Black and White impenetrable icons

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Originally Posted by Acorn

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg +1!

The changes I made to my toolbars were fairly modest.

It took me half an hour of wasted time to peck though B&W impenetrable icons to get them in the right place.

A personal layout is really important even if I am quite happy to and be able to memorise keypresses.

Acorn

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Spawned from https://www.talkgraphics.com/showthr...-Toolbar-Reset

I like the description B&W "impenetrable" icons.

The monochrome icons are real barrier to my change from Magix to Xara.

Yes, I can work out which icons are highlighted and which are greyed out BUT IT TAKES TIME which is poor design.

The old coloured icons were so much easier to view, colour == highlighted == clickable.

I would like to see an option that added a colour, lets say red, to all useable icons to make them instantly, easily, obviously stand out from that which is greyed out.

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The old coloured icons were so much easier to view, colour == highlighted == clickable.

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+1

if you want an example of such that works very well: corel painter:


Attachment 133762

+1

I have another example of a program that has a really easy to use set of toolbar icons - they work well, are easy to understand, and they show clearly which tool is selected

Attachment 133763

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Originally Posted by Daniel

I have another example of a program that has a really easy to use set of toolbar icons - they work well, are easy to understand, and they show clearly which tool is selected

Attachment 133763

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Gosh, yes. I wonder, can you let me know where i could buy one of these? ;))

Acorn

I am not advocating one set as better than the other, quite happy either way... most of the time i am looking at the workspace....

but the chances of xara reverting from bw icons is likely nil; it's not the way 'professional' apps do things these days

I still like the colour buttons, they made interacting with the software a bit more pleasant. From the screenshots it looks like Affinity has some colour to their UI buttons and it looks good too.

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Originally Posted by handrawn

the chances of xara reverting from bw icons is likely nil; it's not the way 'professional' apps do things these days

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I found Office 2010 the easiest version to use because it had the most colourful toolbar buttons. Office 2013 was pretty flat and difficult to distinguish buttons because it was either monochrome or very nearly monochrome, but to their credit, the current version of Office 365 (Microsoft 365? If there's one thing that Xara and Microsoft have in common, it's that they can pick confusing product names and version numbers) has re-introduced colour and it is much better for it.

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Originally Posted by xtom

Affinity has some colour to their UI buttons and it looks good too.

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It has, and it does. I can't use it for toffee though, every time I try, I give up because I can do things in Xara quicker - even with ropey toolbars.

Attachment 133764

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..office 365.....has re-introduced colour...

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up to a point it has, but again, the colouration is now done for empasis rather than having everything coloured for the sake of it

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and it is much better for it

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a new suit of clothes is still just a suit of clothes ;)

New isn't necessarily better though.

IMHO - The new "fad" of monochrome minimalistic toolbars, just makes life so much more awkward. It's so much less obvious which icon is which, and effectively slows everything down. Every "new" iteration of most of my regularly used programs has a new look toolbar. What was wrong with the old ones ...

I think a compromise of having the icon change to colour on hover would be a vast improvement.

Acorn

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Originally Posted by xtom

I still like the colour buttons, they made interacting with the software a bit more pleasant. From the screenshots it looks like Affinity has some colour to their UI buttons and it looks good too.

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Here are both of Affinity Designer's options side-by-side. Having tried each one over a period of time, I personally prefer the colour ones. The small flashes of colour definitely guide me to the tool I want quicker. I do however, know some users that much prefer the mono set. Having a choice is the answer.

Attachment 133766

now we have decided on the shape of the tables, can we start the meetings ? :D [old 'blob' joke, sorry]

To paraphrase Mary's grandmother, "Is life a contest to see how obscure we can make the icons?"

I totally agree with the comments here. Even though I have used Xara since 1996, I really have trouble discerning between the icons, especially on the Infobar.

true - I can understand that, but... are the icons not always in the same place in the UI [Ui's to include full view] and on your floating toolbars? if so, I really don't see the issue...

I don’t want multicoloured prettiness just a way to make states 2 and 3
instantly, easily, obviously stand out from state 1.

May I start a challenge ?

which is where we came in, indeed

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now we have decided on the shape of the tables, can we start the meetings ?

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No because this meeting has never had any input on the shape of the tables (GIU), it is just foisted on us by the developers even back from the days of the light interface change. It's never been on the agenda.

not what I meant egg

the meeting is doing some actual work with the program - wheras arguing about the icons is like having a meeting to decide the shape of the table you will use for the actual meeting that does the work

no matter, the real issue is highlighting the state, not default colouration

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

+1

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+1

Agree. I did initially enjoy the new UI, but I do miss whether somethings clicked or not. I don’t need a splash of color, but a little highlight that Acorn shown would be nice.

Posted about this icon set only the other month.

Simply put, in my opinion colour helps the brain identify tools and status way faster and increases workflow speed without having to rely on shapes alone.

This mono-tone UI is trend over function.

I would welcome the return of colour cues to help my workflow, the sooner the better.

I would even go so far as to say that newcomers to the program are less likely to find it as approachable as previous versions and one the main USP's of Xara has always been how user friendly and easy to pick up it actually is - so surely, the USER interface is a huge part of this. There is a halfway on this issue, a design somewhere in between full colour and minimalist mono, as it stands I think it's gone too far.

Cheers

Even my little magnet is all grey :'( everyone knows magnets are red, my poor snap-to icon is all boring grey.