UX recommendations

[gravelfreeman]

UX recommendations after playing with Poznote

Navigation & editing

• There are too many color buttons all over the application. I suggest one clean button template. Green/red only if it is something dangerous only. Right now, red does not mean anything since it has been used everywhere.
• If in edit mode, when switching to another note, go back to view mode automatically.
• Add links/sources to the bottom of notes. Clean integration. It saves time because I do not have to put the link manually in the note. It is also great to have all the sources in a unified format across all your documentation/knowledge base. In the future, it would be nice to be able to save those in applications like Linkwarden, which we could connect with an API key in the options. Because we all know that comments get deleted, forums, etc.
• Opening and closing notes with the middle mouse button would save a lot of time.
• Allow tabs to be reordered with drag and drop.
• The kanban view is very narrow even when there are few folders; dynamic resizing would be beneficial here.
• When viewing a note in read mode, it takes up the whole screen on the right. I prefer a fixed width that is not too wide so it is easier to read. GitHub is a great example. Maybe an option to set what width percentage the user wants. Excluding side-by-side note editing, obviously.
• Embed audio/video in notes, but I believe this would be a feature request.

Settings

• The settings page has too many options. Many are one-time settings I believe should be env vars instead.
• Auto/Light/Dark/Black theme icon switcher in the sidebar.
• When you pin something in the settings page, it stays at the top instead of getting duplicated at the top and in its own section.
• Remove the Recents section from the settings page since the pin feature is more valuable, in my opinion.

AI

• The AI agent prompt needs some work. In my case, gpt-5.4-mini will always refactor/write/edit notes inside the conversation instead of directly in the note. I have to ask it to do it again in the note, wasting tokens.

[timothepoznanski]

UX recommendations after playing with Poznote

Thanks for all your great remarks! Really I appreciate! ❤️

Navigation & editing

• There are too many color buttons all over the application. I suggest one clean button template. Green/red only if it is something dangerous only. Right now, red does not mean anything since it has been used everywhere.

You are right. I did spot this problem. I have to work on that.

• If in edit mode, when switching to another note, go back to view mode automatically.

I will work on that.

• Opening and closing notes with the middle mouse button would save a lot of time.

Done!

• Allow tabs to be reordered with drag and drop.

Done!

• The kanban view is very narrow even when there are few folders; dynamic resizing would be beneficial here.

Are you talking about this feature?

• When viewing a note in read mode, it takes up the whole screen on the right. I prefer a fixed width that is not too wide so it is easier to read. GitHub is a great example. Maybe an option to set what width percentage the user wants. Excluding side-by-side note editing, obviously.

Are you talking about this feature?

• Add links/sources to the bottom of notes. Clean integration. It saves time because I do not have to put the link manually in the note. It is also great to have all the sources in a unified format across all your documentation/knowledge base. In the future, it would be nice to be able to save those in applications like Linkwarden, which we could connect with an API key in the options. Because we all know that comments get deleted, forums, etc.

I will work on that.

• Embed audio/video in notes, but I believe this would be a feature request.

Are you talking about this feature?

Settings

• The settings page has too many options. Many are one-time settings I believe should be env vars instead.

Yes I have to rework this setting page. As for the one-time settings, not everyone use Poznote has a selfhosted instance where they know or have the right to modify env vars. Some don't even know what it is. However, you can still use the following feature to hide cards that you don't want to see:

• Auto/Light/Dark/Black theme icon switcher in the sidebar.

I've wondered about this one many times. For me, it's a one-time setting, so since I want to keep the interface as simple as possible, wouldn't this just add a button that becomes useless once the setting has been configured?

• When you pin something in the settings page, it stays at the top instead of getting duplicated at the top and in its own section.

Hum, I won't do that. It helps me to find quickly the settings that I use all the time without having to deploy all sections

• Remove the Recents section from the settings page since the pin feature is more valuable, in my opinion.

