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

Thanks for your comment, David. I think there is a widespread dissatisfaction with Adobe's insistence on creating a non-standard interface for each platform. Mac software should look like Mac software, and Windows software should look like Windows software. Adobe is delivering a weird Adobe-specific interface, which is frankly a pain in the butt for everybody on both platforms.

Hi Bob and all. Yes, I for one am listening carefully. I am not directly responsible for the design of the UI update, but I am a developer working on Photoshop UI and I'm very concerned with the app's usability. I hear that most posters on this thread are unhappy with the reduced contrast and removal of some control boundary outlines. Those complaints make sense to me and I will reflect them to the Experience Design team. Some other changes were made to make the UI more touch friendly. There were also many behind the scenes changes to make the UI maintainable and to accommodate different density displays.

It may seem as though the changes were made casually and arbitrarily, but the UI refresh has actually been a major amount of work. There has been much design work, engineering planning, and user testing. Although we worked hard to improve the product, obviously for some users the changes are not positive.

The ideas about optionally providing the old or other alternative UIs are attractive, but not practical on our codebase. For one example, there are literally thousands of icons and other elements that would need to be generated and maintained for each version of the UI.

I'm sorry the app is more difficult for you to use and I really don't like that you want to roll back to earlier versions. I hope that we can create a UI that makes you happy while also allowing us to keep it moving forward. I'm very glad to have your thoughtful feedback. Your passion for the product is inspiring

David

David Tristram
Photoshop UI Engineering

Hi Fellow Frustrated Photoshop Users,

I chatted with tech support and got this link, telling how to download previous versions from the CC desktop app.

Scroll down to #5
https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-clou...

Why would you change something that noone complains about. If you have to add new interface colors give us a choice to go back to the old ones. Let there be 6-8 different choices. I have to use bright colors but cant see nothing on the flat crap version. I have used it since the beginning of Adobe CS3. Why did you change it????????

This is the first time I was looking for an alternative to Photoshop because stupid thing like this and I am already testing Affinity.

at least put some depth in the boxes like the preview morris did. it makes it way easier to read / see what's going on. or just make the old ui optional.

I've now done that Roger and am happily running the older and "proper" version - but it really shouldn't have to be this way, Adobe.

Incidentally, is anyone from Adobe picking up on this, as the silence is deafening?

Thanks for the quick reply, I am confident you guys will fix the bug pretty soon.
Is there a timeframe already?
Also are there any plans to bring back a more visible layer marking back. I do find it hard to see when a layer is in quickmaskmode. That hardly different from the normal mode. I do think it was way easier with a blue color scheme in layers and it should be all about being easy versus being stylish.
Andi

That is a well known MacOS bug, and the OS open dialog and it's size are controlled by the OS and not the application.

I've said above, John and Bob, if you are on Mac, following Greg Justice's advice, I fetched version 15.0.1 in Time Machine avec copied the folder alongside 15.1. This gives me back the previous version and that one is perfectly OK. I will ditch the 15.1 folder entirely tomorrow. This 15.0.1 version is perfect for me and I will stick with that version as long as I can.

Nobody will force me to squint all day long at two 30 inchers because I can't read what's there. Nobody.

Yes John, I've installed it - more in hope than expectation that things might have improved.

I don't usually update my software immediately, but I just figured they couldn't make it any worse. After all, what kind of muppet would decide to do a thing like that?

Anyway, no difference whatsoever that I can make out so far.