[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

On 9/4/2018 at 5:06 PM, Hokusai said:

Jesse,

I don't know how you can be tired of this discussion so quickly. I thought the purpose of this forum was to discuss things and to hash out things. I'm sorry I really don't understand how you think things could be better. If you could expound your ideas a little more then maybe I could better grasp your idea. The only thing I've read that you've posted is you think the forums are a bad way of handling customer service but you didn't give examples or suggest any alternatives. If you truly think so and you'd like to see things improved then offer some suggestions as to how Serif could better handle things. The employees of Serif and the developers do read these forums and if you have a better way of doing things, I'm sure that they'd love to hear it. 

I  really believe that Designer (and the other Affinity Products) are headed in the right direction and I want to do what I can to help make them better and I also like to help new users by helping answer their questions. I think that most of the other advanced users here are the same. How is that putting people off? I'm also not sure how you came to the conclusion that "no one at Serif cares" when you are such a new user with very few posts. Did you post a question that wasn't answered or was it something else? 

Best regards,
Hokusai

You run this board like Affinity Designer is an idealistic pursuit. I'm sure you're convinced I am the problem, that's good, think what you want. Where can I talk to actual Serif customer service staff? This is gross if this is how they are letting their customers be treated.

[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

10 hours ago, Hokusai said:

Jesse,

My post was in response to the post that I read, after that I found your post that preceded it further up the chain and I do see that we both have similar opinions about Adobe. If you only read your second post that point isn't clear (but it is in the first post). I'm not sure why I didn't see your first post but nevertheless I should have seen it. Sorry that you think I'm defensive. I'm not defensive and from what I read here most people who post here are pretty laidback and helpful. In fact most of the people that I interact with here are really nice and helpful. Some are funny and sarcastic but still enjoyable and many are incredibly knowledgeable. 

I'm still interested in hearing about all those companies that you were talking about that have a higher level of transparency than Serif does. I've never seen a company that was as upfront about what they are doing and where they are going with their development as Serif has been. I think it is refreshing and it is surprising to hear anyone claim that Serif is falling short in that regard. As far as customer service goes, from my experiences with Serif over the past 4 years their customer service has been stellar. I lived many years in Japan which has hands down the best customer service on the planet and I would say that Serif's customer service is very Japanese like. To me, Serif's customer service and the developers and other employees who post here on these forums do a remarkable job helping people, listening to complaints, requests (which I can imagine gets annoying after a time), and questions. I'm sure that they even type messages with a smile on their faces. Can you give me an example of where they fall short with their customer service? 

I can understand your point about how Serif markets its software but I disagree. Not all professionals use Adobe's software so saying something is for professionals doesn't mean that something is a replacement for Adobe's stuff. I use Designer the most but I still use Illustrator from time to time. So to me Designer isn't a substitute for Illustrator, it is an alternative to it. I think that many people are like that. Serif is making and supporting its own software and they have their own philosophy on how things should work. Is it for professionals? I think so and it seems that many other professionals do too. Is it for everyone? Only each user can decide. You brought up the issue of comparing it to Adobe so that is why I commented on it. This is a discussion so I would think it is acceptable. You said that I proved your point but to me it wasn't proved at all so if you wouldn't mind going ahead and making a better case for it I'm looking forward to reading it. 

Of course I'm all for improving Designer. I do my best to make suggestions and give feedback in a manner that is civil without being demanding and rude. I too came to Designer from Illustrator and I am willing to put up with a few small inconveniences caused by a lack of a feature or two because I think Designer is headed in the right direction. I like the choices that the developers have made and I trust that they are taking the program in the direction that is best. I wish you the best of luck with learning Designer and I hope that you are successful in your artistic or other graphics related pursuits. 

Best regards,

Hokusai

Honestly I am growing tired of this discussion. I'm done, obviously you all are happy with how this forum is working, I was attempting to make it better but I see now it is what it is. Trust that there are many users like me that are put off by this place, but I get it, no one at Serif cares.  Thanks for taking the time to respond, good luck in your endevours as well!

[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

1 hour ago, rjvela82 said:

That's a misguided assertion. AD is a professional grade tool but that doesn't mean their objective is to replace Adobe. Their objective is to take a significant portion of Adobe's marketshare. That's a very big difference. Serif understands there is no way a world could exist where they are the only players in town and Adobe has been reduced to nothing. It's foolish to think that so why would anyone expect the same or get frustrated that AD doesn't work for them when it works for many many users. 

