Tip: Modernize the program interface.

[Nazareno]

Hello, the current UI of the program is very ugly. As a suggestion I tell you to think of an alternative that looks more modern, as it is a Nex-Gen antivirus. Thank you very much in advance. Best regards.

[exile360]

Greetings,

If possible, could you be a bit more specific?  I ask because the current UI in Malwarebytes 3 has been modernized quite a bit.  I cite the following UI concepts currently implemented in Malwarebytes 3 as examples:

• Flat - virtually the entire UI is flat/uses flat, solid shaded controls and buttons just like most modern apps and OS interfaces (Windows 8/10 Metro, Android etc.)
• Touch - the bulk of the UI is touch-friendly, including the large solid shaded flat controls mentioned above as well as the use of on/off switches and checkboxes through the UI to make it more accessible to touchscreen devices
• Web - the majority of the UI is laid out in such a way as to resemble a website/web based interface including the controls I mentioned above as well as the use of clickable links, similar to a standard website which is the design direction most modern apps are moving in today
  

Beyond that, was there anything that you find to be specifically outdated/lacking in modern aesthetics?

Please let me know and I will share your feedback with the team for consideration.  Also please keep in mind that I am not trying to be argumentative here, however I was there when the team was working on the design for Malwarebytes 3 and I recall that the primary driver behind their current design choices was to modernize the UI so that it would fit with the types of interfaces and controls used on other modern software and operating systems.

 

Also, just FYI I'm personally not a fan at all of the plain, flat, touch-friendly look and much preferred the look of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.x, however I also hate the look of things like Android, modern apps and Windows 10 for the same reason (I prefer applications to look like applications, not boring, flat, dated looking websites and I cite this article as an example of my reasoning because to me, there is nothing "modern" about most modern day interfaces, and while some may claim that it somehow conserves resources to load simpler looking UIs, that is patently false as it is no more of a resource draw to load/display a rounded/tinted/shaded/gradient filled/3-D looking button/control/banner etc. than it is to load a flat, single colored, borderless square or rectangle and with modern GPUs, multi-core CPUs and the scale of RAM in the vast majority of systems, the last thing we actually need is lighter software that won't take advantage of our faster, better, more power efficient hardware, but maybe that's just me.

[Nazareno]

To be more specific I mean something like cylance or like deeparmor, cb defender. Thank you very much.  Best regards.

[Nazareno]

I also propose that the program's options be on the web, as Sophos home has. Greetings and thank you very much.

[exile360]

Great, thanks.  You wouldn't have any images or screenshots handy would you?  I only ask because I'm not familiar with how any of those programs look currently and it would help the Devs a lot to have images of the concepts that you're trying to convey.  It's not a problem if not as I'm sure someone from the Product team can locate them, however it would save a lot of time if we had them up front.

Thanks

[Nazareno]

[exile360]

Aside from the colors and the fact that some of their UIs display graphs and diagrams of various kinds, I don't see a lot of difference between those screenshots and the latest Malwarebytes 3 UI.  In fact, the CB Defense UI reminds me a lot of the Malwarebytes 3 UI, not only due to the colors, but also because of the navigation button/tab layout and use of whitespace.  Were there any specific aspects you find superior to how Malwarebytes presents its information, options and its overall layout etc.?

[Nazareno]

The UI has to be as simple as possible. On the web is where are the detections in detail, the configurations, etc.. Thank you very much you can close the topic. I thank you again for your answers. Greetings.

[Nazareno]

Also with this new form for the program would be saved false licenses, keygens, cracks, etc.. Greetings.

[Amaroq_Starwind]

4 hours ago, Solitario said:

The UI has to be as simple as possible. On the web is where are the detections in detail, the configurations, etc.. Thank you very much you can close the topic. I thank you again for your answers. Greetings.

I really don't like being forced to leave the program I'm using to see information pertaining to it. This is a horrible idea...

[exile360]

The main Malwarebytes UI is pretty simple as it is already.  The main Dashboard tab provides a basic summary of your protection status, updates and scans if any are currently in progress and provides a button to start the default Threat scan.  It also displays alert information if there are any issues with protection, outdated databases or detections of threats that need to be dealt with.  The Scan tab provides 3 simple options for the different scan types, describing each to inform the user of what each one checks, the Reports tab shows a list of protection and scan events summarized by the type of event and when it occurred and the user may view the details of each one by double-clicking on any of them if they wish, and likewise the Quarantine tab shows the list of items which have been removed by Malwarebytes up to this point, and the Settings tab is broken down into various sub-tabs providing an easy to navigate interface for controlling every aspect of the software so that users may customize it to their liking and preferences, with all of the controls being touch-friendly and using modern application design and interaction aesthetics.  Up top you have the My Account button which provides easy access to the product's subscription/license information and allows you to log onto My.Malwarebytes.com to manage your licenses and subscriptions and the devices where they have been activated, and to the right of that button is a notification bell which you may click to view a brief list of the most recent detections and protection block events and that's pretty much it, there really isn't anything more to it than that and it's all pretty standard for an anti-malware/security product and is generally quite simple to navigate and use.

