Affnity 1.8 - New Document Interface

[derei]

I'm really pleased with all the new features and improvements in the new version of Affinity Software. Great work, thank you!

One major change I noticed to be the New Document interface, which tries to copy the Adobe style. Getting in trend isn't a bad thing. However, copying for the sake of it I believe it is a very bad thing. In my experience so far, I learned that every feature must have a very clearly defined functional purpose, and not to be there only because it looks cool, or because "other did it too".

This being said, the following are a series of suggestions which I believe would help improving the New Document interface for all your products. I hope they will be considered and if deemed worthy, implemented (an image is worth 1000 words, so I made an image for you):

 

[dominik]

20 minutes ago, derei said:

This being said, the following are a series of suggestions which I believe would help improving the New Document interface for all your products. I hope they will be considered and if deemed worthy, implemented (an image is worth 1000 words, so I made an image for you):

Hello @derei,

in my observation new features tend to have some rough edges. I agree that some things in the new dialogue can be improved a little.

Two things came to mind, though:

1. the DPI setting changes correctly here in AD, APub and APh. I wonder what may be the difference between our two setups. I'm on Windows.
2. The font for the page format setting has to work for different amounts of text. Admittedly 'A1' looks rather small in that rectangle but it also has to work for e.g. 'Social media square post'.

Cheers,
d.

[derei]

1 hour ago, dominik said:

in my observation new features tend to have some rough edges. I agree that some things in the new dialogue can be improved a little.

Two things came to mind, though:

1. the DPI setting changes correctly here in AD, APub and APh. I wonder what may be the difference between our two setups. I'm on Windows.
2. The font for the page format setting has to work for different amounts of text. Admittedly 'A1' looks rather small in that rectangle but it also has to work for e.g. 'Social media square post'.

This post is not meant to be a criticism, but a suggestion. I would have not spent my time drawing and taking screenshots if I just wanted to rant about something what bothers me. I did observe the interface can be easily improved and I offered my suggestion as designer, exactly because new features tend to have some rough edges. And as a user I'm always happy to provide my feedback.

For pct.1:

I'm on Windows (still Win7). Tried on all three software. Behavior is similar: the preset DPI will not change when switching between different presets. This is a standard feature, designing for certain applications requires different DPI, so it should come into the help of the user by suggesting the most common dpi value for the need (300 dpi for print, 72 or 96 for various screens, etc). Please check the attached video (was made for AD, but the other two are the same).

For pct.2:

I understand the reasoning, but "the needs of the many vs the needs of the few"... most templates come with fewer characters, where a bigger font will be just fine. The longer titles, as 'Social media square post' can be written on two lines. No sane UX designer would sacrifice the user experience for a 4 words title. In my view, is way more important that the user has a comfortable experience overall, by easily choosing a page size without having to think too much, compared to the fact that one or two templates may have to suffer in some way. There are always solutions, what matters is the intended result: do we want to make it better for the users, or we stick with some nonsense pattern because we are attached towards it?

[dominik]

19 minutes ago, derei said:

This post is not meant to be a criticism, but a suggestion. I would have not spent my time drawing and taking screenshots if I just wanted to rant about something what bothers me. I did observe the interface can be easily improved and I offered my suggestion as designer, exactly because new features tend to have some rough edges. And as a user I'm always happy to provide my feedback.

I did not read your post as criticism and my intention was to add in a constructive way to your suggestion. Especially in regard to the DPI setting, because it would be of great help if there is some bug burried.

For me the DPI value only changes when I click on a preset itself. Not when clicking on the different sections at the top.

d.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, derei said:

This post is not meant to be a criticism,

If this is true, I do not fully understand most of your contribution.

5 hours ago, derei said:

One major change I noticed to be the New Document interface, which tries to copy the Adobe style. Getting in trend isn't a bad thing. However, copying for the sake of it I believe it is a very bad thing. In my experience so far, I learned that every feature must have a very clearly defined functional purpose, and not to be there only because it looks cool, or because "other did it too".

In your words, it seemed as if the dialogue was totally bad, but you came up with only minor improvements (a larger description and the need to remove some of the initial deficiencies).

[derei]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

In your words, it seemed as if the dialogue was totally bad, but you came up with only minor improvements (a larger description and the need to remove some of the initial deficiencies).

In my own words, if you copy something, copy it to make it better, not a cheaper version. Makes sense?

Let me say it again, for you to understand (i'm worried that you often skip the essential):

If you come up with your new original, never seen before idea, then you can say "well, is new, is a bit rough, we'll see how it catches and we will adjust it". But when someone else came with an idea and you just copy it, then make sure your copy brings something considerably better, improve it.

[derei]

4 hours ago, dominik said:

For me the DPI value only changes when I click on a preset itself. Not when clicking on the different sections at the top.

I just tried that, indeed it changes the dpi depending on the actual page size (when clicking on it), you are correct.
Thank you.

[dominik]

4 minutes ago, derei said:

I just tried that, indeed it changes the dpi depending on the actual page size (when clicking on it), you are correct.
Thank you.

Good to see that it works for you, too.

d.

[GarryP]

Just to add my twopenn'orth to the discussion, I think it might be nice – not essential, but nice – if we could have a bit more information in the thumbnails, such as Colour Format, Margins and Bleed, see attached image. This might make it easier for people to choose the correct document type, especially in the My Presets area where things aren’t organised as well as in the other types.