Consistent design for + button

[agschaid]

I am afraid I don't really "get" the idea behind the + button on the bottom right corner and would like to propose a simpler design (or a more consistent design)

Use Case / Current Design

In the bottom right corner there is a floating button with a + on it

I would strongly expect a + button to create another note. However clicking the button actually expands a little "tool menu" and turns the "+" to an "x"

A click on the top "+" now takes me to the creation screen.
A click on the magnifying glass puts the search bar on top into focus, places the cursor there, collapses the "tool menu" and opens the keyboard.
A click on the "x" collapses the "tool menu" back into the "+" button.

Proposed Change

I like to have things quite streamlined and I like to do things in one single way.

As it is now I need to do two clicks (instead of one) to create a new note and I need to do two clicks (instead of just tapping the top searchbar) to get to the search.

I would suggest to drop the "tool menu" all together and just let the single "+" button take the user directly to the "add new note" screen.

Additionally

I guess that one button and tool menu might have been added to increase "single hand usability".
But I think that the same could be achieved by dropping the search bar from the top to the bottom of the screen.

Alternative Approaches (optional)

If you want to keep the layout as is I would strongly suggest to change the label and the coloring:

• I feel that the single "+" button should not be a "+" since that is quite misleading. I think it should rather have a "three-dot" icon or a wrench (to indicate tools)
• When expanded the now actual "+" button has a different color than the magnifying glass and the "x" button. I find this confusing since it indicates that the "+" is somehow fundamentally different from the magnifying glass or the "x". I think the "+" and the magnifying glass should have the same color (since they are both tools) and it should be the "x" (closing the tool box) that should have a different color.

[wiiznokes]

Thanks for the interest on improving the app.
I think the floating button was initially opening directly the page to create a note. But I changed for the reason you described. I agree that the icon is not really explicit, but the animation, and the two other icon makes this pretty simple imo.
I'm not a fan of changing the search bar to the bottom, and we still need to have the setting button.

I'm not even sure I want to make this configurable because I can see a long term future, where the + button is able to create an audio note, or a drawing.

Fyi, the app "keep" made by Google has a design close to this