I want to let the user display or hide whatever he wants so normally he should be able to hide this section if he doesn't need it with:

AI

• The AI agent prompt needs some work. In my case, gpt-5.4-mini will always refactor/write/edit notes inside the conversation instead of directly in the note. I have to ask it to do it again in the note, wasting tokens.

Unfortunelty, I think it is a model problem. When you pickup a bigger model, it doesn't do that. But I will work on to see if I can improve it.

[gravelfreeman]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and for being so open to checking these things out.

This is great, but could it cause responsiveness issues on different screen sizes? Maybe a ratio-based setting, or simply a toggle between Full Width and Narrow.

I also think this setting is buried a bit too deep. It could be available directly on the Notes page, since some notes, especially ones with tables, benefit from full width. A quick toggle like this could work well:

---

I've wondered about this one many times. For me, it's a one-time setting, so since I want to keep the interface as simple as possible, wouldn't this just add a button that becomes useless once the setting has been configured?

I personally switch between light and dark themes depending on the time of day or my mood. I'm so used to having this in most apps that I kept looking for it until I realized it wasn't there haha.

---

I just noticed there is one configuration for me and another for my users. I think these could be merged, since regular users already can't see admin-only items.

In my case, having to configure the entire list twice is quite time-consuming.

---

Unfortunelty, I think it is a model problem. When you pickup a bigger model, it doesn't do that. But I will work on to see if I can improve it.

I'll try a bigger model, because right now it's unfortunately unusable for me. I tried showing it to my partner and it wasn't really in a state where I could see it being used in production.

I also found another issue where it tries to use Markdown syntax inside HTML notes. I had to correct it about six times before it got it right, and I was able to reproduce the issue multiple times.

I think the prompt could probably be improved as well.

[gravelfreeman]

Bug regarding mouse click / double click button. Sometimes the same note can be opened twice. I tried replicating it but I can't now I've moved the problematic note.

[timothepoznanski]

Some requests have been implemented into the latest release -> https://github.com/timothepoznanski/poznote/releases/tag/6.70.0

[gravelfreeman]

@timothepoznanski I'm really happy to see that my feedback is being received positively, and I'm glad my UI/UX experience can be useful here.

Here's round 2! I'll stop for today though, I need to get back to work.

UX Recommendations Part 2

Sidebar & Note Tree

Undo / Redo Support

If you make a mistake while organizing notes in the sidebar, such as moving or deleting a note/folder, there is currently no way to undo it.

It would be useful to support:

• Ctrl+Z → Undo
• Ctrl+Shift+Z → Redo

Copy / Cut / Paste Shortcuts

Add standard keyboard shortcuts for notes and folders:

• Ctrl+C → Copy
• Ctrl+X → Cut
• Ctrl+V → Paste

These actions should also be available from the contextual menu.

Drag-and-Drop Note Ordering

Notes currently cannot be manually reordered using drag and drop.

I suggest allowing notes to be reordered the same way folders currently are.

Inline Create / Rename

When creating or renaming a note/folder, the name should be edited directly inside the tree instead of using a popup.

This would make the interaction faster and prevent users from having to find the newly created item again afterward.

Highlight the Current Folder Tree

When folder trees become large, it can be difficult to see which folder hierarchy you are currently working in.

It would be useful to visually dim items that are outside the current folder tree.

For example, in this screenshot, Cours 1 and Cours 2 could be dimmed:

---

Creation Workflow

Improve the (+) Button

The (+) button should open a dropdown menu instead of leaving the current page to display a list of creation options.

The dropdown could display icons alongside the available item types.

Keep "Create Here" Inside the Contextual Menu

When pressing Create here:

It would be better to open a submenu by replacing the previous contextual menu, instead of a separate popup:

This keeps the user in the same interaction context.

I would also simplify the available creation options.

Include

Only include items that directly belong in the note tree:

• Folder
• HTML Note
• Markdown Note
• Diary Entry

Exclude

• Task List
  See the Tasks in Notes + Global Kanban feature request.

