I don't like the new UI design

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Didge said:

But we've had ZERO feedback from Affinity on this thread

As they have said before, Serif generally does not comment in threads in the Feedback forum. This area is for us to express our opinions, and for Serif to read and do their planning.

[Didge]

You might be right - my point is that there is no way to know for sure.

[Pšenda]

3 minutes ago, Didge said:

my point is that there is no way to know for sure.

How about looking for a thread (there are many on the forum) where Serif has already mentioned it? Expecting Serif to state this over and over again here is pretty naive.

 

1 hour ago, Didge said:

there are hundreds of posts in these threads where users agree that v2 is a horrible mess.

The fact that several users (certainly not "hundreds" of them, as you are trying to imply here) repeatedly write some complaints here, is not a relevant criterion for evaluating the quality of the interface and its popularity among "all" users.

P.S. I also don't like the new interface, which is why I have already made many comments and suggestions on the forum.

 

[Didge]

I don't appreciate being called naive.

The point is that there is no way to know whether a thread has been read by Affinity or not - that is just a fact.

I'm not 'implying' anything - simply stating facts. If you read my post carefully, you'll see that I referred to hundreds of POSTS - not hundreds of users.

 

[rainsystem4]

The end answer is for Serif to allow custom theming within the application - it really can't be that hard to implement.

Then anyone can use any icons and colours as they see fit.

[fde101]

2 minutes ago, rainsystem4 said:

it really can't be that hard to implement.

They are working cross-platform and using native UI frameworks of each platform.  Most of these native UI frameworks are optimized to make applications work in a relatively uniform way and to give them a similar appearance, so the ability to "theme" them is extremely limited or non-existent.  The options they do provide will generally not be consistent across platforms, which means that options available for customization would either need to be platform-specific, or would be very limited in terms of what could be offered.

Theming in my opinion should not be a feature of any application, but should be something provided for by the underlying platform with its development frameworks.

The fact that most do not is a platform limitation, not an application one.

 

The fact that Serif is overriding platform conventions to customize appearance in such a way that it makes things more difficult to read for a nontrivial portion of its user base is an application issue.

 

11 hours ago, Didge said:

you'll see that I referred to hundreds of POSTS - not hundreds of users.

Granted, but the implication is that this represents a statistically significant portion of the user base.  From previous posts the implication by Serif is that the population of the forums represents a tiny fraction of the number of people using their software and that they also collect feedback from other sources.  Consider also that it is rare for a large number of users to go out of their way to say that something was done right: the vocal group of users will generally be those that DON'T like something.  As a result, the fact that most of the reports are "we don't like this" is generally meaningless unless the number of reports coming in does in fact come close to the size of the total user base, which in this case it does not.

"Voting" that something is bad is unlikely to be as meaningful as is providing solid reasons why something is bad or why it causes problems for you.  Some of the users in this thread have done exactly that, but there is generally a much larger number of posts from people who are uselessly saying "me too" or "I don't like this" without adding anything in terms of supporting reasons why it is a bad thing or why it is disliked.

Such posts cause the useful ones to often get lost amidst the chorus of useless ones that simply waste the time of those trying to wade through the thread and can reduce the likelihood of a request being heard, rather than increasing it.

Accordingly, it is better in general to provide support to a request by "liking" the post than by polluting the thread with "me2" or "I don't like this" posts, unless you have something constructive to add to the request.

[Didge]

Yes - which is why I gave specific examples in my earlier posts, if you care to read them.

There are many well constructed examples in these threads of why users do not like specific aspects of the UI, many of them addressing similar themes - eg the lack of context for binary selections.

You might add more value to these threads by responding to specific aspects of user comments, rather than criticising their content.

[loukash]

On 3/24/2023 at 12:34 PM, fde101 said:

using native UI frameworks of each platform.

Um, not as much as they should. If they would as they should, the whole UI would be scriptable on Mac. Which it isn't. And boy did I try…

[debraspicher]

On 3/24/2023 at 6:18 AM, rainsystem4 said:

The end answer is for Serif to allow custom theming within the application - it really can't be that hard to implement.

Then anyone can use any icons and colours as they see fit.

Not to poo poo the idea entirely (none of this is a slight), but I've rarely seen this work in a way that doesn't make preexisting UI/UX issues more jarring. What would be more prudent in that case is the ability to reskin which is a very different animal (no pun intended, actually lol) than just coding in the ability to change the basic color/icon schema. It would be much more difficult to implement/maintain.

Consider any future updates to the vanilla interface, they would have to keep updating this end of things as well to keep it cohesive. The preexisting problem of not enough time spent fleshing out UI/UX issues would be exacerbated maintaining the custom backend. Another example, if the entire app changes in characteristics somehow that require a change in how theme settings are defined, that's even more work... it's not worth it when they still need to address preexisting problems, imv. Most customers are not going to play with interface settings that particularly, so it alienates them from a proper solution which is not ideal.

