Why did Acrobat change the UI to this simplistic, childish design? Terrible, slower to use.
Acrobat Pro used to be seamless, easy to use and efficiently laid out. Now it looks like some child's puzzle game where you have to access numerous screens to accomplish what you used to be able to do from ONE PLACE.
Maddening, dumb redesign that apparently was done for what? Tablet use? Why ruin something many of us use in professional settings so students and casual users can play around with their school prom flyer on mom's ipad?
It is ugly and not at all intuitive. Clearly the project team didn't have anyone with institutional knowledge involved.
Elysia99
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17 comments
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Anonymous
commented
Awful, bring back the old version!!!!!!
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Bill
commented
Where did the toolbar go In Adobe Acrobat Pro DC? Can I go back to an earlier version of Adobe Acrobat?
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CS
commented
Acrobat has like many things these days made the software worse by trying to make it better. I loved 8 and 10. even 11. this "simple" version is so bad. I can't even find easily how to sign something.
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Anonymous
commented
Elysia99 very good comment and followed up with very good ones from Alan Gibertson and others. Adobe clearly has a problem. I truly wonder if it is just that employees don't care or if it is a management style of that believes ANY change is a good change---no need to consider any negative consequences. Maybe we could call it the "Adobe NoNegCon Philosophy of Software Design".
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Alan Gilbertson
commented
If the Acrobat DC UI has any redeeming qualities, I have yet to find them. It appears to have been designed to kill productivity and increase frustration. Even after all this time, it still takes me about twice as long to complete almost any task in DC as compared with the same task in Acrobat Pro IX, which was already something of a backward step from Acrobat 8, or even X and XI, as awful as they were.
Not one of the many professionals I talk to and correspond with has had anything positive to say about the DC UI. The entire Acrobat team, especially the PM, *must* internalize basic UX design principles such as "form follows function." Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" should be required monthly reading for a year until everyone involved understands why and how to conduct proper usability testing.
If experienced professional users have a hard time with the UI, what chance have the less tech-savvy workers that we end up having to support? Other Adobe teams are 100x more customer-focused. Acrobat has long stood out as deaf to customer complaints. It's past time for that to change.
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Anonymous
commented
"Autopilot" for redesigning (as the commenter suggested) is a function of poor management and leadership. Probably many reasons, but one is likely beauty over usability.
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[Deleted User]
commented
Yes, a million times yes. UI team seems to be on autopilot just redesigning because they have nothing better to do.
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Anonymous
commented
Feels like a mid 2000s game intended for elementary school kids.
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Anonymous
commented
Ayush, in order for you to ask that question, you must not use the newest version of Adobe at all. Take a look at "Adobe Sucks" for a sampling of the problems. Also take a look at the myriad of topics related to the user interface (including tools and toolbars) and comments about the user interface.
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Elysia99
commented
Ayush, I believe they are referring to the need to constantly open that menu to access tools we pros use: commenting, editing, printing...they're all on that screen instead of available via a toolbar.
Why did Adobe kill the toolbar? The most UI-friendly, intuitive method of performing tasks?
As others have mentioned, professionals are probably NOT using a tablet to work on content.
The ability to do multiple tasks simultaneously has been quashed, and Adobe has managed to make every task take longer to achieve. Progress??? -
Kelly Vaughn
commented
Yes x 1000!
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Anonymous
commented
Back when it was just v8 or 9, there were proper pull-downs and tabs, where you could go directly to the feature or tool you needed. Now its a half dozen clicks through tool selections and sidebars and menu selections and icons, which is bad enough navigation, but now all of the tools are "touch" designed icons which take up half the monitor space. Some of us still use actual computers and need to work efficiently.
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Anonymous
commented
Why not at least attempt to make Acrobat easy to use? Improve your Menu bar, improve your ribbon. Why are there commands on the right side of the screen? Put them on the Menu bar. Although I have used Adobe Acrobat for years, I have always hated it because the simplest thing such as just typing text on a pdf is difficult. Why? In the current version, I have no idea what many of the icons refer to.
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Vic Franckiewicz
commented
Amen to the original comment. The new interface is terrible. It shows software developers' disregard and disrespect for their users. I'm doing everything I can to get my firm to get rid of this productivity-draining application. The user interface kills its usefulness.
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Nicholas MacKinnon
commented
Add a setting that allows users to use the older interface instead of the clumsy time consuming new one
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Anonymous
commented
Oh Adobe, what have you done and why have you done it? Acrobat DC is just so bad! I have just downloaded it for a new machine, I had to since Acrobat Pro is no longer available to download as a part of CC. It is awful. Why would you mess with the entire layout of the software?! Why would you hide everything behind childlike huge icons. Why would you make life harder for the people who have been using it as a fundamental part of their workflow for over a decade. All you needed to do was release a version of Pro that wouldn't crash and instead you've made a giant mess. What were you thinking?
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Anonymous
commented
I absolutely hate the new Acrobat interface. Why on earth was it changed? Why do software developers feel the need to move the gas pedal and steering wheel on each new version of a product? Instead of having easily accessible tools as with the last version of Acrobat, now I have to waste time hunting for them. Did you even consult with users before making this change? I'm definitely not buying any more Adobe products.