Was that my point though? I love how many of you keep ignoring my point because you are so triggered by the mere mention of Adobe.. lol Really unfortunate, oh well..

[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

On 9/1/2018 at 1:44 AM, Hokusai said:

Jesse,

I see that you are rather new here so welcome to the forums, Sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you on pretty much all of your points. I don't run into very many bugs using Designer. I would say Designer is similar to or even better than Illustrator in the number of critical bugs. Sure Designer hasn't quite caught up to the number of features that Illustrator has but who in the world would ever expect a relatively new app (coming up on 4 years) to have the same feature set as a program that has been on the market for 30 years?

Has Serif ever marketed their programs as direct replacements for Adobe's? I haven't seen it but maybe they do? If they have, could you please give some examples to support your statement?

It's funny to me that you interpreted that statement as a criticism of Affinity Designer, it wasn't, but defensiveness seems to be the default posture in these forums. Your response is entirely out of context, if you took my comment in context, it being a reply to a comment on my initial posting, you would realize I was actually saying the same thing you are here and throughout your reply. I left Adobe to come to Affinity because of the very reasons you brought up, again all of which I laid out in my initial post..

Secondly I never said "Serif directly marketed their programs as direct replacements for Adobe's", but again, you have missed my point entirely by bringing this line of questioning up. Actually you've proved my point again..  In short, it doesn't matter to what degree you feel, or anyone else feels they have marketed as an Adobe replacement - Since Adobe has such a dominant market share in this space, any software is going to face those comparisons, so to respond by saying "we never said we were like Adobe" is completely pointless. Asking me to prove Serif said it or not? Give me a break, is this an ideological battle? Lol.. It doesn't matter, I am a new user of the software and I am going to want to use it to do tasks I would have used Illustrator for before, me and a whole heap of other users I am sure.. Do you want to learn from what users are experiencing and provide a product that meets their needs or do you want to play semantic games about whether or not comparisons to Adobe are warranted?

[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

27 minutes ago, verysame said:

Very good points, Jesse, there’s definitely food for thought but I’ll cut it short: what you can simply expect is “Serif is a small company with limited resources, hence can’t compete with Adobe”.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my post! I'm sure you get it, but for anyone else who may have been misconstrued by my wording: I am not expecting Affinity to be as feature rich or bug free as Adobe Illustrator, software which has had dozens and dozens of releases over the course of many, many years. What I am saying though is that for Affinity to be taken seriously then there needs to be clear leadership on the part of the Customer Service and Development team to handle customer feedback proactively. The standard in today's business climate, like it or not, is that there be a fairly high level of transparency in the planning and execution of software development. It is also disingenuous, and therefore self destructive, to compete for Adobe's business from a marketing standpoint, then when it comes to delivery using the "we're too small to compete" excuse. I would also mention that being smaller than Adobe is actually an immense strength in terms of development agility. Anyway, I am rambling.. In closing there is a huge market for design software that is untapped, and it is growing all the time as more and more people turn to the gig economy to realize their financial goals. Hopefully Serif is poised and determined to serve that market.

[Progress with the Affinity Designer feature road map (split)]

Wow, this is not an encouraging thread.. lol.. To all the mods, advanced users and Affinity staff, whatever the user complaint is, the reply "Affinity never claimed to be a replacement for Adobe" is a horrible, horrible response. If this software is being marketed as a professional graphic design tool, and it most certainly is, then the idea of using it to replace Adobe products is implied simply by Adobe's current dominance in that space. We all know that Adobe enjoys a relative monopoly as the defacto solution for digital design.  I would hazard to guess that most Affinity users are here to replace Adobe. Especially since Adobe has decided to take advantage of its market position to over charge massively for its subscription model, completely alienating freelancers and any other users that aren't large agencies... So when you respond with that tact it looks very bad, silly and defensive. It doesn't communicate that the Affinity team is committed to publishing professional software that meets the needs of its diverse customer base. Having a lot of impassioned users who want to make the product better is good problems, not bad ones. Now I am wondering if Affinity is actually serious or not. It will be a shame if not, because the software is already really good and innovative, and there is a huge market opportunity right now.. All in all this Forum is a great example of why Forums in general are a crappy way to handle customer service. As a user I have no idea what Serif really thinks about Affinity Designer, and what they are committed to doing with the software. Instead I get a bunch of "Advanced Users" with their own opinions and perspectives..

