The subtle contrasting of the UI has gone too far

[stevegw]

For me Line is selected and you can't tell plus the grayed out text is too gray and can't be controlled enough in dark mode. On the iPad its even worst in my opinion 

Please allow a user to control there interface will more contrast 

 

[Brian_J]

Completely agree. I’ve never used an app that I had to change the default setting for in order to see the UI properly. I hope Serif improves the default UI, but if not, I hope they add settings that enable users to make things more legible.

[Chad72]

Yes, exactly this! I have finally gotten around to complaining about this. I'm not sure who's idea this was to make the user interface so absolutely horrible, but they should be put to a different task, such as staying home. It was nice when you could select a button and it would be blue or other color when activated. Or if you picked portrait vs landscape or any other option. Was this new look some kind of cool thing that's "trending" on social sites or what? Every time I see it, I want to scream. This is about the only area of the applications that I don't like.  I can't believe people aren't complaining left and right about this, but I'm also not searching for the crowd with torches. PLEASE CHANGE THE LOOK TO BE 100% EASIER! It's not something that is out in the open all the time anyway, so just make it visually usable. And everything the other poster mentioned as well. It's so subtle that the majority of cheap monitors will make everything look black. 

[Granddaddy]

For the benefit of others who may encounter this thread, there are now many threads on the problems introduced by the new Affinity 2 user interface, as well as the failure to fix problems (like tiny fonts and tiny icons) that have been complained about for many years.

For instance, I asked about the lack of contrast at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/173835-what-ergonomic-design-principles-call-for-minimal-contrast-and-reduced-readability-in-user-interfaces/

A few other problems include
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/174379-visually-consistent-unselected-active-and-disabled-states/

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/173835-what-ergonomic-design-principles-call-for-minimal-contrast-and-reduced-readability-in-user-interfaces/&do=findComment&comment=1005324

That some of these problems weren't caught in beta testing is discussed at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/172405-affinity-2-beta-testing-failures-stopped-users-cold-in-first-five-seconds/

It was suggested that the interface designers should be fired, though I cautioned against that in the thread at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/174868-serif-fire-your-affinity-20-interface-designers/

There's a long thread of UI dissatisfaction at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/170297-i-dont-like-the-new-ui-design/

New threads keep springing up, like this one on interface colors
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/182137-interface-colors/

I continue to hope, but no longer expect, that someone at Serif will eventually pay attention and make Affinity Photo less unpleasant to use. For now we just have to put up with it I guess.

 

[Old Bruce]

21 hours ago, Chad72 said:

Was this new look some kind of cool thing that's "trending"

 

19 hours ago, Granddaddy said:

I continue to hope, but no longer expect, that someone at Serif will eventually pay attention and make Affinity Photo less unpleasant to use. For now we just have to put up with it I guess.

I agree with both these comments. I give you my favourite example of something that is broken. All I did was change from my preferred Light to dark. Hidden "buttons" appear from nowhere. How many other things am I missing out on? 

[debraspicher]

19 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I agree with both these comments. I give you my favourite example of something that is broken. All I did was change from my preferred Light to dark. Hidden "buttons" appear from nowhere. How many other things am I missing out on? 

I'd wager there's either 1) more significant bugs they're contending with that has meant they couldn't have gotten to the visibility problems yet (which is up there in priority one would hope) or 2) They're gathering everything that gets posted under UI/UX contrast problems and plan to knock them out all at the same time /speculationss.gif... that's my thought anyway... so I'd just keep posting things as they are being found.

As others have stated, they badly need a UX expert on board who works only on ironing out these details. Or, their people who are meant for this role are being utilized in other spaces and can't give it proper focus... as @MEB has said earlier in a thread they've needed people for a while and are hiring, so if any of y'all know anyone in the UK looking for work...:

Edit: It is annoying I can't move to Light theme... I'm not sure if it's "missing" things on Win or not, but I know Dark is fine because that's what I've been using. Was thinking I might move to light to see if I can trust my eyes better when previewing certain images...