[Bryan Rieger]

4 hours ago, loukash said:

Um, not as much as they should. If they would as they should, the whole UI would be scriptable on Mac. Which it isn't. And boy did I try…

Not to mention the annoyances with native modal windows (ie. Save, etc) often being obscured by various Affinity palettes and panels on the Mac. I find myself constantly having to shift panels around to actually find and interact with the modal dialogues. Add to that how dragging panels often results in inadvertently undocking a panel, rather than actually dragging the combined panels. Adobe for instance has a small bar at the top of their undocked panels which enables dragging without inadvertently triggering a drag on docking/undocking a panel from the panel group.

[oscarlosan]

On 23/3/2023 at 23:50, Didge said:

Parece que este hilo se está calentando nuevamente, probablemente porque ninguno de los problemas planteados parece haber sido abordado en la reciente actualización de AP .

Lo mínimo que Affinity podría hacer es mostrar si el hilo ha sido leído por alguien de Affinity que entiende bien el diseño de la interfaz de usuario.

Esta actualización es un terrible paso atrás: simplemente odio usar V2.

Y no soy solo yo, hay cientos de publicaciones en estos hilos donde los usuarios están de acuerdo en que v2 es un desastre horrible.

 

You're right. I don't know why, but V2 doesn't hook me. I don't care about opening V2 than Illustrator. V1 could not stop using it. that version was addictive.

[Hilltop]

Funny thing, for me it's the opposite. I like the new UI better but hope for further improvements (e.g., buttons for the studio panels and more right-click context options).

[brunoczech]

3 hours ago, oscarlosan said:

You're right. I don't know why, but V2 doesn't hook me. I don't care about opening V2 than Illustrator. V1 could not stop using it. that version was addictive.

Same here.

I bought the whole V2 package basically on the first day. Used it about five times. Even upgraded my  Mac from Mojave to Monterey which I don't like. (Lost two other good programs due to that)

And I've been working on V1 since then anyway. 

Just cannot get over the UI changes, especially in the light interface.

 

Well, we'll see what happens next. 😜 

[Ana-Irina]

Same. Today I installed V2 again after I deleted it two months ago, because I thought maybe Serif took into consideration some of our objections and took time to implement some needed changes. They didn't. You still have to scroll through one million dropdowns, still have to click through innumerable tabs, still can't tell whether proportions are locked or not, the New... and Export... panels are still bad and the overall look of the app still feels from 2000. I prefer Adobe to V2, it's that bad. I mean like...why?😭 😭😭 

Hopefully, Serif will still support V1, because I simply can't find the motivation to switch to V2. It's too cumbersome and disrupting to my workflow. So, so many clicks...😭

[oscarlosan]

On 10/11/2022 at 16:29, meefox said:

Prefiero la nueva interfaz de usuario a la anterior. El viejo se ha sentido un poco anticuado.

Me recuerda a cuando se mudó el adobe al piso, tantas quejas pero ha crecido a todo bastante bien.

it has grown because it is a killer software (freehand, fireworks). Affinity V1, you don't have to think to start using it. I've used Photoshop and Illustrator for 15 years and I still don't like their interface. People move to affinity because it's so easy to use and hooked. If affinity starts to look like adobe, I prefer adobe because it has better tools. I use affinity because I feel very comfortable and that's important. That being said I don't like V2.

[brunoczech]

OK, so I've waited for a couple of months and today I tried to use Publisher V2 again.

It seems like nothing has changed. At all.

I know most of you are probably using dark interface but I've been working in a light one for years, I'm just used to it.

And the new one is still horrible, can't get over it. The contrast is gone, the used fonts look strange, the icons are childish, not even talking about Layers panel...

Just check the screenshots.

What the hell was wrong with the little blue accents that they had to disappear? 

I thought for a moment that the V1 interface was outdated - I just love it again! Still cannot use the new version, so I'm sticking with V1 for a while. Again...

 

 

 

[Felipe_RB]

I wish Affinity would let us fully customize the UI, im taking colors, shading, sizes. Devs should really take a look at how Blender does it... GIVE US MORE OPTIONS!!!

[lenogre]

I use AD since alpha releases with dark UI. The new v2 UI is too dark. All is dark, we don't know what is active or not. So I use the light UI…

I also don't like the grey circles about what is hidden or visible. If you really want circles :

- green circle > visible

- red circle > hidden

In Cinema4D (3D software), it's like that.

[oscarlosan]

On 4/13/2023 at 11:00 AM, brunoczech said:

OK, so I've waited for a couple of months and today I tried to use Publisher V2 again.

It seems like nothing has changed. At all.

I know most of you are probably using dark interface but I've been working in a light one for years, I'm just used to it.

And the new one is still horrible, can't get over it. The contrast is gone, the used fonts look strange, the icons are childish, not even talking about Layers panel...

Just check the screenshots.

What the hell was wrong with the little blue accents that they had to disappear? 

I thought for a moment that the V1 interface was outdated - I just love it again! Still cannot use the new version, so I'm sticking with V1 for a while. Again...

 

 

 

These colors irritate. I don't know why they changed. they were perfect. Those red buttons (error messages) burn my eyes, they distract me and I don't take it off because I have to use them. The interface with the blue markup was perfect.

If something works why change it. They just change things that people were happy with. Now they have unhappy users for modifying the interface.