easily to the main/“default” Vault view page (= the same view like the extension was opened “the first time”) by clicking it.
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PS: Following the exchange with @DenBesten in post #2 and #3 I would propose a Home button that also “resets” the Vault tab (i.e. resets search results, scroll position, opened items…) as this would probably be the easiest and most consistent implementation. (but maybe still open to discussion - and another technical solution could be also possible?!)
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Another PS: Also following the discussion with @DenBesten the question of what happens with “unsaved data” also arises. But, I would argue, this problem also already exists with the current “back button” - and is in general as well a larger issue as the topic for this other Feature Request: Persistent Bitwarden UI and maintain unsaved data (and more explicit: I personally would welcome a question like “Unsaved data… Do you want to save it before leaving?” when using the Home button in such a situation of unsaved data…)
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I would suggest - for consistency in view/“UI” and “muscle memory” (because a button that is sometimes there and sometimes not there is already problematic again for UI/UX) - to have that Home button on every “page” of the extension (and only if you are on the “default” Vault view, that button would do practically nothing)
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In the following three “Mock-ups” (my two mockups are based on @grb’s original one), there are three ideas/suggestions where such a Home button could be located – my general personal preference would be to have both navigational elements (the Back (
<) button and the Home button) together on the top left side of the extension window… (and to be more precise - and as other “Home buttons/elements” are mostly located in the top left corner - my personal preference would be my Mock-up 1 then)
Some reasons why a Home button would be useful:
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The browser extension has some “depth of the navigational structure” here and there, so that in many cases it requires 2-4 clicks to get back to the main and “default” Vault view of the extension. Some examples:
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When you “view” an item in the trash (Settings → Vault → Trash → Click an item): then you have to click the back button four times (first click: get back to the trash, second click: get back to “Settings → Vault”, third click: get back to Settings, fourth click: get back to the Vault view)
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Similar examples that require four “back button” clicks: Use the search → Click an item (to enter “View”) → “Edit” → use either the “generator” or “attachments” (for both, you need four clicks to get back to the main View of the extension)
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Additionally, the four main navigational buttons on the bottom (Vault, Generator, Send, Settings) get lost on many sub-pages, making it even more difficult, to easily get back to the main/“default” Vault view of the extension. With a Home button on every “page” of the extension, one could always get back with one click.
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The “new persistence” of the browser extension (in many cases up to 2 minutes) makes a Home button more necessary than ever, IMO. – Whether you like that new persistence or not should be irrelevant for this Feature Request - but as we have that new persistence now…: if you re-open the browser extension after a task again and it is still on another sub-“page” (in whatever structural/navigational depth), it would be very convenient to only have to click that one Home button (instead of several times the back-button) to get back to the main/“default” Vault view of the extension.
- but ask me again tomorrow 
)
