Photoshop CS4 user interface

Last month Adobe released beta versions of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth CS4. Registered CS3 users could try this software without any time limit. I downloaded Dreamweaver CS4 in the first week it was available but because computer security is so tight at Ogilvy I’ve been unable to install it. That hasn’t stopped me from exploring the new user interface changes through articles and videos written and taken by others, as well as Adobe’s designers.

One of the key changes causing a lot of debate at the moment is Adobe’s decision to offer an option in the OSX version of CS4 to put the document and UI in to one big window, with a solid grey background, and allow the window to be resized from any side rather than just the bottom right corner. This would be optional and it has yet to be decided what the default would be.

The Microsoft Window’s versions of Adobe’s suite has always had this design, as all Windows applications do. Traditionally Mac OS has kept the UI separate to the open document — so you could see the desktop behind the application.

The first reaction to this decision by Mac users has therefor been that they are making it look and behave like a Windows application, rather than following the design rules set in OSX. While I agree that it’s important to make applications look and behave consistently with the OS (and why I also use Safari instead of Firefox because it feels more like an OSX application), it’s interesting to note that Apple has been transitioning their software to use this design without anyone seeming to notice, or at least without causing as much debate as Adobe seems to be. Perhaps it’s because it’s been Apple software and so Mac users don’t make the connection to Windows and rather assume it’s just an evolution.

John Nack from Adobe has put a gallery together that shows some of the pro applications Apple makes that use the ‘Windows’ design. Apple are always preaching that Windows just copies Mac OS but perhaps this is one case where OSX has copied Windows?

I think it’s important that this new design remains an option, regardless of whether it’s an improvement or not, simply because many users are used to working the current way. It will be interesting to see how many people make use of the new UI and what the UI in CS5 ends up with though.