Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Caitlin O’Bunny

Because selecting colours currently sucks.

Hello World,

This will hopefully be the first blog post of many focusing on the importance of User Centred Design. The reason I’ve felt more empowered than ever to write is not necessarily out of dissatisfaction, but more so out of the desire to help shape the tools that I use on a daily basis.

As a User Experience & Interaction Designer, I know it’s sometimes hard to understand exactly what users want and need to make their experience more seamless. Through these blog posts I hope to target pain points that I encounter, and offer possible solutions. Most importantly, I want to create an open dialogue between users and businesses by inspiring others to voice their opinions of good and bad design. We cannot hope to change the world by remaining silent.

As my father says, “ask and you shall receive.” So here I go..

What is Illustrator?

I use Adobe Illustrator everyday. Like literally everyday. I would love to see what percentage of my life I have spent using this tool. It’s safe to say I am a fan. However there are a few points of friction that I would like to address.

(I will be talking specifically about Adobe Creative Cloud, but my comments could also be applied to older versions as well).

What are tablets?

In the field of design there has been a shift towards the use of pen tablets over the traditional mouse or trackpad. Although there are a number of tablet manufactures on the market, Wacom has been a long lover of mine. Currently I use 3 different Wacom tablets all of which I love and use for different purposes.

The Cintiq

This tablet has an on screen display where you can directly manipulate graphics from the surface of the tablet itself. The newest models also come with a touch screen for users to interact with as well. (I have an older model which doesn’t have the touch capability). This tablet is perfect for Graphic Art like painting or drawing. However, this tablet isn’t the best for UX / UI Design simply because your precision isn’t as accurate as your hand does get in your field of vision.

Wacom’s Cintiq Tablet

The Intuos and Intuos Pro

I use both the older and newer model of this tablet interchangeably. I like the older Intuos because its small and easily transportable. The Intuos Pro is wireless which makes it convenient to travel with, but for whatever reason I still prefer the older Intuos for when I am on the go.

Wacom’s IntuosWacom’s Intuos Pro

Tablet Mode for Illustrator

It is very apparent when using applications like Illustrator that the experience was designed with a mouse being the main method of interaction. With an increasing adoption rate of pen tablets in the design industry, it seems only natural that software companies like Adobe should start designing for this preferred mode of interaction.

In the future I foresee “Tablet Mode” becoming a new feature within applications.

But what would change about this experience?

Live Preview for Colour Selection

Since I am Canadian, we spell the word Colour with a ‘U’. I have always wondered if American’s thought this looked as strange as I think Color spelt without a ‘U’ looks to me. Anyways.

Colour selection in Illustrator has always been a slightly annoying experience regardless if you’re using a tablet or mouse. It confuses me why they would make this experience different from Adobe’s Photoshop. In Photoshop, if a user clicks on the Fill or Stoke Colour Swatch found in the lower left horizontal toolbar, a Colour Picker pop up appears where a user is able to select a colour from both the window as well as an Eyedropper on screen that allows them to select a colour directly from their Artboard.

Illustrator however does not allow users to select a colour using Eyedropper once they have opened the Colour Picker nor does it allow them to preview what this colour change will look like prior to hitting enter. Take this User Story as an example…

User Story:

I want to recolour a Shape Object but am unsure as to whether or not I’d like it to match one of the other shapes or if I should make it a new colour.

Problem:

Cannot select a colour from the document and from Colour Picker at the same time. The colour change can only be seen after user click Enter.

Solution:

Add Eyedropper and Live Preview function to Colour Picker (as Photoshop does already). With this additional functionality I can now do both right from the Colour Picker.

Magnifier for Colour Selection

Colour selection is especially difficult in Illustrator while using tablets because of the lack of precision. When using the Colour Window I find selecting the perfect colour quite tedious not only because Illustrator does not Live Preview your colour selection as you click and drag your cursor around the colour palette, but also it is hard to tell what exact colour you’re clicking on!

User Story:

I want change the colour of a Shape Object to a very particular shade of yellow while Live Previewing what this colour will look like as I click and drag on the Colour Window.

Problem:

User has to click multiple times before they get the right colour. User has to click multiple times to preview colour.

Solution:

Add a magnified view to the Colour Window that allows users to click, drag and Live Preview their colour choice all at once. This allows designers to become more precise in their colour choices with limited effort.

This post will be apart of an on-going series so I would love to hear what you think! Please feel free to comment with your solutions to these problems, pain points you experience, or even just feedback you’d like to share with me in general.

Caitlin O’Bunny

Illustrator Needs a Tablet Mode was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Illustrator Needs a Tablet Mode

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