Suggestion for BitDefender products GUI

Hello everyone,

I have to say this is a very good topic. I like to fantasize and I was thinking of several themes that you could use in the UI. I truly believe this would be something really cool to have. I know it's not a media player, but i think that any interface, no matter the product, should provide such customization options. This way, the user won't get bored as time goes by and it could also boost interaction with the respective product. And you will get the feeling that you are using something new and fresh with every improvement.

But this isn't something that can be done easily, I guess. I think there are also other reasons for which some UI stays the same over the years, such as familiarity for the user. I'm not reluctant to change, but there are few things that are more frustrating to me than having to start from scratch with a product that I could configure with my eyes closed before. It's like when you go to the supermarket and they have all the products rearranged. So before, you could grab your groceries instinctively and now they are scattered on different shelves and you have to reset what you knew and start over. Same thing happens whenever someone decides to change something that was working fine before, just for the sake of a refresh. And because reinventing things takes vision and innovation, many end up screwing things or making them worse than before.

There is a saying: if something isn't broken, don't try to fix it.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting perspective and I will ask some opinions from the brand and design teams, to see if there are any prospects to upgrade the UI in the near future.

Cheers and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

This is really going the ideation route, I love it.

I can't wait to collect this feedback and send it to our developers on Monday morning :)

@getaid Let's first agree to disagree, right? 🙂

I think it's great to have so much diversity and different perspectives on things, because this is the real path to improvement and innovation, when someone comes with an idea or suggestion and someone else challenges it. This is how we learn, because most of the time we could be focused solely on our view on things and if no one challenges it, we would never find out what are the possible faults and weak points. It's impossible to see them all, by yourself. And when challenged, one can built on it and come up with an even better idea or concept, with the contribution of others.

Going back to our main topic, I think that in the past years, the main focus was on innovation, technology and research, but also on developing the solution set. The first half of 2022 was a busy period for our teams, with new products and services emerging one after another. In just six months, Password Manager, Antivirus Free for Windows, Identity Theft Protection, the Ultimate Security bundle and Safety Check were launched, culminating with a brand new website design and adding the relaunch of this Expert Community. But these developments and their implementation required preparation, investment, testing, resources and more.

Knowing the amount of work that was carried out in the background, I can understand why redesigning the graphical user interface was not a priority. Of course, this doesn't mean that the GUI will stay the same forever, surely there will be updates at some point. Frankly, I like the current graphics, they are clean and intuitive. This layout is the creation of the brilliant design minds we have here at Bitdefender. And it was conceived with the user experience in mind. The ease of use is the primary rule or principle on which this GUI is based.

I also like @Gjoksi's example. Mercedes is a good example. But what about Porsche? They've been using the same shape for almost 60 years with the 911 and they are one of the most recognizable brands on the planet. 🙂

The technological landscape evolves rapidly and we should do our best to keep up with it, but I think we should also keep some distinctive elements, something that is unique to the brand and makes the product easily recognizable and user friendly at the same time.

Cheers

As for the GUI, any changes or future plans to upgrade it are subject to business and internal strategy decisions that I cannot disclose. So I cannot confirm nor dismiss this, as i'm sure you understand :)

Hello thank you for your feedback,

The current Bitdefender interface is precisely all the charm of this antivirus. whether or not it changes the importance is what's under the hood and Bitdefender beats all competitors.

I understand and approve of those who want the dashboard to evolve or change, even when the Security Widget disappeared we had fought internally to bring it back, something the product service had taken into account and had spent many days has paufinated his return.

I apologize for my bad English I translate

Hi @Scott

Yikes! Yes, you are right. I completely forgot to mention the bugs you described (password protection disabling itself, trouble with profile settings and so on).

Guess, I was already so used to them that I missed them out while I was jotting down my post. 😊

The UI is fine with me, we can also choose between white or darkmode :) and thats a big plus.

Honestly, I think the current UI is good as it currently is, I don't think it should be changed.

My only suggestion is to be able to completely exit Bitdefender for the reasons I have discussed in my post: https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/91650/exit-bitdefender#latest

And also for Bitdefender to have have password protected uninstall, as the settings passwords is completely useless if it's not enforceable when trying to uninstall: https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/94809/password-protected-uninstall#latest

Hello,

Just following up on this thread. Based on the feedback received from the community members, the developers worked to refresh the interface on Windows and the latest build 27.0.27.125 brings some nice visual improvements.

Regards,

Alex

Hello,

I'll share a bit more insight here.

Based on the feedback received from the community, the developers worked to refresh the interface on Windows and brought some visual improvements.

As pointed out by one of our product managers earlier on this thread, the existing UI design addresses both users who want to easily change/check something, and those who want to fiddle more with everything that’s included.

We start from a good base that was developed not long ago and it's undeniably a design that's working, so it doesn't make sense to overhaul it, at least not now. There is also data & user feedback to back this up. Like Thomas Bertram once said: "don't fix it if it's not broken", so the general consensus is that we should not try to change something that is performing well and in our case, covers a wide variety of needs. However, analyzing the feedback received here, the developers decided to make some small adjustments, in order to enhance the interaction with the product and increase consistency cross-platform.

Although it may not seem much at first, during this "facelift" the below operations were carried out. It is possible that the interface adjustments are not limited to these, but I have included those that are worth mentioning, from the user's perspective:

• Rounded corners and a more visible delimitation of the interface limits on light mode;
• More visible branding in the title bar;
• Light mode refresh that adheres to our evolving design guidelines;
• For microinteractions: animated status icon, animated menu transitions, subtle animation for the menu icons;
• Autopilot recommendations with a dismissable interface and better transitions between them and also confirmation feedback on the positive cta.

Again, this is not to be considered a major overhaul of the UI.

Regards,

Alex