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Help screens should say HOW not merely WHAT


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I am trying to use Affinity Photo more, but keep sneaking back to PhotoPlus because it is so much easier to use.  I just can't see how to do things in Affinity - it's not as intuitive.  I wanted to alter the brightness of a photo - basic enough - but couldn't see how to do it in Affinity Photo.  I went to the help screen and searched on 'brightness' and all I got was information that I could alter the brightness which even in my dim state I had sorta guessed, but not HOW to do this.  All I have on my screen is an auto-levels button, not individual buttons for levels.  The help screen had a clever-clever image showing me a photo before and after the brightness was increased (wow, that was useful, you mean that 'after' is brighter than 'before') but not where to find the control to do it.  It also told me that the contrast can be altered, but again not how.

The help screens need work by someone with a new-user perspective (people who already know how to use a function don't need help) and explain clearly HOW not just WHAT.  Many organisations (not just software) make the mistake of getting techies to write the help - techies who already know how things work and forget to mention things that are just obvious to them.  It takes skill to write good help screens and those skills are not engineering ones whether that be equipment (not just computers) or, in this case, software.  Help screens should help, not be just a list of features.

Brightness.JPG

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Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

I think you'll find, for that one, that you're just too deep into the Help. The Help you quoted does tell you how to do it ("Drag the slider..."), but your confusion is a bit broader: "How do I apply adjustments at all" not just "How do I apply a Brightness adjustment".

For that, the "See Also" list at the bottom (which you did not quote) is more relevant, specifically the first entry, Applying Adjustments, which will tell you:

Quote

Adjustments are applied to your image from the Adjustment panel and most include customisable settings alongside general adjustment options.

Adjustment layers only affect layers which are below them. Alternatively, you can make an adjustment a child of a layer (or layer group), thereby affecting that layer (or layer group) only.

And it goes on with more information.

Personally, I think that is the right organization. The program cannot know whether you are experienced enough to understand at least the basic concepts of Adjustments, and just want information about the specific adjustment you asked for, or whether you need the more basic information. It would be annoying, eventually, if it always started with the most basic information instead of the more specific information.

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...not to consider that I would use Curves tool, not Brightness for that kind of task...

It is true that help feature often omits some crucial information. That is quite common with all softwares. 

It is also true that AP is not always intuitive or straightforward with many simple operations, I too tend to use Photoshop or Acorn for them.

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  • 6 months later...

nick graham is absolutely right, thank you. When I was developing s/w help files, the most challenging task - always - was translating engineer-speak from "what" into end-user "how-to", ...the number one reason to not let engineers author help files. All well and good to tell the end-user that they can adjust brightness - for example - , but you must not tell the end user to do something without telling them where to find the icon or panel where that action is located, preferably with an image of the icon or panel, and how to display the icon or panel if it is not already displayed by default.
Where is the Adjustment Panel found? How to get to it? If not displayed, how to display it? 😉

Perhaps something like this (attached image)?219364477_AdjustmentPanel2.jpg.90af8e69181bc18bdc49ceee19e14df8.jpg

Adjustment Panel.jpg

Edited by Elmer Fudd
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2 hours ago, Elmer Fudd said:

nick graham is absolutely right, thank you. When I was developing s/w help files, the most challenging task - always - was translating engineer-speak from "what" into end-user "how-to", ...the number one reason to not let engineers author help files. All well and good to tell the end-user that they can adjust brightness - for example - , but you must not tell the end user to do something without telling them where to find the icon or panel where that action is located, preferably with an image of the icon or panel, and how to display the icon or panel if it is not already displayed by default.
Where is the Adjustment Panel found? How to get to it? If not displayed, how to display it? 

Sigh.

I gave Photo a rough time many times - because the user interface itself in Photo is engineer speak - thus the need to make adjustment layers to images even when it is not necessary at all. Photo truly deserves the bashing and now I looked at the manual... Indeed it doesn't say where! It is true!!!

Video tutorials by the dozen and workbooks to learn how to find and use features that 7 year olds can figure out how to use in seconds in iOS apps and online photo editors!

WAKE UP SERIF! It is 2021! You slept over and missed the millennium celebrations!

haha.gif.1ff4d45e4b470cfd91ba605928a2ab1e.gif

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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