ceocan Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Hi, I've been an Affinity user for a while now. Mostly Designer to be frank. As everyone here knows there are some features still missing that a lot of people want to use. I understand that new features need some time to develop and that's allright. No problems with that. The thing that bothers me a bit is the lack of open communication about it. A lot of people just want to know what's being worked on and what's not. Will it be available in a free update or will it come with a new version/upgrade of de suite. A bit more transparantie would be great. We are completely in the dark at the moment and it seems that people are starting to switch to other pieces of software. So basically my question is if the devteam could give us a rough roadmap-guidelines? What features are being worked on and what version is it expected to come more or less and in which of the three programs. @MEB GunsOFSteel, Nung221, michacassola and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNKLN Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 2 minutes ago, ceocan said: it seems that people are starting to switch to other pieces of software. It also seems that other people are switching to Affinity products from other software. Raptor Swire, uneMule, Raptosauru5 and 1 other 4 Quote Affinity Photo - Affinity Designer - Affinity Publisher | macOS Sonoma (14.2) on 16GB MBP14 2021 with 2.4 versions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted September 2, 2020 Staff Share Posted September 2, 2020 Hi @ceocan, Welcome to Affinity Forums Serif tried to be more transparent/open about the development plans from the beginning - we used to disclose new features/published a roadmap before - however some users had trouble understanding/accepting the (inevitable) changes/delays that happen along the process and so we end up removing it to avoid causing false expectations. We still do provide information about new features/changes (refer to the logs published along the Beta builds in the Beta section of this forum) and a Customer Beta (available to all customers which can be downloaded from the Beta sections as well) so users can try them and provide feedback while they are still being worked/in development. Occasionally some developers also announce/demo some new features in the Forums. MikeTO, Move Along People, RNKLN and 3 others 6 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winstoncb Posted October 18, 2020 Share Posted October 18, 2020 @MEB have you considered using something like a Product Portal by Productboard? It allows you to signal ideas you're interested in moving forward with, without committing to specific dates. End users can provide votes and additional feedback on individual ideas or submit new ones. It's optimized to help the product team make sense of all the inputs behind the scenes — prioritize the right features, build them in the optimal way. Worth a look! michacassola, Raptor Swire, Raptosauru5 and 2 others 3 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ceocan Posted October 18, 2020 Author Share Posted October 18, 2020 +1 Sounds like a great idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted October 19, 2020 Staff Share Posted October 19, 2020 Hi winstoncb, ceocan,Thanks for the feedback. The original roadmap we had didn't provide any specific information about planned dates but even so it created false expectations for various reasons thus the move to just disclose/release new features through the Betas. We already take in account users requests/feedback through the Feature Request & Suggestions area in the forums but we can't be tied to a voting system - certain features may not be implemented until some work/dependencies have been finished or expanded in the same or in other apps of the suite, certain bugs corrected or simply require more research/testing/time which have to be balanced with other dev and/or commercial goals. Thanks for understanding. Daniel Gibert, BBkuro, MikeTO and 1 other 3 1 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winstoncb Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 Yes, the “votes” on ideas (+ accompanying qualitative feedback) are just inputs for your product team to see what users think would be most valuable. As you say, it would remain the prerogative of your product team to incorporate these inputs with other factors like strategic considerations, innovation (to the extent that some features are so groundbreaking, users won’t know to ask for them), effort estimates, dependencies etc. You’d have to set the right expectations with the community, but you might find it extremely valuable for prioritizing the right things to work on next. I imagine it's quite difficult for your product team to analyze/quantify the unstructured inputs they receive on the Feature Requests & Suggestions forum. pcote and Move Along People 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderings Posted October 19, 2020 Share Posted October 19, 2020 I think it really is a lose scenario when you open up everything they have the drawing board, realistic or not. People, myself included, will criticize while others praise. No one is ever happy and you get the odd person who buys the program and then you hear from a few months later disappointed because they thought it was coming. Poor reasoning when buying software on the hopes they will one day be able to do what they need to do today, but it happens. Serif has done some amazing things recently that have surprised me. I thought for sure features like data merge and PDF pass through would be V2 features, giving reason to pay for an upgrade. These are both in beta but they are coming and you are not paying for that upgrade. I had no issue with the idea of it being a paid upgrade for V2, this along with the price of the software is incredibly generous. I would suggest being vocal in the feature request area and following the betas, you may just be surprised one day when what you really need to do is in there. michacassola, pcote, j3rry and 2 others 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorWhiz Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 Perhaps the Blender approach to this matter may be worth considering. They publish their roadmap in a Wikipedia page, including functions and estimated date, which is a transparent working method. And by the way, Blender lately has implemented a ton of changes in their software that seems to me is quite more complex that 2D drawing software. In a sense Blender publishing its roadmap makes them more vulnerable to criticism while receiving a deluge of requests, but they don't seem to be intimidated by that and simply continue developing according to their roadmap. YU 5 1 Quote Home: https://vectorwhiz.com : : : : Portfolio blog: https://communicats.blogspot.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeTO Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 On 10/19/2020 at 1:01 PM, winstoncb said: Yes, the “votes” on ideas (+ accompanying qualitative feedback) are just inputs for your product team to see what users think would be most valuable. Voting on ideas and feature requests can distort a product roadmap, leading a company to focus only on vocal customers' needs while ignoring the base. Don't get me wrong, I hope that by requesting features we might influence the direction (insert shameless plug for cross references, better control of hyphenation and spelling, and span columns), but that doesn't mean the product roadmap should be based on what we ask for. RNKLN 1 Quote Download a free manual for Publisher 2.4 from this forum - expanded 300-page PDF My system: Affinity 2.4.2 for macOS Sonoma 14.4.1, MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanMale Posted April 20, 2023 Share Posted April 20, 2023 Hubspot has an exemplary implementation of the feature request/community help area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted April 20, 2023 Staff Share Posted April 20, 2023 Hi @HumanMale, Welcome to Affinity Forums We have changed the process a bit since my last reply above. For more information about the new Beta program and how to participate please check this post here. Thanks. Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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