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

[J Isner]

I just updated to Photoshop CC(2015) version 2015.1. Adobe changed the UI to the flat look you see on phones and tablets. I do not see any way to select the classic interface, which I'm sure many desktop users of PS prefer.

This feels yet another attempt by Adobe to be trendy without caring about what users want or need. Didn't they learn anything from the dumbed-down Lightroom import fiasco?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Dear Adobe. You are doing software for professionals for many years. What's happen? The new interface is so, so bad, maybe the worst readable from start of the photoshop. Please do not make the UI nicer, do it better readable, easier to use, faster and more logical as is now. Nothing more we don't need from UI for such tool (Photoshop, Ai etc.). And please while you are testing "us" with new UI's, please give us checkbox for classic UI. We need work and not still trying to find "micro" buttons and icons on your new design experiments, now moreower  with bad contrast as bonus. Please, try to make the Photoshop engine better and don't change what is good on interface, or make the changes user selectable.
Thank you.

[MarcDeChampagne]

The User Interface of Photoshop is getting worse from version to version. 
1. low contrast
2. black UI is often very hard to work with. It is hard to read text and find elements.
3. no primary button (and the new ones are ugly as hell). You have now to read the labels to see where "Save" and wehre "Cancel" is.
4. no support for the eye with shadows on windows. So it's very hard to recognise if where a window ends and where is the underlying window. There is no visible border.
5. there is no clear separation between elements. I have problems to find things on big screens. I'm completely lost on some screens.

The whole UI just looks like a "I have to go with a trend, doesn't matter if it's useful or not". 😞

I've decided to buy LR instead of Capture One because of the better interface and workflow. But now I'm afraid I will get the same horrible black UI on LR in the next version.

Please please hire some good UX Designer and just stop to follow silly trends.

[RobertTarabella]

I've noticed our cranky feedback, which is universally opposed to the gray on gray theme, is becoming less and less frequent. This is exactly what the Ps team hopes will happen. They know best, and we're just a few cranky users. There is ZERO chance they will be adopting any of our proposed changes.

[mrsnak]

They used the same tactic herding users from buying to renting their software. I still am using the first version of PS 2015, and no intention of "upgrading", despite the fact that I have to pay for the new version. Almost laughable that they've been heavily promoting their new UX design software, and yet they don't have a solid grasp on good UX design themselves.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The 2nd dark interface is the only color scheme I like. The black has too much contrast so it gives me eye strain. The lightish gray? is muddy, and the brightest one I wouldn't use, but if I did, I'd want it to be, well, bright. Not dim with black accents. The most complaints seem to come from the people who like a light interface. I guess that's changed too much for them.

I don't like the flatness, either, though. It's more difficult to know what's highlighted. Turning the visibility on and off for Smart Filters is a stab in the dark. It always has been and certainly isn't any easier now. It can be difficult to quickly tell if some icons or buttons are active or not.

I don't think they did desktop users a big favor by going to the flatness popular now with touch devices, especially when we don't want colorful icons and buttons to compete with our images— but I expect it'll all change again, and it's very difficult to keep complaining that it's not the greatest UI anyone has come up with. I just hope they never, ever go back to thinking it would be a good thing if they just turn all the panel tabs around 90 degrees so you read them sideways. . . '-}

[brucet53718289]

I'll be sticking with CC2014 until Adobe actually releases a decent UI. And that sucks Adobe 😞

[MarcDeChampagne]

I'm leading a UX Designer team in a bigger company and I would fire everyone for providing results like this. Seriously! That's a complete fail on basics of UI design.

[richardm57619961]

It's fine when you have a feedback forum, but when you actively and deliberately ignore users who pay for your software, what's the point ?
Your a class act Adobe...second class.

[mrsnak]

Adobe feedback forums have traditionally been more about bug fixes and validation for their products than constructive criticism that lead to rethinking it in a better way.

They'll fix the bugs, but features that they like? Etched in stone.

We saw this with Dreamweaver after they killed the wonderful Golive. They never brought its best features into Dreamweaver as they said they were going to do. The Golive forum was in uproar for a few years, to no avail.

[AnnShelbourne]

I am frankly astonished that a company of the size and standing of Adobe could have allowed these incompetent amateur, but decidedly arrogant, "Designers" to have touched the UI in the first place—let alone allowing this charade to continue.

[AnnShelbourne]

• I still prefer to design web sites with GL instead of DW and I retain an older Mac tower on my network for only that purpose!
  

[mrsnak]

LOL, me too for some of my legacy sites. Faster and quicker by far than DW.

[RobertTarabella]

Here is the funniest thing to arrive in my inbox today.
https://edex.adobe.com/pd/course/UX2U...

Adobe is inviting us to come learn about UX design. I think they should attend someone else's seminar on this topic first.

[TrimMark]

relies heavily on an understanding of users needs

LOL
(I laugh but I could be crying just the same...)

[mrsnak]

😉

[Roger the Photographer]

Wa ha ha ha... It's not funny at all in fact. Too near the truth I guess. But I did laugh a lot. 🙂

[mrsnak]

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

LOL

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Photoshop CC UI evolution

[ZebraMark]

Photoshop "2015.5" came out yesterday and it's clear that Adobe is sticking with the janky new amateur interface. 

[mrsnak]

With the software rental scheme firmly in place, they no longer have to listen to the user to keep profits up. 

[mrsnak]

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Sure they do. They know there's competition out there as well as we do. But they're an aircraft carrier compared to a 40' yacht when trying to change course. We need to try to be specific when we don't like something. And we need to hope a lot of others will agree with us.  Worse for us of course— getting us all to agree on what's wrong and what a good fix would look like is herding cats.

I'm sure we've all looked at our exit strategy if the benefits of using the apps stops outweighing the negatives and the bugs we deal with. Their financial plan hasn't completely blinded them to that fact. Slow to maneuver they may be. But I'll bet they're listening, and as many of them as there are, I'll bet getting them to agree on anything is as much herding cats as it is us. I don't know how they decide—maybe top down—it's the CEO's whim or their 5 year old's preference— maybe draw straws, throw darts at a list, or hold mud wrestling contests.

But truthfully, I find the 2nd lightest UI so dim I'd never use it. I find the darkest UI has almost too much contrast. The Goldilocks UI for me is 2nd darkest. It still has some issues. I wouldn't have changed it from the last UI, if I were Emperor and didn't know more than I do now about why they changed it. However, I can live with one out of the 3 options, and I can't live without the features the competition doesn't have. So for me, the best thing to do is just chip away at what's worst — hint — those OK and Cancel buttons in dialogs are difficult to see just which one is active.

[mrsnak]

Although there are now a couple good alternatives to Photoshop out there, many of us use it in conjunction with the other programs. Aside from the ever-abysmal Dreamweaver, the other main programs, Illustrator and Indesign are solid and efficient. You even still have Save for Web in AI and the old excellent UI in both of these, although I haven't looked at the new updates. I don't believe Adobe ever mentioned that they changed the UI in their list of additions to Photoshop. I don't even bother with the new "art student" tablet-toy programs they are putting out there, although I do use Adobe Draw. 

[Roger the Photographer]

It sure feels that way!