P: New user interface lacks contrast and many usability cues, lots of other problems

Chris: thank you for listening.

did you post the "material design" image?
I can't see it :))

It all gets down to the critical point of Design 101 that form MUST follow function. Hipster UI trends aside, Adobe, if it wants to be a true leader in this area of software needs to remain independent of trends, while at the same time being able to interface with the user norm. It’s not a race with Jonny Ive.

the UI was cleaner, easier to use and made using the product feel more "relaxing". These comments were from long time Photoshop customers as well as new customers.

How would a new customer know that the new UI was "more relaxing" to use than it used to be if they had no experience with the old one? Hmm.

"3) We will not be adding a "classic UI” checkbox into the UI."

Kinda reminds me of  explanations from my mom when I was 12.  No because no.

Ok mom.  If you're not going to let us have the functional "classic UI",  please make sure you make the jazzy millennial relaxed UI functional.

Button states.  Contrast. Traditional highlighting.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

If any of the Adobe HEX attendees found the new UI interface 'relaxing' there must have been Prozac in the coffee. Personally I find it infuriating.

As others (and myself earlier) have said a hover state on buttons is useful, a button that changes after you have clicked on it is not. Text boxes that are merely an underscore are not useful. Fifty shades of grey (dark through mid) are not useful. The latest tool icons are not useful.

Legibility and an intuitive interface is paramount in any professional software...on these accounts Adobe has failed its loyal customers.

I have a question for Jeff Sass:

Bearing in mind that your new UI is registering a 99.97% Disapproval Rating in this Forum:

Did you not receive any feedback from anyone who actually tested this UI by using it to work in Photoshop for themselves for any extended length of time (not just from those who got a quick look at a pre-rehearsed Max demonstration!) before you unleashed it on paying Customers?

And if you did receive any feedback, was it a 180° contradiction to the opinions which have been expressed in this thread?

And, just supposing that you did receive unfavourable feedback, what did your team do to address those concerns or to alert senior Adobe Managers of your concerns?

Or were such concerns just arrogantly ignored (and perhaps hidden from Management?) with the hope that the issues would go away (instead of the Customers themselves being the ones who are going away)?

This whole Redesign of the UI is an abject failure at every level and It would be encouraging to hear that you might be beginning to recognise that foisting it on paying Subscribers has been a major misjudgement and that more accomplished and experienced Designers are being brought on board in order to rectify this appalling mess?

I don't think we can do much better than the screenshot which Herbert posted. I fully understand the desire to go with the currently hip style of flat design, but it's certainly possible to do that while retaining contrast.

Thanks for your explanation that the new interfaced was released before it is completely finished. That helps me understand why it's so inconsistent. For example, the "recent files" screen has hover states for the buttons, yet the "new" file dialog has no hover states. Then there's the "save" dialog, which uses the system UI. Really, for the life of me, I cannot imagine why Adobe believe's it needs to make it's own special UI for any of this. It would be so very simple to just use the system UI (which doesn't require any custom code whatsoever).

@Antonio Starace That scares me too.

A LOT!

I live most of my working life in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, in that order. Other CC apps too, but not as much. I predict that if this "relaxed" UI makes its way into all CC apps  Adobe will face a huge backlash from the pro community.

Just imagine you are in Premiere Pro which already has a pretty complex interface and you have a client breathing down your neck and you are desperately trying to navigate this "relaxed" new UI, every move needs to be double checked because the targets are so washed out and undefined – how does that make you feel?

Certainly not "relaxing" for me.

3) We will not be adding a "classic UI” checkbox into the UI. Photoshop did not do that when we made the UI changes for CS6 either.

Of course you didn't, because you never had to since this is the first time you have done such a ridiculous thing. A UI switch is not for "the ones who like to live in the past" but to partially fix a tragic error. And no, I don't think you can improve this disaster.

4) Thank you for your specific comments about the centering of the text in the buttons. We will be addressing this in a future version.

I dare to say that what we have now can not even be called buttons. The do not look like buttons nor they behave like buttons.

I personally can't  add more issues because I hated the UI at first sight and reverted back to the revision before.