FINALLY! THE NEW INTERFACE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR... THANKS XARA

[Peter Prewett]

My problem with new user interface is that the contrast is very low making it very difficult to see, dark grey on black is impossible to see.
With rectangle coordinates I have to look very closely at as a number 1 is barely readable.
I could not see why it had to change.

[handrawn]

maybe your monitor needs calibrating/adjusting ?

[gwpriester]

My problem with new user interface is that the contrast is very low making it very difficult to see, dark grey on black is impossible to see.

Having worked for many hours with the new interface on a 4K monitor since the release I think that on many monitors the value differences are going to be really difficult to distinguish. I have used a Xara product since 1996 so I am familiar with the interface and know where everything is. But I feel that new users are going to have a hard time. The icons/buttons are smaller, at least on my monitor, than the previous version and the lack of color makes it harder to determine one from the other.

[handrawn]

on my monitor, which is calibrated, the contrast is about the same as affinity and harmony ...

[Egg Bramhill]

Not a great lover of this new interface, I find it very bland. In fact I'd prefer Xara stop messing about on the UI and develop better vector apps but that's a cry we've been hearing for years.

[handrawn]

with you on that egg

and wasn't it zeb who said he didn't care what the UI was like because he spent most of his time looking at the workspace....

[Daniel]

I've used the new interface for a few days and while I wouldn't have chosen to switch, I don't think that it's a bad step.

Looking side-by-side at the previous icons and the new ones, it's obvious that someone has put in a lot of work.

I really feel for whoever had to make them in single colours though - it really can't have been easy: seeing what they included, removed, and had to change is fascinating.

I think the "Photo Heal" button is interesting, why it isn't a X shaped plaster anymore - it isn't obviously a plaster now but I'm interested to know what it would've been like if the original was just made a single colour.

The"Palette from photo" tool lost its squares of colour, obviously, and that's I think my favourite change - tied with the "Panorama" button: having lost the visual clue of grassy hillside and sky to imply panorama, the new button is clever.

The "Clone/Magic Erase" button is very pin-on-a-map or "location"-like, and less stamp-like.

[Boy]

I've a question for those using the new interface. How does it handle 'not-usable'/'usable' and 'not-activated'/'activated' states such as shown in the old interface?

[Daniel]

Doh, I just spent ten minutes looking for a button for 'not-usable'/'usable', wondering how I'd used Xara for 20 years and never heard of that

I realised what you meant, and here you go...

[handrawn]

there is a school of thought that coloured icons can be confusing as the colour can take precedence over the shape

the same shape all different colours - easy to differentiate
the same colour all different shapes - easy to differentiate
different shapes and different colours together, confusing

the smaller the icons become the more this is so; the brain goes for the colour first and can 'lose' the shape

so some will find it easier and some will not depending on their familiarity with the original and how well they differentiate the icons...