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“There has to be a better way”. That’s what I tell myself everytime I use Photoshop, a software I’ve been working with for the last 10 years.

Even tough I probably correspond to one of Adobe’s personas, Photoshop feels awkward and misadapted to my needs. A lot of people are very good with the software but, I suspect that this is more adaptation than efficient user interface.

Let’s look at how the interaction design of the layer set, which made Photoshop’s popularity, could be improved.

Current Photoshop layer set

What’s wrong with this?

1. Small workspace: Even on a big monitor, the layer set is small and hard to use because of the heavy reliance on mouse control and small click zones. A nightmare for people with disabilities.
2. No support for standard keyboard controls: Lack of selection using arrows or the Tab key forces users to interact with the mouse.
3. Relative thinking: Users must understand and remember the relative order of layers (could be hundreds) because of the lack of numbering. The interaction is indirect; users must use a side list to select elements from the main area (Why can’t we drag & select or re-order like in Powerpoint, Fireworks, Word, etc?).
4. Low affordance: Yes, the selected layers are highlighted but, what happens when we scroll up or down the list? How do we quickly locate the selected layer?
5. Too many icons: Icons increase recognition but, human memory is limited. The more icons there are, the less recognition there can be. As a rule of thumb, a system should never have more than 15-20 icons.
6. Too many layers: Allowing the user to filter the layer list would certainly reduce clutter and increase findability. As long as the layers are numbered, the list can be filtered in several ways (eg. visible, text only, locked, etc).

Redesigned Photoshop layer set

The layer set size would need to be increased to allow for bigger fonts, bigger click zones and a reduction of the dependency on icons.

Photoshop is the leading and, currently, the only serious graphic design application. Major changes to the interaction design would risk alienating part of the software’s professional users. Their adaptation to a flawed interaction design shows that people can adapt to technological solutions if the benefits outweigh the complexity of the adaptation.

But, people shouldn’t have to adapt to technological solutions. Quality software always creates a market. Interaction design is often what sets it apart (Firefox vs IE, Facebook vs Myspace, etc).

Contact us, we can help you improve your interaction design.