[Feature Request] Fast Export and Restart

[BunteStadt]

Hi,
first of all, thank you for this great app. It has fully replaced M356 Scanner for me, and I’ve been using it daily for about a month without any issues.

My typical workflow is scanning multiple documents in a row without renaming files, changing the save location, or sharing them. I always use the default name and default export location.

For this use case, the current workflow requires quite a few clicks:

1. Scan all images
2. Click Export
3. Click Save
4. Click End Scan
5. Click New Scan
6. Start again

It would be very helpful to have a single button like:

“Export to default location with default name, end scan, and start new scan”

This would reduce the workflow to:

1. Scan all images
2. Click the new button
3. Start scanning again

This would significantly speed up repetitive scanning workflows.
Thanks again for the excellent work on this app.

[pynicolas]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of your workflow, it's very clear and helpful.
I just tried it by myself: I scanned 10 documents in a row and I understand the feeling of repetitive clicks that you shared.

FairScan's UI was mainly designed to be very simple to use for occasional scans. I didn't initially have an intensive workflow like the one you describe in mind.

I think the current process is easy to understand because each step is explicit and predictable. Adding shortcuts or workflow-specific actions is something I'm cautious about, because it can make the UI harder to understand for many users.

I need some time to think about how (or if) this kind of workflow could be supported without compromising simplicity. Thank you.

[BunteStadt]

Hi @pynicolas

I can understand this, and I like the easy-to-use workflow.

Background:
I am trying to digitalize all my paper mail documents, which I think is a growing "trend", for example with the large Paperless-ngx project, but many other options as well. From my research, there are either proprietary or very bad mobile scanners, so your scanner really fills a gap here. However, this digitalization often includes scanning several documents, and as you already experienced, this can get somewhat annoying.

I understand that your main focus user group is another one; however, I can imagine that it is possible to account for both user groups.

I have these two UX ideas:

Option 1:
On the "home screen", add an option "bulk scan", which starts this shortened workflow.

Option 2:
When inside the scan workflow, add a button on the left to "save and start new scan".

Both buttons could be hidden until enabled in the settings, which would then not occlude the "basic user" workflow.

[pynicolas]

Thanks a lot for the additional context and for taking the time to describe your use case in more detail. It makes total sense, and I understand why this kind of workflow matters when doing large-scale document digitization.

At the moment, I'm trying to keep FairScan centered around a single, simple workflow rather than introducing modes or shortcuts that are specific to certain usage patterns, even if they are valid ones. I'm a bit reluctant to hide advanced actions behind settings, as that often adds conceptual complexity rather than reducing it.

That said, I do think there's room to improve things by reducing friction for everyone, for example by rethinking parts of the flow to require fewer explicit steps overall. Doing that properly would require a more global UI rethink, so it's not something I'm going to tackle anytime soon, but I'll keep your feedback in mind when I do.

Thanks again for the thoughtful discussion and for using FairScan.