General question: UI Buttons/Panels Screenshot Overview available?

[devendra]

Hello, 

recently I face many problems with the usability of AP and AD, mostly on ipad and often times the help pages are not useful because they describe the functions with words but I have no idea where to find the mentioned functions on ipad (often not even in the desktop version).

It would be very useful to have Screenshots from the whole UI that show every single button and expanded panel, where to find it and show the corresponding name/function in a legend.

Especially on ipad some functions are simply missing without mention in the help pages and some are available but nested in other panels/functions and I have no clue where to look for it. 

If such a UI Overview with a legend exists it was impossible for me to find and must be integrated better in the help pages. 

Thank you!

 

[Dan C]

Hi devenda,

You can press and hold the question mark at the bottom right of the application to see a UI overview.

https://affinity.help/photo2ipad/English.lproj/contents.xml?page=pages/Workspace/interface.html?title=Interface Visual Reference

Lee

[devendra]

Thank you, Lee, for answering! 

I know that function but it is not quite the same as what I described and some explanations are missing or not intuitive, I would like to explain why:

- It doesn't show nested elements and explains only what is currently visible on the screen.
So if a user doesn't know that the smudge tool is nested inside the dodge/burn tool they don't know where to look for it. I also just recently found out that the question mark button shows tool-related functions only when the tool is actually selected. So users have to click through all tools. A static overview would be more helpful, even if it is listed from top to bottom. 

- The content of the panels is not explained with the ?-Button
I had a hard time finding the "styles" panel that is nested inside the fx panel, which differs from the desktop version where it has an own panel. 

- The document/hamburger/file menu and three dots menu is not explained
This might seem trivial to you but i.e. duplicating a layer could also be expected in the layer panel so not every user would expect to find it nested in another menu

- The nested function of transparency, accumulation is not explained next to its location
but in the center of the screen so users have to guess and try that it requires a click on one function to make the other available. In my opinion the tool itself needs less nesting/extra clicks and the visual reference should at least say where it is nested instead of just showing an icon in the center of the screen. 

- the layer panel content is not explained

 

Possibly a lot of functions are sub-topics in varying help pages but it would be super-useful to have a visual reference that doesn't require clicking through each tool and panel. 

 

Speaking of the layer panel and UI: maybe this is just my personal experience but although I am using the software for some time now but still find myself accidentially clicking the three dots in the layer panel when I actually want to duplicate a layer, group, create a mask etc. but end up in the layer options (for renaming etc). I think I can't get fully used to it because for me the dots indicate an extra (dropdown-/list-)menu, and confusingly you also use it that way for the edit menu in the top bar. In my opinion this is not a good icon choice for a UI because it is inconsistent inside the app (here it opens a drop down menu, there a panel with buttons and options). 

I hope you understand why a more detailed explanation than the already existing ?-Button of the UI with visual indication of the function's locations is a valid user request and might prevent users better from getting lost. 

 

Cheers,

Devendra

 

[devendra]

Sorry for the very blunt comparison but I just checked the PS Help Pages to see how they solved it and there you can find every single function explained including even how to drag a handle. There is an extra page called "workspace basics" and it actually covers exactly that, step by step.

The Affinity help page explains the AP workspace like this (image1) and the link on the photo persona just describes the menu purpose roughly (image2). 

Why not explain every button of the photo persona in this page and show every existing panel with at least a short sentence about what the function does? And an additional clickable linklist that jumps to the respective function inside the page. 

I really hope you find my criticism as constructive as I intended to write it and hope you find useful. I think by rudimentary self-help pages you are missing out on an easy opportunity to avoid some of the users' frustration.

Cheers,

Devendra