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Dreariest new editing interface?


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As with Photoshop and other programs, I am completely baffled at the idea of taking a superpowered GRAPHICS program and wrapping it in the dreariest, least contrasty, and least readable interface possible.

Imagine that a new smart device hits the market, better than anything you’ve seen before, hooked up to all the music you could dream of…but the volume is limited to 4 out of 10. Would you be happy with it? Would you accept all the reviewers raving about all the great music you can get with this new device, and ignoring the end user experience?

Just because Adobe pioneered the grayest and least readable interface and controls in history does not mean you have to emulate them.

There is a reason books and magazines have white pages with dark lettering.

There is a reason Apple has white web pages with dark lettering.

There is a reason that the easiest signs to read, and the ones your eyes gravitate toward the fastest have white backgrounds with dark lettering.

There is a reason THIS VERY FORUM has a light background with heavy dark lettering.

Brain science for years has proven that the brain reacts fastest and experiences the most comfort with the highest contrast; the worse the contrast, the longer it takes the brain to comprehend what it’s seeing, and the least comfortable the experience is.

If books and magazines had dreary gray backgrounds with dreary gray lettering or icons, not only would your head hurt trying to read them for more than a minute, you would simply not accept it.

Yet here we are with the ironic design of a really, really remarkable editing program with one of the most visually difficult interfaces available.

We work in an office with lots of windows and lights. We also have computers and devices with glass screens. Often we have reflections we have to work with, and when we do, the programs that work best are the ones with the best contrast. A set of icons on a dreary gray background with a difference in luminosity of maybe 10% is going to die under a reflection on the screen. So will dreary lettering. If it doesn’t, we are going to have to work that much harder to see what’s there.

How can you not know this?

How can you know this and design it this way anyway?

It’s the visual equivalent of your music device being locked at low volume. If you put yourself in the right environment you’ll be able to enjoy your music just fine. But go outside, or get on a train, or have people talking around you… I think you get my point.

This is not to take away from the brilliant work you’ve done with this app. Not at all. But working with a very low contrast interface takes away from our efficiency significantly, whatever program we’re using.

Might there be a clearer, brighter interface for Affinity in the future?

-R T Thomsen
 

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The tools in AP are only grey when you haven't got an image loaded.  Nonetheless, professional graphics programmes need to have bland grey interfaces, it's best practice.  In fact, one of the criticisms I've read of AP is that it uses coloured icons in the toolbar.  Similarly, a professional graphics workstation needs to be in a bland environment and should never be placed in front of a coloured wall, in a brightly lit room or have bright light directly incident on the screen.

 

It's because human beings have very flexible colour perception.  Cameras need white balance adjustments because our eyes compensate for the ambient light in an environment.  A white object under tungsten light will actually be quite yellow but to our eyes it will look white.  Because we automatically alter our colour perception to suit the surrounding light it's very important to not distract ourselves with colour or bright light on the screen and walls of the room.  That would influence our perception of the colours in the image and that must be avoided.

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The tools in AP are only grey when you haven't got an image loaded.  Nonetheless, professional graphics programmes need to have bland grey interfaces, it's best practice.  In fact, one of the criticisms I've read of AP is that it uses coloured icons in the toolbar.  Similarly, a professional graphics workstation needs to be in a bland environment and should never be placed in front of a coloured wall, in a brightly lit room or have bright light directly incident on the screen.

 

It's because human beings have very flexible colour perception.  Cameras need white balance adjustments because our eyes compensate for the ambient light in an environment.  A white object under tungsten light will actually be quite yellow but to our eyes it will look white.  Because we automatically alter our colour perception to suit the surrounding light it's very important to not distract ourselves with colour or bright light on the screen and walls of the room.  That would influence our perception of the colours in the image and that must be avoided.

Thanks, coranda, bang on.

Back in the day, when I first started on a Quadra 950 Mac, Photoshop only had 'separated mode'.

This meant that for all the colour balancing/correcting work I did, my desktop wallpaper was purposely a 'bland', flat grey.

In addition, there was no natural light or windows to the outside - the room's fluorescent lighting was 5000 degrees K, so that any hard copy that was being matched to was being viewed in the correct lighting conditions to comply with my calibrated monitor. :)

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rmtphoto,

Did you join the forum specifically for a little rant? That would be sad, if true. There is a section precisely for feature requests titled Feature Requests where you may or may not find agreement with your views but where you could certainly have the opportunity to clearly explain to the developers what UI changes they could make in order to better please you.

 

Spot on, coranda. (and I happen to be one of those users who is less than fond of the colourful icons yet nevertheless am more than pleased overall with both Photo and Designer's UI/UX)

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I'm all in favour of giving people the options they want but my point is that bright, colourful, high-contrast displays are the enemy of good colour management. I'm not a graphic designer but I can see why a paper white background might be useful.  However, that's a canvas rather than UI issue.  If you want to see your graphics on a white background then expand the canvas and drop an appropriate fill layer underneath.

 

The UI, on the other hand, should be as unobtrusive as possible - by default at least.  If you are finding that the AP display has too little contrast to be clear then, unless you have a vision problem (which is a whole other issue), it's almost certainly a problem with your working environment.  In that case the best practice is to calibrate your monitor for the level and colour temperature of the ambient light.  If you work day and night it may be necessary to have two separate monitor profiles.

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