Adaptive properties panel like in UI design tools

[Adam Simon]

I was wondering what 's really missing from Affinity products. The toolset is innovative, creative and highly precise I love that. But the workflow could be more fluid. What I really like in UI apps, I only see what I need at the moment. When I select a rectangle I see every property for that shape. Rounding, stroke, rotation, translation, colors etc. I don't have to see paragraph or character options at this moment. It's really unnecessary.

Do you planning to design anything like that for affinity? I've seen Adobe tried but it's not perfect. There is a few property missing from their dynamic panel. Here is the properties in Figma:

[Mithferion]

It depends on habits. I don't like "I can do all" Panels because I will need to scroll up and down (Webflow, Adobe XD) and I find them limiting. In my case, Layers Panel, Transform Panel and Context Toolbar are what I use the most within Affinity Designer (plus Pages Panel in Publisher).

Best regards!

[Guest]

+1 on this. There are times when I'm using Affinity products where I feel like I'm back in the UX of a 2006 Word doc.

 

[Adam Simon]

21 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

It depends on habits.

Depends yes. They could leave this as an option. Adobe did the same.

In addition, habits are changing. This static tab UI is something from two decades ago. Nowadays there is more UX testing and research to make products easy to learn and use. It's a different approach. Affinity using the best technologies, but the UI is from DrawPlus. With a dynamic solution the UI could be more simple and focused and there could be an easier learning curve for newcomers.

[Mithferion]

On 5/25/2021 at 5:52 AM, Adam Simon said:

With a dynamic solution the UI could be more simple and focused and there could be an easier learning curve for newcomers.

Well, the Context Toolbar is dynamic. With a wide enough screen you can see plenty of options. But since I am for "more power to the user", I wouldn't mind having it, even if I don't use it.

Best regards!

[Fixx]

I am old fashioned and like floating palettes that can be called and hidden with kbd shortcuts. That is not so popular approach nowadays and Affinity does not support it all the way.

[Adam Simon]

Hmm... I'm really interested about Affinity's standpoint in this question. Can I just mention a developer here?

[Paul Wild]

Might be slightly off topic but since its about the UI...I would like to see the option to change the backdrop colour of assets panels etc so that you can identify elements better ...sometimes I struggle ...also the option to view larger thumbnails...... And when a button is pressed it changes to an actual colour rather than a slightly different shade.

 

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, Adam Simon said:

Hmm... I'm really interested about Affinity's standpoint in this question. Can I just mention a developer here?

Serif generally does not comment on Feature Requests, and they prefer that we not "tag" a staff member who has not been previously involved in a discussion.

So:

• You probably won't get their opinion. And
• You shouldn't mention a developer here.

[Adam Simon]

30 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

they prefer that we not "tag" a staff member

That's fair. I'm still happy if users having a chat about this.