Menu

Join the Conversation

To sign in, use your existing MySonicWall account. To create a free MySonicWall account click "Register".

Sign In Register

Some thoughts on SonicWall and the new UI / UX

LarryLarry All-Knowing Sage ✭✭✭✭
in Water Cooler

I attended two SonicWall University presentations last week. The first was for the new TZ series with SonicOS 7; the second was for the new CSa 1000 appliance.

In both cases, the dashboard showcased SonicWall’s new UI and UX. They are in keeping with what you can see in your MySonicWall Workspace and in the Capture Security Center (now Network Security Manager).

Someone, possibly a group of people, somewhere in the organization instructed product developers to only use the four corporate colors, and they did – with abandon. But I don’t think any of them thought about the implications. A black background with another dark grey box, containing light grey text is simply not legible. A drop-down menu that contains white text, but then shows a black background and light grey text when activated is glaring in its absurdity.  Dashboards that look like a child’s arcade game do not convey useful information if there is constant blinking and movement.

Did anyone at SonicWall test these new dashboards to see if they could possibly cause seizures in people who have epilepsy?

Did anyone at SonicWall ensure that these new designs do not violate Federal guidelines with respect to persons with lowered visual acuity?

I think that these would be given high value and consideration, but I don’t see any evidence of that.

In case you haven’t guessed, I despise this design. It is forced, and ugly, and difficult to use. And now, having invested heavily in this as a corporate design, it is unlikely that it will be changed.

Am I alone in thinking this? Can anyone give me a counter argument as to its usability?  I am curious to know what others, especially partners, think.

Category: Water Cooler
Reply

Comments

  • IstvanIstvan Newbie ✭

    Hi Larry,


    I've watched the 50 min SonicOS 7 GUI demonstration video yesterday and I think it really needs adjustments. I believe the palette design can be changed relatively easily. The flat design has very few element limiter lines which sometimes makes hard to hit the necessary part of the narrow but long elements.

    My experience is when someone starts to use any UI the result is always the same: after a certain time the brain learns the view, filters the elements and lets only the information particles in. So the UI should be rather simple, clear, fast as possible, informative and less point & click style (more keyboard navigation could be involved):

    • no hoover over & floating boxes,
    • less pop up windows,
    • less navigation needs for element/object management in firewall rules, ...

    Fortunately the above mentioned video introduced some of these. This is what the operators need not a fancy looking UI. The new UI can look nice on the datasheets and in presentations but those are for the C level :-)

    In my opinion the UI elements design flaws are more problematic like

    • you must click the exact pixel of a font instead the area where the text box is placed;
    • 9x5 support expired and was renewed by 24x7 - still have the red mark on the unit (MySonicWall product list)

    Maybe there are more annoying, buggy or even missing things like no way to export Content Filter Client and Capture Client configurations (yes, API is there, but an SMB can handle such things in notepad or Excel).


    Regards,

    István

  • TIJUTIJU Moderator

    Hi @Larry and @Istvan

    Thanks for your feedback on the new UI/UX. We will definitely like to discuss more on this and will reach out to you directly.

    Thanks again for providing your thought process and explaining each pain-point. This really helps us improve our products and offerings.

    Thanks

    Tiju Cherian

    NetSec Product Management Team



Sign In or Register to comment.