With that said, there are a few areas where the settings could improve to be simplified and have better usability such as the advanced Scan Scheduler interface, however the Product team and Developers are already aware of these and do plan to address them in a future release once they are ready to do a more major update to the UI again (likely in version 4.0, assuming that is what it will be called).

In viewing the images posted of those other products, they really seem to follow the same overall basic layout as Malwarebytes, though perhaps a bit busier and arguably 'prettier' looking, however all of those added details and graphs make them look much busier and more cluttered/less simple than the design and layout that Malwarebytes 3 uses currently in my opinion, so if simple is what you're after, I'd argue that Malwarebytes is already there compared to those products, at least based on the images above.

[Nazareno]

Hello, with much difficulty I could make a new UI for Malwarebytes. I'm not a designer, it's just a small job in paint. I look forward to your comments. Thank you very much in advance. Best regards.

[Nazareno]

[David H. Lipman]

No thank you.

 

[exile360]

I tend to agree, I much prefer this:

[Nazareno]

Let's see it's just a sketch made in paint. If you don't want to change to always prefer the official version is up to you. Thank you very much in advance. I'll get off the subject. Cordial greetings.

[exile360]

To be clear, it isn't our decision.  The Product team determines how the program looks based on what the Marketing, UI and UX teams come up with, generally driven by testing, industry trends and user test feedback (they create mockup UIs and designs and have people try them out and comment on which ones they prefer and why and use their feedback to drive their decisions).

I guess I'm just not seeing how Malwarebytes in its current form fails to be modern.  Could some areas be tweaked to improve its functionality and usability?; sure, but I don't think it needs a complete overhaul to make it fit with what the rest of the industry is doing because I personally believe that it already does in its current form, but of course that's just my opinion.  That's why I asked for specifics.  Aside from the obvious difference in color, the only major difference I see between the current UI and the mockup you posted is that it shows the program version info on the main page (information that belongs in the "About" tab in my opinion, which is where most programs display this kind of information, either in a separate tab or even a separate pop-up window; you can locate your browser's about info to see an example) and it shows the user's current IP address which is of questionable utility in my opinion and could pose a risk to privacy and safety if a user ever posts a screenshot of their Malwarebytes Dashboard in public (this is also why this kind of information isn't exposed in the logs created by Malwarebytes and the diagnostic tools we use here on the forums).

If there is something else you would like to see changed let us know and we can report it to the team for review; this again is why I asked for specifics.  Just saying that it needs to be more modern is too general because everyone has their own definition of what "modern" means when it comes to software UIs.  My point is, it's too subjective so they can't act on it.  From their perspective they've already modernized the UI and did so with the launch of Malwarebytes 3 so asking them to further modernize it doesn't give them any new information that they can act on, so if there is anything specific you'd like to see changed please let us know.

So far this is what I've gathered:

• Add 'About' information to the main Dashboard of the UI - I already gave my opinion on this, but again it's not up to me so if they like the idea they could still do it
• Display more reports/historical data on the Dashboard - based on the screenshots of CB, Cylance and DeepArmor, and while Malwarebytes does actually show some of this information already (number of threats detected by real-time protection and scans, protection status, scan status, database/update status etc.) it doesn't show quite as much info as some of the others, primarily because it stores that information in the Reports tab.
• *Darker UI?* - I'm not certain this is being requested, but it does appear to be a trend based on some of the screenshots/examples given (aside from CB which uses a color scheme virtually identical to Malwarebytes 3).

If there's anything else please let us know, and if any of the above items are inaccurate then please clarify.  Please bear in mind that I'm asking for specifics because without them, there's nothing for the team to act upon.  They could try to guess what you're asking for, but unless you're specific, chances are their guesses will miss the mark with regards to what you're looking for (again, obviously you don't agree that the current UI is modern when that's precisely what they were going for when they designed it).

Edited November 23, 2018 by exile360

[David H. Lipman]

It should be noted that there was a time where, in an Honourary Member accessible sub-forum, Malwarebytes' developers did query Forum Member's on their opinion on UI variations.  He/she would example two variations asking us to choose a preference between them.

Alas and unfortiunately, it has been a while since this was last performed.

 

[exile360]

Yeah, as I understand it they now use focus groups and surveys to gather opinions and preferences on UI changes.  I don't think they use the forums for that purpose any more, probably because of the limited scope and visibility of the forums and the tendency for more technical users to hang out on the forums which can skew the results of such efforts since power users/more technical users might not have the same preferences as regular PC users.