Adobe defends the new CS3 branding
"Honestly, we have been living with the icon system internally on our own machines for so long now that it's a bit hard to remember what the big deal is. We're as varied and hardcore a user group as will be found anywhere, we've found the stuff just works. Done."
This is how I read it:
"We designed them. We like them. We use them and they work for us. Done."
You won't believe how many times I've encountered this mentality at software development houses. As the technorati, we can sometimes come to believe our own hype and become entrenched in our ivory towers where the WiFi flows free.
I was once doing usability consulting at a medium-sized software development house and had a programmer show me a ridiculously complicated interface. It had hundreds of tiny buttons, and tiny text that even I couldn't read with my contact-lens augmented 20/20 vision. This programmer, who was the lead programmer at his organization, however, knew the interface inside out. He had designed it and had worked with it since its inception. He swept through the demonstration so quickly I could hardly keep up. That's how he worked. His brain was on fast-forward and his fingers battled to keep up. He probably thought in binary too. That was fine, of course, but here's the catch:
He thought that everyone else thought in binary too.
Here was a man who was a completely different creature to his user base and yet he thought that he *was* his user base. And, since he was the lead programmer, no one dared argue with him on the design of the interface. Everyone else did their best to ignore the huge grinning elephant in the room as he went through his demonstration. When I finally interrupted him and told him that I couldn't understand a single workflow he had shown me and that the interface was terribly over-complicated, he appeared to deliberate my words for a few moments and then began repeating the tour i--n a s--l--o--w--e--r v--o--i--c--e because he apparently realized that I mustn't be too bright.
I wonder how many people working at Adobe feel they can honestly express their opinions to the Sr. Experience Designer. There is a reason we do user testing in our field. Organizations have a power hierarchy and culture that can quickly become very insular and result in an environment where everyone continuously pats each other on the back, all the while edging further and further away from the plot. (I believe Americans call this "drinking the Kool-Aid"). This is exactly the type of mentality that software developers have to drop if they want to understand what their users want.
The biggest fear any organization should have is being out of touch with its customer base's needs. Regardless of whether those needs are rational or not. After all, Photoshop is Photoshop regardless of the branding right? And people buy $1,000 watches because they're just $900-worth more accurate than a $100 watch.
Companies that make tangible products like perfumes and cars and flat-screen TV sets have understood for a long time that they are not just selling the actual product itself but values, expectations, a lifestyle, a self-image, a story, an idea, a feeling. Your users are telling you that the new branding doesn't agree with their expectations. They make beautiful things (both form and function) and they want the tools they work with everyday to inspire them. Purely subjective? Perhaps (although many people have pointed out worries regarding localization of the icons and the impact of relying so heavily on color for color-blind users). Irrational? Maybe. But it doesn't mean that these concerns are any less important to your user base.
Being transparent with your users and running things by them is great but the value of asking for feedback is greatly reduced if you then ignore what people tell you and fall on the defensive.
The overwhelming response to the new icons and the new application branding is negative. Instead of labeling your customers as people who "rise up and scream heresy" as Ryan does in the interview, perhaps you should listen to them. They're only screaming because they care. It's silence that you should be afraid of.
The Adobe defends the new CS3 branding article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
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Pardon my francais…Damn I love the way you think!!!!
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:52 pmAlgis
You’re absolutely right !
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:16 pmJohn Dowdell
“I wonder how many people working at Adobe feel they can honestly express their opinions to the Sr. Experience Designer.”
I do… spoke with both Ryan and Michael Gough yesterday. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone in the shop feeling shy about saying what they think. (Both of them come out of the larger design world and are very familiar with the range of strong opinions.)
jd/adobe
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:51 pmLEE
Great point…icons are very important in my experience. My wife and I go so far as to replace icons for app’s which we find distasteful, and will likely be doing this for the new CS3 icons.
