However, if what I’ve just seen in the Fireworks CS4 beta ends up rolled out across the entire CS suite, I’m going to seriously be on the lookout for CS killers in the near future. CS3’s interface approach irked a little-not least with the Windows-oriented palette controls-but I dealt with it. Although I mostly hand-code websites, I rate Dreamweaver quite highly, and Photoshop and Illustrator remain excellent, if bloated, tools.
To be fair to Adobe, some of its applications are of a high standard. Apple has been guilty of messing around with its UI to a ridiculous level since Leopard’s introduction (and perhaps before, if you think back to the introduction of ‘brushed metal’ during the pre-OS X days), but nothing quite prepared me for Adobe’s latest offering, which not only smacks consistency around the head, but also kicks it squarely in the nuts for good measure. When conventions are broken, users find it harder to achieve their goals.
User interface consistency is an important thing.
