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

Somebody at Adobe is smitten with Google's "material design" theme. It has the same lame underlines in place of text entry fields.

Bingo! Toddler Design is the new Swiss Design.

Here is the stolen "inspirational" source for our nifty new entry fields:


Here are a few more examples, extremely popular with users from age 6 months old to 3 years old. Fisher-Price was so ahead of their time.



Have to admit though, at least they're not afraid of a little color which is good, but this goes a little far.

> Are these guys just lemmings following others, or thinking for themselves?>

I suspect the UI designers have read all the justifications for the type of design they created and have memorized why it's a better design than anything that's gone before. I suspect they believe in it, or at least those in charge do. They just don't use our software to create the sort of things we create with our apps.

But looking at past history, we can rest assured that something new in UI design will soon be given to us. We can hope we like it. <BG>

It's bad design anyway you look at it. Are these guys just lemmings following others, or thinking for themselves?

Somebody at Adobe is smitten with Google's "material design" theme. It has the same lame underlines in place of text entry fields.

Fragile Egos would probably obstruct such an easy, sensible and practical solution?!

Would it kill them to ditch the underline and just put back white box? The solution is so easy.

> The problem is the poorly designed UI - especially replacing visually intuitive (and contrasting) field boxes with ambiguous underlines. >

Yup, got it in a nutshell. If you use the narrow options bar, as I do, try telling active from inactive icons at a glance. In the dialog boxes, try seeing at a quick glance what the default action is if you press the return/Enter key. In general, it's perfectly "safe" to use. It's just not easy when you're working quickly to have to stop and peer at the interface to figure out what has the focus — and I don't consider adding a lot of bright colors to the otherwise flat interface a good solution. A bit of very dull blue highlighting might work, though. Then flat wouldn't be so flat.

The program is stable, but that's never been the problem. The problem is the poorly designed UI - especially replacing visually intuitive (and contrasting) field boxes with ambiguous underlines. Nothing to do with being a "trendy Mac" thing, just Adobe hell-bent on needing to reinvent the wheel.

Better save than sorry...
😉

> Question: Is every one following this topic now using the new user interface and do you like it?
Is it save to update already?
(I'm still using: 2015.0.0)

Well, I'm using the new interface. . . my computer hasn't exploded and my home's not burned down yet. I guess it's safe. <BG>