[A Proper Change Request Forum]

As a new user coming over from Illustrator, I am speaking here strictly to my experiences when encountering features that are not present in Designer. I have become a huge fan of Affinity and I want you to succeed, it is obvious that there is a real need for another great set of software tools for designers today, a conversation for another thread.. lol.  That being said, I find that this suggestion forum is a mess. I think having a forum like this is useful, it allows for conversation and idea exchange. However it should be accompanied by a change request forum that is stricter in its implementation. What I mean is that there should a separate board that has clearly defined rules for posters to follow, that board would be in purpose specifically for new users, as well as devs, to see which changes are being requested the most, and if they have already been requested before we take the time to write up a request. As a busy freelance designer, I want to help make Affinity Designer awesome, but I don't have time to dig through endless suggestion posts. And just making another post to add to the insanity feels like a waste of time.

An implementation may look something like this: 

1) subject line should just clearly state the change being requested, and the body of the comment describe the reason for the request.

2) Only one change suggested per topic.

3) A voting system so if the request has already been made we can second its importance.

I read somewhere along the way that the Devs are worried that these requests will take precedence in the actual development road map, and the users don't understand the constraints and demands of the development cycle. A very valid point, however all that is needed to address this concern is a clear statement pinned to the top of the change request forum outlining that it is not the actual roadmap, and although user feedback is appreciated the Dev team will have the final say. We are all adults, we get it. But making us feel like we are not part of the process, because the only way we can make suggestions is through a cluttered and messy conversational "suggestion" thread is not going to be good for the long term growth of the software. Affinity needs evangelists - empower your users to be excited about sharing your software with others! Trust me, this forum alone would turn off a lot of designers I know from giving Affinity Designer a real chance.

In closing, I am super excited about my first month of using these tools, the software itself is already great and has tons of potential. I am also encouraged by how easily I am usually able to find the help I need with a quick search of these forums, the Customer support team is very quick and helpful to respond. Thanks!

-J

[Place a File via Link not Embed]

I really Love the way embedded files work in Designer, this is much better than Illustrator, it is quick and effective, and it doesn't bloat the size of your file the way it did in Illustrator. However being able to link the file instead of embedding is still needed, especially in workflows where there is more than one person updating the files. I have this problem from time to time, and it sucks to have to remember to go back and re-embed the file, it also can get confusing, depending on how noticeable the changes are. (ie. sometimes it's just subtle positioning, or colour swapping etc. and you don't really notice if the embedded file manually was updated.)

[Customized Transparency Gamut]

Ok this is more of a pet peeve, but I would really like functionality to customize the size and colours of the transparency gamut squares. I hate the default white and light grey squares, I find it very distracting when I am working. Especially since I prefer the dark grey application colour scheme. That being said the way artboards work in Designer kicks ass! And I love that I can finally just change an artboard from transparent to a colour and back again, something I could never do in Illustrator. Kudos for that!

[Seamless Patterns/ Pattern Swatches Feature]

Yes there are usable work-arounds for this feature, but they are immensely slower and painful to work through. Having a way to create seamless patterns right in Designer, similiar to Illustrator, is a must. Sometimes I just want to create a quick seamless pattern for a background or something, it could be simple shapes that I want to use specifically for an effect, or to tie in a certain shape for a client etc. Especially in those moments not having a seamless pattern maker really sucks.

[Better Guides Implementation]

I use guides a lot in laying out my work. I know there is the guides manager, and that is great, it has some cool functionality. But for every day use there needs to be some quicker workflow integration. Meaning guide positions need to be visible in the standard transform panel, so that you can click on a guide, then quickly type a location in the transform panel and the guide will be moved to that position. Secondly, but equally important, turning shapes and lines into guides is a must. It is a much easier and quicker workflow to be able to lay out objects and then convert them to guides.

I am just switching over from Adobe Illustrator which I used for 10 years. Overall I am really excited about Affinity Designer, a lot of the things that you have done different from the typical Illustrator standard are better implementations, once you get used to changing your workflow. For the most part the program is far more intuitive than Illustrator ever was, and I find in the areas were the app is mature I am actually able to work quicker now in Affinity than I was in Illustrator. However there are a few missing features which really are gut punches when you need them.. lol.

[Transform Again Feature]

I used Transform Again all the time in Illustrator, the way that it would allow you to quickly lay out repeated objects in a pattern following a curve, an angle, or intermittent spacing, it's just invaluable. This is my number one feature request and I can't see it being that hard to implement. Maybe it's just me, but I think not having this feature would keep a lot of illustrator users from switching.