Improve user experience Netbird desktop app

[bareksml]

Describe the problem

When user double clicks the tray icon (or the desktop shortcut) nothing happens. No window gets opened so user thinks that app has crashed or it is not working at all.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Install netbird
2. Double click the desktop shortcut
3. Get confused because nothing happens

Expected behavior

The advantage of Netbird client is that it should be dead simple for every user, regardless of experience. Current behaviour defeats this advantage by being confusing.

I know it is tray app however in general netbird lacks a proper status window where user could see the status of connection without guessing. Note that green chevron on the tray icon is small and may be poorly visible, also guessing from the status of (Connect/Disconnect) in right click menu is semi readable.

I suggest that:

1. Netbird app started from autostart should be visible as it.
2. Netbird app started as double click should:

• make sure that try app is running
• case connection already confiured: display status window
• case fresh install or no connection present: initialize a connection setup (same as rmb->connect)

3. Double click on a tray icon should:

• case connection already confiured: display status window
• case fresh install or no connection present: initialize a connection setup (same as rmb->connect)

4. Status menu item should be added to the rmb menu on a tray icon

Are you using NetBird Cloud?

yes

NetBird version

v0.39.2

Is any other VPN software installed?

no

[nazarewk]

To summarize what I understood:

• a new GUI view for the kind of information netbird status presents
• you want it to pop up after the app gets started from a shortcut/menu
• you want to put it under double click of the tray menu

The Tray already seems to react to a single click (by opening up menu) on all 3 supportes operating systems (Windows, MacOS & Linux).

I have indeed noticed Windows just hides the tray item after opening it up, any idea if it's possible to make it "sticky" by default?

[bareksml]

@nazarewk

Just try thinking like inexperienced office user without IT background. User clicks the shortcut , nothing visible happens in a foreground. Try to figure out the status of connection - it is hardly visible by this green chevron only.

For that reason i have proposed to add status page so it can be disaplayed on double clicks.
I have also proposed to initialize connection on double click when there is no connection already configured.
The autostart for tray app can have commandline switch to prevent this behavior messing up a tray app autostart.

[mlsmaycon]

@bareksml thanks for opening this request and sharing your view. Can you clarify a few points?

• How do you see the status window? What content would be displayed?
• Should we display this window for a few seconds to give peace of mind to users? Or should they close it manually?
• For a fresh install, we can't try to connect on double click because it would attempt to connect to our cloud environment. Is doing so after the first connection a good improvement, too?

[TheRizzock]

Not sure if "1. Netbird app started from autostart should be visible as it." means the tray app should open after windows boot (or any os really). This would be great because in UX a majority of users wont understand why it is or isn't there sometimes. Working on a mac solution but I have a work around that applies a reg key at:

HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Name: NetBird
Type: String
Value: C:\Program Files\NetBird\netbird-ui.exe

[bareksml]

Hello,

@mlsmaycon usual thing for the status window (showing green/red icon for connected disconnected) maybe some basic statistics.

@nazarewk the tray icon behavior is not the issue here. Issue is that user gets a shortcut on desktop so the natural next step is double clicking the shortcut. Nothing happens therefore i propose status window or something similar just to avoid the confusion. Regular user does not care if this is tray app or windowed app.

[YapWC]

proper status window where user could see the status of connection without guessing

I think what @bareksml saying does make sense. User will normally expect UI to be consistent across platforms whether it is on Mobile or Desktop. On Mobile by default it shows the peers connection and in an instant I will know whether am I connected and also who is connected or disconnected.

Without having the peer list on Desktop Client it will confuse majority of user who are not well versed with IT technicalities. I believe this simple implementation of peers list on Netbird Desktop will create a huge difference to user experience by multiple fold.

As for the double click on shortcut and nothing happens confusion mentioned, I believe a direct pop up of connection and peers list/status should be sufficient.

[bareksml]

So let me share today experience.

For a period of one month users were told:
"please use netbird domain to connect the service in a secure way, we leave old way as a backup"

Yesterday i started switching the clients to the internal netbird domain which points to cgnat address. Today morning there is a couple of people who has connection issues. After investigation it is clear that they havent connected to netbird for a whole month. Some of them claim that they are connected yet i see coresponding peers inactive.

I see a straight path between bad client experience and having a questions about alternatives. This is natural when client's can't distinguish if they are connected or not and they bounce the support all over again.

[nazarewk]

Issue is that user gets a shortcut on desktop so the natural next step is double clicking the shortcut. Nothing happens therefore i propose status window or something similar just to avoid the confusion. Regular user does not care if this is tray app or windowed app.

Without having the peer list on Desktop Client it will confuse majority of user who are not well versed with IT technicalities.

As for the double click on shortcut and nothing happens confusion mentioned, I believe a direct pop up of connection and peers list/status should be sufficient.

Those are great pieces of feedback, we will take them into consideration.

---

Yesterday i started switching the clients to the internal netbird domain which points to cgnat address. Today morning there is a couple of people who has connection issues. After investigation it is clear that they havent connected to netbird for a whole month. Some of them claim that they are connected yet i see coresponding peers inactive.

@bareksml Can you provide more details on the case?

1. What makes users think/claim that they are connected?
2. Is the Tray icon showing as connected while it's not? If it's the case, then it's a bug and it would be great to get as many details on it as possible

[bareksml]

@nazarewk

Sorry but things went quite urgent today so i had limited time for investigation.

ad 1. I guess they see the tray icon or they assume client is connected by the fact the connect option in rmb menu is grayed out.
ad 2. That's what i have seen some time ago but can't recall the detail. Netbird is based on stateless wireguard and i had the same experience with wireguard clients too.

Maybe the stateless nature of wireguard should lead into conclusion that as soon as user clicks connect the client should report establishing connection state. Later it should evolve into connected only if fully functional tunnel is established. For example by inspecting the keepalive status. IDK if that idea is valid for mesh yet maybe it is a good question to ask.