WebRep - bad UI design

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I just turned WebRep off and thought I’d tell you all (avast developers) why.

First, I appreciate the product very much and specifically like WebRep as well, except for one fatal design choice.

When I’m on a Google search page, the info provided by WebRep is interesting and appreciated, but it is not the focus. Not close. It comes into play a few times a month really.

As I investigate search results, I move my mouse. As annotations and titles are all varying in length,… over and over, I inadvertently mouse over a WebRep rating. Up pops the details unbidden :stuck_out_tongue: ::). The information I’m actually there to parse is obscured and my focus is distracted…again and again and again every day, with every search. Eventually it’s like Chinese water torture.

Whether you intend this as an arrogant design decision or not, that is very much what it parses as folks. Tool tip type interfaces should be used in a very limited way, specifically where the action of mousing over something can be definitively expected to be an overt choice to see the resultant popup information. And a search page is not only busy with info, but varied in where this particular element is placed, making it an absurd UI choice. Why absurd? Because anyone who remotely considers UI design for this would see this coming. Either that or the thinking is that this somehow represents how the majority of users will rank the importance of actions to do on a search results page… Do you really believe that users accessing a Google search results page are on average MORE concerned with WebRep above all the other info in the search result themselves?? That is where I get frustrated with y’all. Is it UI design cluelessness, or do you really think you’re all that??

I would be very happy if I could change my configuration so that the details only present when I choose them by explicitly clicking, although that would be far more proper as the default behavior. And frankly that would be proper UI design.

So if you folks come to understand that you’re not in control of that particular environment and should not be popping on mouse-overs, rather on-click (initiating with a clear act), I’d gladly and gratefully turn this feature back on as it is indeed quite useful. In fact it’s one of the sources of aggravation, as I’m forced to choose between UI faux-pas of high annoyance, and turning off a nifty and welcome feature.

Until then, the 3 or 4 times a month that this info is relevant to me is so ridiculously outweighed by the annoyance that it’ll stay in the closet.

2

I fully support all statements.
Feeling just about the same working with “WebRep”.

3

Add NoScript to FF. Problem solved. :wink:

4

True - but it does not really solve the Problem:
If you have NoScript on FF you are stuck with every second page screwing around with limited permissions, temporary or complete permissions and more. It’s kind of getting used to.
I personally had it installed for 1 week and gave up.
What are people doing using IE or different browsers? Is an AddOn for those somewhere out there?

So why not, a clickable “WebRep” as suggested would be the perfect solution for the next release.

5

True, because it really is no problem at all. :wink:

6

Please tell me you don’t work for avast.

That’s just embarrassing and infuriating to boot. Are you really unable to see the failures of logic there? You do realize there are valid reasons to not wish to run noscript,… especially to make a fairly minor, if desirable and cool feature that shouldn’t need such measures in the first place work. Speaking of arrogance.

“Because it really is no problem at all” ??

Care to explain your rational, or is a blind dismissal from an “Evangelist” suposed to convince us of our errant experiences? Or would you rather go stick your head in the sand and butt out? Frankly that would be my preference, thanks very much.

7

Oh, now you are all mad, and for what? Differences of opinion are more common than agreements, no need to get all amped because someone doesn’t agree with you.

btw, Asyn doesn’t work for Avast!(nor I or any other Evangelist), that is denoted here on the forum by the “Avast! Team” tag, not Evangelist.

This has been covered before, the WepRep-hover menu. Don’t mean to shoot your birthday balloon but…you might be shocked at the number of people who love hover pop-ups, I am not even joking, people see it as saving them clicking, and “saving clicks” is very chic’ nowadays.

tbh, I don’t like hover pop-ups either…but then I don’t like WebRep much either, and removed the “Avast! community opinion poll” after trying it for about 2 weeks.

8

Gargamel360 - Fair enough on most of your points.

Let me make this clearer because I certainly got off track with the last post.

I came in here to do two things.

First and foremost, I came here to give one person’s feedback on this aspect of the product, which got unceremoniously dismissed as non-existant. Not that there aren’t other ways to look at it, but that it was pretty much my (actually our) perception malfunctioning. Any decent CEO will tell you that customer feedback, good bad or otherwise, is worth it’s weight in gold. Doesn’t even matter if it’s on target, it’s still the customers experience and gives you valuable insight with which to make better choices from. So that was what I was offering, and for the reason that I appreciate the freebie in a big way, felt a lot of frustration with the current situation and want to help offer suggestions to make it better. It’s entirely up to Avast if they hear it, disagree with it, do something with it, whatever.

Second, I came to vent my spleen a bit. The product is free and thus there’s a certain leeway that needs to be given. But free is not the end of the deal. Avast and most others working this model know it too. I get it for free in exchange for mind-share and the possibility that I might upgrade, both valuable. Sometimes ‘free’ gives some folks license in their mind to dismiss any unhappiness. In my opinion, that is neither bright nor fair, but I agree it does limit the beef for sure. And I was entirely happy to drop my comments and leave em to Avast’s best judgment, especially since I can turn the offending behavior off. That makes a lot of difference and is appreciated.

