SonicOS 7 UI Design
SonicAdmin80
Cybersecurity Overlord ✭✭✭
Oh how far we have come from the days of clean and appropriately sized management UI.
On my 13" inch laptop screen this is how SonicOS 7 looks:
Very cluttered and the apply button isn't even on screen unless I drag to resize the whole window. Requires a lot of scrolling which with gestures can sometimes cause accidental browser back button presses. On a tablet screen it's actually unusable where with the previous ones you could do quick checks and small changes quite easily.
Compared to SonicOS 6.2:
6.2 is much cleaner, crispier and almost everything fits nicely in view even on a small screen. Scrolling is mostly only required vertically.
Really makes me question Sonicwall as a platform of choice if managing it at all requires at minimum a 27" 4K screen. The new Mysonicwall is as bad if not worse. No consideration for smaller screens which is very strange these days when people work more and more on mobile devices. What about techs on the field? Better bring your large screen with you if you want to be able to do anything more than minimal configuration.
What are others thinking of the new UIs?
Comments
I use a 15.6 inch laptop screen and configuring some of the pop-up windows in 6.5 still require me to shrink the window so I can activate the slider to get to the OK button.
But, here's my take on the "new" look overall: https://community.sonicwall.com/technology-and-support/discussion/898/some-thoughts-on-sonicwall-and-the-new-ui-ux
I don't plan to have any devices using 7.x until 2022, if at all...
6.5 has been mostly ok on my 13" laptop. I haven't seen many problems with the UI not fitting, usually the OK button can be scrolled to at the bottom. I still liked 6.2 better because it's faster to get to things, but 7 is a mess.
I don't think Chrome has ever worked well with 6.5 at least, certain popup windows just don't work.
Yep, unfortunately with Gen 7 hardware SonicOS 7 is the minimum.
Interesting to see how people adjust to worsening UI elements. The top tier brands are quite close in terms of feature set. If features, performance and price are close to each other among brands, ease of use has a big impact. Partners and end users like to use products that feel intuitive and comfortable to use. This was the primary reason for me to use Sonicwall in the first place, I liked managing them more than the others.
There are a great many UI/UX problems that the developers have foisted upon us over the years.
In 6.2 and 6.5, if you want to set up Static IPs based on a MAC address, you can easily do that, and include a name AND a comment. But despite the screen real estate in the table display, neither of those identification fields is present to help you narrow down who is who.
Now, within the WiFi Cloud Manager you get to manipulate certain features using the new "standard" edit/configuration tools - only you won't see them until you hover your mouse over the line at the far right-hand side of the screen. Seriously, controls that do not display! How did something like that get out of QA? How would ANYONE know to look for that?
And, as I said, the attempt to simply use the 4 corporate colors to do all of the work is just obnoxious. Yes, have a guidebook that says, all buttons look like this, all fields look like that, all drop-downs should be this. Except when they aren't...
With SonicOS 7.0, I found I must Zoom my browser down to 70% or so to get to the area of the UI screen that I want to use. There is no slide bar to take me there. Changing the font and the browser window size didn't help. I am using a 14" laptop with the highest pixel setting with Chrome & Edge. A typical example is in Contemporary view, Policy - Security Settings - Summary - Security Services Information - Update Signatures Manually.
In Classic View, 67% will finally allow me see all the menu choices down the left side of the page.
The screens are pretty, but the User Experience is frustrating.