I feel like search could cut out the location-based search filter entirely and be no worse off. In order to do a location based search the app has to make network requests for the search results and get the map coordinates, and this typically translates to a noticeable wait when these types of searches are performed. The actual search queries appear to be executed on the server side and, as a result, the processing time can vary depending on your network connection. Search does have some enhanced features like map view and search near here offered as options to help refine your search, but I am not a fan of either. The typical standard search box is visible on most of the non-note capturing screens, and the text search works as expected. Given that search is the killer feature of Evernote, it is surprising that search on mobile devices seems like a second-class citizen.
Search function is a key but clunky feature in the mobile app.Įvernote has outstanding OCR software that makes everything searchable. By giving the user options, Evernote overcomes the inherent limitations of the mobile device and improves the user experience. The two views provide the user with choices and trade offs: lower information density with a greater amount of detail or higher information density with less detail. Most people hold the phone in portrait mode so it follows that the default view is the easier of the two to quickly grasp. If you can recognize the note by the rough appearance or layout of the text, you can pretty rapidly find what you are looking for. While holding the phone in landscape mode, the note browser is transformed into a tiled-thumbnail view which shows more notes in the visible frame. While holding the phone in portrait mode, each note’s metadata is visible and allows the user to see titles and tags in addition to a thumbnail image of the note. Visually we are given two options, depending on the orientation of the phone, in which we can browse our catalog of notes. That being said, I think that Evernote does an excellent job making due with what little space it has. Given the limited real estate available on mobile devices, it is unsurprising that note browsing is a sub-optimal experience. Smart layout and design can make sub-optimal experience tolerable
These additional activities are included, but they are relegated to the tab bar on the iPhone and the sub menus on Android devices. In Evernote’s case they cannot completely focus on note capture at the expense of cutting out the other actions. But by limiting the scope of the application, it actually maximizes the experience for the user. It seems counterintuitive to restrict features to simply not port them directly from the desktop or web offering. Having the app launch into the note acquisition screen implicitly signals to the user that this is the type of activity that you should be doing on the device. The constraints of the device and the unpredictable nature of the network, I believe, led to a focus on what a mobile device is good for (note capturing) and make that the key action in the mobile versions of its application. Given the detached nature of the mobile device and the sluggishness still experienced with cellular networks, the note browsing and searching experience is not ideal. The mobile apps immediately present 4 distinct actions for note acquisition.Įvernote breaks down into two key activities: note acquisition and note retrieval. Here are six things that stood out most about the Evernote iPhone app and the take-away ideas I got from looking closer at the app. Lately I have been thinking about user design and experience as I prep my app for the App Store. By taking a closer look at the clients, it became clear that the user experience, and the design decisions behind them, wasn’t a happy accident. The ubiquity of the service via all the devices in my life (laptop, desktop, iPhone, Nexus One, web, and iPad) and the ease in which I can capture and recall notes made adopting it into my daily workflow extremely easy. Evernote is one of my favorite and most frequently used applications.