This new interface is absolutely terrible. It looks like someone slapped a poorly designed touchscreen interface inside some kind of crappy HTML+JS wrapper or non-win32 native framework which makes the whole UI laggy and unresponsive. Some major annoyances I've noticed:
- The UI is too 'noob friendly', several advanced options are hidden or simply buried deep inside the application. You need more and more clicks to find an item that should otherwise be accessible on the main screen. e.g: update and application history, custom scans, system status etc. This was not an issue 2-3 years back with earlier versions. Unnecessarily long and poorly worded childish descriptions in some places, especially those in in 'Components'.
- Awful colour scheme with disproportionate iconography, not to mention the blurry text inside the settings section and the fact that the 'Component' section randomly scrolls when you've disabled something.
- Waste of space throughout the application due to the touchscreen/mobile oriented design, this is prominent in the 'Status' section where all you see is 'You're Protected' and that's all, no details, nothing else.
- Inconsistency due to the usage of different design patterns, e.g. drop down menus in general settings, toggles with icons in the next section, checkboxes in other places but large fat icons in the main screen. If you're going to use transitions and slide out menus in one place you'd better apply them throughout the whole app and eliminate older design patterns like the countless popup windows (scan history, virus chest) or the act of having to scroll through those endless drop down menus (which is somewhat laggy) in 'Settings', something which itself could be replaced by a simple and intuitive tabbed design.
- The way scans are handled is abhorrent, I couldn't find a sane and straightforward way to configure how the 'Smart Scan' works from the 'Protection' section. From what I've noticed you can't even view the scan results unless you select 'Resolve All' which implies that Avast devs may somehow think that users are too dumb to take their own actions. If you ignore the scan results the app will constantly complain about it (again no visible option to dismiss that) in the Status section. Yep, there are "A couple of things to fix", that's what we're told but we have no ability to view what those are. "Smart Scan has finished - Show Results", once again I can't hide that unless I resolve all, which is ironical because I cannot see a detailed view of what needs to be resolved in the first place. If you think that few green ticks and red crosses are enough you're dead wrong. - That's poor design right there.
- The way notifications are handled is nonsensical, I hope you realise that this is a PC application so quit copying the Android notification panel, or at least the swipe to dismiss notification actions. Also, why the hell should the notification section cover the whole goddamn main app section?
- I couldn't find something like a unified recent activity or security history section (like in Norton) which would list all events (full scan reports, logged network/application activity, alerts, detected threats, quarantined items, recent updates etc) performed or encountered by the Avast. It's like we're given less and less control over what the app is actively doing in background. e.g if an Avast executable is doing something and using a high amount of disk I/O, I shouldn't need to launch resource monitor/resmon to know that something is being automatically scanned. Avast itself should display feedback or an indication within the main screen/tray icon that X or Y action is being done. Additionally that event and its details would need to be logged in that 'recent activity' section.
As a longtime (8+ years) user who was accustomed to earlier versions of Avast Internet Security with proper decent UIs, this kind of pointless change is infuriating. I understand that most of your userbase may be average joes with limited technical knowledge but at least give us a choice, an option to disable, remove and purge that new interface and provide us with something more professional. I wonder if you even did some usability testing before pushing such intrusive changes.