• Shortcut
  This would make more sense inside the contextual menu of an existing note.

• Template
  This would also make more sense inside the contextual menu of an existing note.

• Kanban Structure
  This is essentially a folder preset that creates several folders at once and does not need to be a separate note type.

• Workspace
  See the Workspace Management recommendation

---

Contextual Menus

Add Visual Separators

The contextual menu currently contains many actions without visual grouping.

Adding subtle separators would make larger menus easier to scan.

For example, related actions could be grouped together:

• Create
• Open / Edit
• Copy / Cut / Paste / Duplicate / Move
• Delete

Simplify Contextual Menu Options

Too many options can make a menu harder to use. I would keep the contextual menu focused only on actions related to the workspace tree.

More note-specific, destructive, or advanced actions should instead stay in the ... menu when the note is opened.

Move Out of the Workspace Tree Context Menu

• Attachments
• Share Note
• Snapshots
• Search and Replace
• Information
• Print
• Download
• Convert to HTML
• Set Reminder

Same principle applies for the Folder items.

Favorite

Remove Favorite from the contextual menu and replace it with a star icon next to the ... button beside the note title.

This makes favoriting faster and more visible.

General Principle

Each menu should only contain actions related to the part of the UI the user is currently interacting with.

For example:

• Workspace tree contextual menu → actions related to organizing notes and folders.
• Opened note ... menu → actions related to the current note itself.

The opened note menu already mostly follows this approach, so the same principle could be applied more strictly to the workspace tree menu.

Duplicate Folders

Add a Duplicate option to the folder contextual menu.

Duplicating a folder should also duplicate all of its notes and subfolders.

This would make it easy to create reusable folder structures and use them as templates.

---

Workspace Management

Managing workspaces through /workspaces.php currently requires too much searching.

A new user may have to:

1. Look through the current page.
2. Search the sidebar icons.
3. Realize workspace management is probably under Settings.
4. Search through several Settings sections.

I suggest adding an option such as:

Edit Workspaces

at the bottom of the workspace list, separated visually from the actual workspaces.

Selecting it would open /workspaces.php.

I currently have the Workspaces settings pinned at the top, but a new user is unlikely to know that this exists.

This is particularly important during onboarding, since users often decide very quickly whether an application feels intuitive enough to keep using.

---

Kanban View

Include Subfolders

The Kanban view currently does not include subfolders such as the Exercices écrit folder in this example:

It would be useful for folders and subfolders to appear recursively in the Kanban view.

Subfolders should ideally be collapsible so users can expand them only when needed.

Folder Completion State

Folders could display a completion indicator based on their contents.

For example:

• If every note/task inside a folder and its subfolders is completed, show a checkmark on the folder.
• Otherwise, show it as incomplete.

It would also be useful to allow users to mark an entire folder as complete/incomplete.

Because this could modify many items at once, a confirmation dialog should appear:

Are you sure you want to mark all notes in this folder and its subfolders as completed?

The same behavior should apply when unchecking the folder.

[timothepoznanski]

https://giphy.com/embed/lJnAXeJO8tE7E37mxq

😅

[timothepoznanski]

Thanks so much @gravelfreeman for all these great remarks. 😊 I'll work on it as soon as possible.

[timothepoznanski]

About this one:

I just noticed there is one configuration for me and another for my users. I think these could be merged, since regular users already can't see admin-only items.

In my case, having to configure the entire list twice is quite time-consuming.

---

What about if as an admin, for example, you want to see the button "Shares" on you UI but don't want your users to see it?

[gravelfreeman]

Both interface merged into one popup with 3 columns :

1. Option Name/Description
2. User Checkbox
3. Admin Checkbox

[timothepoznanski]

Ohhh I see! Good point! Thanks!

[timothepoznanski]

Latest release implement few of your suggestions.
However, I still have more work to do on this discussion.