Affinity UI elements could look more elegant

[pixelworker]

I have this feel in all Affinity products. The UI elements feel a bit clunky visually.

It's ok, but I never feel that I like the UI visually, it doesn't look elegant.

 

- Selection feels bulky compared to indesign, too thick line, I don't like the round edges of the rectangle.

- Toolbar icons a bit too playful

- Sight pseudo 3d look of buttons

 

 

[MikeTO]

If you find the toolbar icons too playful, switch to Monochromatic Iconography. It looks very elegant. I really like the UI in dark mode with mono icons.

[pixelworker]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've already tried that. For me it's not working. I think the color of the icons make the UI easier to decode. It's just the look of the icons that could get a fresher, more timeless look.

[Guest]

I find even with monochrome icons, the shading used within the icons often muddies my visual recognition of the icons (especially with gradient, transparency, place image, and the contour/corner tools). After 7+ years using the Affinity Suite I'm still having to mouse over the icons to remember what they do—and don't get me started on how cryptic the UI is on iPad where I still have absolutely no idea what many of the icons actually do, particularly on that annoying toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Also, having common UI patterns shared between apps (particularly on iPad with Designer and Photo) would go along way to cut down on user confusion. I'm still not sure why the '…' menu in Photo is so different to the '…' menu in Designer. I don't even know what '…' stands for? Also some of the icons are different between the desktop and iPad versions (pen tool, transparency, text, etc) and they are in different positions/orders on the toolbar(s).

Edited May 7, 2022 by Guest
Added screen captures of the iPad apps.

[chessboard]

I would add here, that the icons of the iPad apps are much too dark. In some ligth conditions it's almoust impossible to identify them correctly.

Arggh,... as much as I am happy with the Affintiy apps, as often I think: "WTF, why?" or "Really? This feature doesn't exist?"
As you mentioned, its 7+ years now, since the launch of AD, and we are almost at the same level of evolution of the apps. The Affinty apps still feed off their original innovations: the combination of pixels and vector graphics, deeply nestable clip masks, and the use of a single file format across all three apps and no subscription. The rest is more or less stuff that all competitors also offer, often less mature in Affinty.

Luck for Serif, that Adobe isn't doing all things right as well. If Illustrator would get a subset of Tools and Pixelbrushes from Photoshop, or Photoshop would get more advanced vector tools, this would mean a big problem for Affinty.