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Bad UX in FX menu / bottom bar. Solutions offered.


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Problems: 1) In the course of changing FX parameters, I will tend to touch an empty area on the screen (sometimes by accident, sometimes thinking to de-select the current object and move on to a different task, etc.). It instantly messes up my FX parameters. This is annoying.

2) de-selecting yourself out of the FX menu, or selecting a different object, is a pain because you have to select the move tool, then click on your new object, then click back on your desired FX. This is too many steps, and requires selecting a tool that you don't actually want to use (ex. move).

3) when you turn an FX on, the bottom bar does not automatically update to show the FX you just enabled. You have to hit the name of the FX instead. This is unintuitive.

 

Solutions: 1) if you hit an empty area on the screen, the FX menu does not change parameters.

2) to edit a different object's FX, simply click that object to have the bottom bar / FX side studio menu change and reflect that object's settings.

3) if you turn an FX on, change the bottom bar to that FX's setting.

 

Other thoughts: It other tools and studio interfaces in the program, you can tap an empty spot on the screen to de-select the current object. Or you can tap another object to select that one. Then, the bottom toolbar applies to that newly selected object. FX settings, however, don't work that way. I feel like I constantly have to second-guess what I'm doing when working with FX. "Will this accidentally mess up the parameters I just set? Am I working with the right object? Why don't I see the settings for the FX I just turned on?" etc.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Agreed. I just found this weird behavior today while trying out Affinity Photo on iPad for the first time since my original two posts here (I found it unusable at that point and have ignored it for almost three years). When the FX palette is open, tapping in the image should absolutely NOT toggle a setting!

• iMac 12,2, 16GB RAM, with Mac OS 10.13.6 (17G14033), Wacom Intuos3 9x12
• iPad Pro 12.9" 1st gen & Apple Pencil

http://dysamoria.com

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Agreed! I added FX to an object 3 or 4 times because I kept automatically tapping empty space to ‘finish’ which actually cancelled the changes I’d made. Very frustrating. The menu makes it feel like the edits are saved as you are making them, rather than requiring a commit through choosing the move tool.

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Unfortunately, the concern you’re noting (and thanks for the effort to write it up!) requires pretty substantial redesign in the program logic. If only it had been properly storyboarded in the first place....

There are a lot of UI UX issues in the app, even in the “Show ’Help’ Labels” button which doesn’t tell me what the tiny icons (align to path, etc) mean, and as they’re so small i can barely see them, I can never remember what they do.

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