At the same time, I had to deal with the annoyance and search up a solution, so the promise of ‘free’ seems to have cost me. And that is not part of the deal, relatively minor as it is. The Avast folks do not wish or intend that people waste time and deal with annoyance I have no doubt. So one assume they would wish to know about how people “feel” about features. It seems to make some uncomfortable, but I content it’s legitimate and valuable. Also after installing and running it takes some doing to back out and use something else. There is a ‘buy-in’ that should not be dismissed as easily as I see it being dismissed by certain individuals on this board, in this thread and elsewhere frankly. “You are free to uninstall it” is used more as an argumentative “gotcha” to not have to hear dissatisfaction more that a legitimate statement of neutrality. Some might wish to consider that, as it isn’t helping anyone but the Evangelist, and that type of thinking appears to me to be in play here as well.

In the end, the issue I have can be addressed by turning this off. I said my piece, …my opinion, and was cool to move on. I can always uninstall and lose not a nickle. So I’m by NO means making demands…rather offering my experience, which is unpleasant. And saying I think it’s flat designed wrong,… going so far as to explain the UI design concepts that support my thinking, again, actually making a case for consideration, not just popping off. And venting a little, which seems reasonable considering the time it’s cost in aggravation and finding a solution vs the time to go another way.

So one of your points is that many people like it this way…ok, so be it. I actually appreciate that point. And at least some apparently don’t like the feature as is. That’s two sides,… and one side more than apparently someone wants to entertain. Hey, a solution would be for Avast to offer both options. Right?? I mean why is that such a threatening comment? I’m actually offering up a win-win, with really no expectation that they will take it of even consider it. Not demanding, offering. And the response is that “it’s not really a problem??” Two people are saying it is, and if it’s been discussed before, more than two. So I’d say the response is pretty arrogant, and that frankly is how I felt about the design decision too, so it poked a button right there. We’re not talking about a difference of opinion; we’re talking about getting blown off. So I say, why bother responding? All the individual did is piss people off. What was gained?

I frankly accept your views on the issue as valid and if they had been what someone offered up I would have had no problems, …excepting of course the sarcasm…but hey I was there first on that one, so fair enough there too really. My bad.

9

Have to tried to adjust your mouse settings?

I don’t know if that would make a difference or not but it may be worth a try.

I rarely wind up with WebRep working in Firefox because with Firefox’ current rapid update policy I am now pretty much only using Beta versions of the latest version. Right now for FF that is 6.0B4 and WebRep does not work with beta versions of Firefox.

10

With respect to NoScript I have used it for years.

I recognized the so called website script problem with respect to NoScript almost from the beginning.

What I do and it seems to work for me is.

  1. In many cases you don’t need to allow all the scripts on a page to see what you want on that page. Therefore, I don’t allow scripts on a page unless I need to, to see information or a video.

  2. When NoScript is blocking scripts by default on a page I use an all or nothing approach which requires a one time only click and allows all scripts on that page except for those that NoScript considers dangerous.

  3. If you click on “Allow all Scripts on Page” and there are scripts that NoScript determines to be unsafe it will still block those scripts. When that happens if there is data that remains hidden that I want to see I just click on the IE Tab addon and it opens the page in my case in IE9.

The above seems to work for me and to tell the truth I have gotten used to the couple of clicks I might need to make to see information on a page so that the couple of clicks don’t bother me at all.

Of course once you click on “Allow all Scripts on Page” NoScript recognizes those newly allowed scripts regardless of what webpage you surf to after allowing those scripts on the one page.

11

Nesivos

I appreciate the effort to try to offer a solution, especially the lack of dismissal of the issue itself. However, I’m not really looking to add a plugin to my ecosystem (the state of which suits me just fine or all other browsing behavior), or fiddle with my mouse (which works fine in all other reasonable situations). Turning the feature off is solution enough at this point really.

and I think that is another point that Avast may choose to hear,…or not. that I’d rather work to remove the behavior rather than bend the rest of my ecosystem to “fix” it. In my book it’s bad UI design and bad behavior to make it the default. I’d prefer it to simply behave as an overt trigger or allow me to configure it so at least.

But as I said, that is obviously not something that poofs out of thin air because I wish it, nor is it something that Avast folks will necessarily agree with me over, or even that others here will agree with. So I’m cool with just turning it off, speaking my piece, hoping somebody takes value from it in some way, and getting on with my day.

Thanks for the time to post all that though!

12

It could be that you have an old outdated mouse driver and the problem is in fact being caused by the mouse and not avast!

I am not saying it is and of course you will do want you want. If you don’t want to look at your mouse settings that is up to you.

I am not suggesting adding software just maybe looking to see if your mouse driver is out of date.

I only responded to the NoScript comment as a general reply. Sorry if you misunderstood.

Good luck.

13

I have all my add-ons disabled, if you have to many add-ons running it will slow your browser down.
There is lots of free programs like webrep if you really need them.