Here are some dashing replacements, which do a FINE job exemplifying the professionalism, and creative flare of a product we happily throw money at:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19215705/?qo=7&q=adobe&qh=boost:popular age_sigma:24h age_scale:5
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19479011/?qo=4&q=adobe&qh=boost:popular age_sigma:24h age_scale:5
And in general you can find some lovely ones here also:
http://interfacelift.com/
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:28 pmLEE
I think they’re just messing with everyone and are going to roll out something entirely different at launch. Don’t worry Aral = ]
Adobe, bringing back the raging fun, and creativity first discovered in your Junior High science lab? Naaaaah, they’re playing a joke on us = ] Maybe they plan on launching CS3 in April, and are setting the grounds for their April Fools joke. Oops did I give it away?? = p
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:39 pmPhillip Kerman
I’ve been wrong before (as in the case of thinking MX was a dumb idea) but I really have to agree with you here Aral. At first I was going to say this two-letter thing won’t work for localization, but in fact I’m sure all products keep their name regardless of the language. However, here’s the deciding factor for me: my 6 year old can’t figure them out… The REAL point is that she can figure out the old ones. She knows the icon for KidPix and (now thanks to FOTB) Painter. She even knows a good deal of the Painter interface. Your mock up of the Photoshop toolbar is pretty convincing too.
I’m not saying it’s certainly a huge mistake that will cause world collapse… however, it is interesting that no one I’ve heard from Adobe seems to agree in any way with you Aral. I mean, either you’re just totally out there or they really are drinking the koolaid.
I don’t get the colors at all. I can’t wait for the new products that will go into the deep blue area. And, why do any of them have to overlap? Why are there two Acrobat logos? Why is one classroom icon nearly completely covered?
I really do hope it’s a big joke but I really doubt it.
December 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pmozgur uksal
Aral totally rocks.
December 22nd, 2006 at 8:02 pmStefan Richter
Weird, I like the Apollo icon best… and that one doesn’t use a two letter abbreviation. So well done on that (I bet it’ll get dropped if and when they rename Apollo) but I am not yet convinced on the periodic table stuff…
January 4th, 2007 at 9:29 pmJohn Joyce
Adobe has been drinking it’s own koolaid alright.
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:01 amHeck the application icons now look like elements from the periodic table of atomic elements!!!
Charles Reynolds
I saw the CS3 icon and said: “Don’t worry the blatant disregard for good design is just because it’s beta”
Out of all icons Adobe icons stood out, showing the creative nature of the program. Realising which was which was a doddle! Now they are recessing in graphics and quality! It’s rediculous it’s like Apple or MS saying that they are going to make all icons distinctive and ugly! It’s an unneccesary change and I think it isn’t required. Why not cater for everyone (Many peopke aren’t color blind, etc.) and offer different skins for the app, good looking and periodic table,
March 9th, 2007 at 6:41 pmFaruk Ateş
Fantastic write-up, Aral. Certainly hit the nail on the head.
It’s a shame that such an obvious point made by their own userbase is being ignored.
I experienced a similar situation like you had with your software developer example, at a previous company I worked for. I was one of the CMS builders (for the longest time, the only one) and while we largely managed to build the system thinking from our user’s perspective (their expectations, needs and desires), I have to admit that our first two iterations had far too much workflow logic in them that made sense to us but not to our users.
The third one massively improved that, though — lesson learned, for sure. I hope Adobe will learn their lesson about the icons by the time they create new ones for CS4. Very sad it’s too late for them to get the hint for CS3
March 26th, 2007 at 3:51 pmCurt
Okay, maybe it’s just me (judging from the responses so far) but the two letter icons make much more sense to me. The existing Adobe icons work for applications that I use daily. Over time I have learned that Photoshop is some feather thing and Illustrator is some flower thing. It makes no sense, but fine. But for things that I don’t use every day, it’s a real pain in the rear. Look at Premiere, After Effects and Encore. I have no idea which is which. The whole point of icons is speed. It’s not about making a design statement. It’s first and foremost about usability - and I have to pause over each icon to figure out which is which. Not good design. With the new (or old Macromedia influenced) icon design, I quickly know what is what. Who cares if your 6 year old, knows which is which. The products weren’t made for them. The products were made for design professionals on a deadline and hovering over an icon to figure which one I need every time is a waste of billable time.
March 26th, 2007 at 5:32 pm