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

I agree, it sure feels like Adobe knows that the pros are stuck with them so they're turning their attention to appealing to the home users, at our expense both financially and productivity-wise.

Apple did it with iOS and OS X and it's unfortunately the case that Adobe is more than likely justifying this move with "Well, Apple did it...", not realizing or caring that OS X has been a downhill trainwreck since Apple starting bluring the lines between a proper desktop system and gadgets for talking to people.

And Ann, I could not agree with you more. The phone/tablet hysteria has infested everything, everywhere, every day. Another issue not to forget is that we are dealing with a monopolized segment of the professional software market here too. Not good. We can count on less concern from Adobe over users actual needs and a decrease in any creativity, product advancement and innovation. Why bother, no one is around to take business from them, at least for now. Adobe's Marketing Department has engulfed every aspect of the company and this also is not good. I have had to worked side by side with Marketing my entire career. I despise, loathe, whatever word you want, them. They amaze and disgust me at the same time. It's like watching mob mentality falling over a group of 3rd graders going after the wrong thing, then congratulating themselves profusely for it.

So in the end we get stuck with a monopoly that's being run and directed by it's marketing department. There aren't many scenarios worse than this.

I read the interview and believe that Russell's answers were very much tongue-in-cheek (taking-the-Mickey) responses to a set of rather silly questions.

Nope. We have to talk about the issue internally to see what can be done.

Chris, can you give us a clue as to what or when a remedy might be in the future? As a teacher and one who records screen captures, if this interface is only temporary, I will revert back to a previous version. But if our future will remain gray, I'll suck it up and deal with it.

As someone using the Windows 7 platform, I hate the way PS now jumps between light and dark dialog boxes depending on the task. Why do the 'File, Edit, Image, etc' options bring up the readable white interface and then further steps such as the 'Jpeg quality' revert to the murky PS interface. Just stupid.

"This new interface is lukewarm coffee."

More like Mushroom Soup. Shades of Grey.

I doubt we're going to get any action from Adobe on this at all. Very different situation than the import dialogue fiasco. That dialogue actually changed the way things worked, which surely caused 10 times the outcry over changing the interface which is only the way things look.

If I order hot coffee and the waitress brings me tea I'm going to surely send it back. But if I order hot coffee and the waitress just brings me lukewarm coffee,I may or may not even notice. This new interface is lukewarm coffee.

I strongly believe that the immaturity of the UX Team (which is so clearly illustrated by the lamentable design-decisions which were made for the new UI) is also the reason for their total misunderstanding of the software market.

Only a minute percentage of the people who rely on cell phones and iPads for their photographic activities are ever likely to be interested in using anything more complex than Instagram. The majority of those users want instant gratification from a single button-click and are never going to consider the purchase of a CC subscription or of making the effort to learn how to use advanced editing programs.

Inexperienced and uneducated theorizing; and the total misreading of the economic realities of the professional software market, which resulted in this move to an iOS-flavoured UI; was a seriously flawed concept from the onset.

The result is far more likely to be the loss of many existing Subscribers but with no gain in new subscribers from the iGadget crowd.

Thankfully they left AI and ID alone (for now) from this mess. I use PS with these programs in tandem every day and I hate going from nicely designed to this new hodge-podge of poor design. Maybe Russell needs to retire and play by himself with his mobile devices. 😉