We want to start development of Cryptomator 1.5.0 soon. This release has one single purpose: Redesigning the UI. We’d be happy, if you share your suggestions below. Maybe you have a good idea for the overall layout of the application or a specific control like the password strength indicator.
Please use the “heart” feature to upvote any suggestions you like, don’t write comments showing your affection. Let’s keep the discussion focused on the topic.
Goals
Simplicity: We want a single-window application that is self-explaining and only shows what is necessary.
Consistency: We want one consistent design across all desktop operating systems that matches the color scheme of our mobile apps and website.
Accessibility: While it is easy to add labels that can be read by screen readers, we must always keep in mind the navigation across the application: All controls must be reachable in a logical order where you expect them to be.
Non-Goals
Creating new logos
Creating completely new color schemes
Creating a L&F for controls that are not needed in Cryptomator (such as date pickers)
Adding new features (this can be done in later releases. If you have a feature request, please open an issue on GitHub)
I’ll start by showing a first sketch featuring a flat design and a sub-menu per vault for unlock, advanced vault settings, reveal vault, etc. All icons get a tooltip, of course.
Will the left pane be resizable? I have folders that have long paths and they get truncated ("…"). Have to hover over them and wait (I don’t like to wait). If not, could the ratio of left to right change (more left, less right)? There’s very little to show at the right and it’s fixed-length. (Maybe the buttons/icons open stuff in the right pane - which might need more space?) The old UI can’t be resized at all, so maybe if you just allow the entire window to be resized that would help.
I’ve just discovered Cryptomator a couple of days ago while looking for an alternative to doing backups to a remote Veracrypt volume. So far, I’m impressed with Cryptomator. While there’s room for improvement, it’s very usable and efficient right now
Thanks to the developers for creating it
That being said, one of the areas where I think Cryptomator could improve is precisely its User Interface. So I was delighted to find this thread asking for suggestions
Here are a few (/a lot) of suggestions for future versions of Cryptomator. Some may be feasible, some may not.
Also, I’m currently running Cryptomator on a Windows 7 PC. I haven’t tried it on any other platform so my suggestions are centered on that OS
Make Cryptomator’s window resizable and maximizable
Add a menu to the top of Cryptomator’s window, like many other programs do. I’m talking about menus like “File”, “Edit”, “View”, “Options”, “Help”, etc
Increase the number of settings available though the User Interface. There are only a couple of them currently
Allow users to select Cryptomator’s UI language, instead of defaulting to the system’s current language (I’m guessing that that’s what it’s doing right now). Translations are not always perfect and choice is always good. My native language and my system’s language isn’t English, but I’d like to have the option of using Cryptomator in English. A beneficial side effect of that is that it may simplify bug reporting, since users of Cryptomator in other languages can temporarily switch to English in order to be able to report error messages, etc. in English to the support forum or the issues section
Add a right click menu to Vaults. It could display actions such as “Lock” (I’m guessing that’s what it is in English ), “Display full path”, “Display unit letter”, “Settings”, etc. It could also display information such as creation date, last modified, properties, etc
Simplify the deletion of vaults, with proper warnings, of course. Currently it isn’t quite straightforward
Increase the information currently displayed about vaults. If technically possible, information such as total size, number of files, whether it’s using WebDAV or Dokany, etc would be welcome. It could be through a right click menu, like I suggested above and/or directly in the User Interface. This additional information could be toggleable for users who prefer a cleaner UI
Allow users to reorder vaults in the User Interface. I’m guessing that currently vaults are always displayed oldest to newest. Some users may prefer to arrange them in other ways
Increase the number of items in the right clikc menu of Crytomator’s icon when minimized to the tray. Currently there are just two “Open” and “Exit” (again, that’s what I’m guessing they are in English ) Veracrypt’s right click menu would be a good example of what could be displayed there (open vaults, lock vaults, help, settings, etc.)
Thanks in advance for considering them and I hope that some can make it to Cryptomator 1.5
At the risk of posting a “non goal” , here’s a screenshot of my LXDE desktop on a dark theme. It’d be lovely to be able to inverse colours on the white background! On a more practical note- as cryptomators built around ease of use- perhaps a “first time use wizard” -step by step of creating a vault, or mounting an existing one would be good
Some of those have already been flagged on Github, but here are my 2 cents :
System tray, background mode, launch at startup…
Those issues seem crucial to me. IMO, considering the software purpose, it should not appear in taskbar/dock and be managed via system tray.
If possible consistently across platforms, the best behaviour would be to appear in taskbar/dock only when the main window is visible (then allowing the user to focus it via ALT/CMD-Tab), and disappearing when the window is closed. I’ve seen it on Windows, but I’m not sure if that’s possible on macOS though (can’t find an app that I use that does it).
Left click on the systray icon should open/close the main window, and right click be implemented with the current menu items “Open” and “Quit”. Additional items could be added, like “Unmount all vaults”.
Currently, closing the main window when no vault is mounted causes the app to instantly quit. IMO correct behaviour should be minimize main window and go to systray.
Global settings
As pointed out by users, options to launch at startup, launch in background… should be available directly in-app instead of forcing the users to interact with OS-level configuration.
Per-vault settings
I’m on macOS using Path Finder as a Finder replacement, and for a reason I can’t explain the folders are opened using Finder instead of Path Finder even if the command issued by your MacMounter class is “open” which when used in Terminal opens Path Finder correctly.
I’m aware that this point is not relevent to most users but I think an elegant way to handle this and many other advanced usages would be to replace the “Reveal Drive” checkbox by a select field “On mount” with options “Reveal folder” (default), “Do nothing”, “Execute a command”.
Selecting the last option would reveal a text field allowing the user to input a command that would be executed after replacing a specific placeholder by the directory path. An informative label should be present under the field to inform the user of the placeholder to use (e.g. $DIRECTORY).
That would solve my specific issue (running “open -a ‘Path Finder.app’ $DIRECTORY” would do the trick), but would also allow users to easily run any custom scripts and hooks directly from GUI.
For good mesure:
If complex syntax (chaining commands with “&&”…) is supported by the underlying code, placeholder replacement should handle multiple occurrences.
If this point can be implemented, it would be trivial and probably useful in some cases to have a similar “On unmount” field with options “Do noting” (default) and “Execute a command”.
I would like Cryptomator to run as a service automatically after windows startup, with the password stored in the system as it currently is. A tray icon is all I need to know it’s working, and if I need to check or reconfigure anything, I just click on the tray icon. Could this be added in a future release?
Native look for OS, if possible. This would be the king. Using translucency for mac and windows.
Use the minimum amount of icons. Generally icons clutter the view when there’s many icons. The icons also lose their purpose when a label is needed to clarify their action.
Search: make this field visible at all times at the top of the vaults. Not hiding basic functionality behind unnecessary clicks.
When a Vault is open, if the file manager window that once opened the Vault has been closed, it would be nice if there was a shortcut to launch it again from Cryptomator’s client window.
Currently one has to open the Vault via their file manager or by locking and unlocking the Vault.
I understand that this is quite silly, and may even be difficult to implement on certain OS’s, but this trivial feature could be quite helpful.
Please use the “heart” feature to upvote any suggestions you like, don’t write comments showing your affection. Let’s keep the discussion focused on the topic.
), “Display full path”, “Display unit letter”, “Settings”, etc. It could also display information such as creation date, last modified, properties, etc
