Swipe to rate removed and poor ui design in newest version of LR Mobile

[svskier]

While I appreciate the additonal features of the new release, there are two major downgrades:

1.  You can no longer swipe up/down to rate images  (my primary use for LR mobile, to cull images on the go).  Before it was actually a very efficient, time saving image culling app.  With one hand I could: hold the iPad, swipe through images with my thumb and rate them with the same thumb.  Now I have to hold the ipad with one hand and use the other to slide over a small, inaccurate ui element at the bottom of the screen with my other hand.  On the surface this doesn't seem like such a huge deal.  But when you're dealing with thousands of images, those fractions of a second add up to a decent amount of time.  For me it has rendered the app functionally useless.

2.  Before, you could adjust the image in full screen.  Now the adjustment UI takes up half the screen real-esate, critical for small screens.  Before you could see the image in full screen and use an embeded slider at the bottom of the screen to make the edits.  For small screens, it is mandatory that the image takes up as much real estate as possible to make effective creative decisions.  Now I can't tell what's going on in the image unless I zoom in to a specific region which, you guessed it, adds even more time to my workflow.

These two factors alone take the app out of a pro-grade image editing category.  Again, the additional adjustment features are always a welcome addition, just not at the expense of a cluttered and inefficient UI. 

This is one of those things that pops up semi-regularly with adobe.  I get the sense that they don't consult much with working photographers.  If they did, they would understand that time is our most valuable asset and that all application design decisions should ultimately free up our time, not cost us more.  ESPECIALLY in the post-production process, something that costs every photographer far too much of an only fleeting resource.

[Soji_Okita]

I totally agree with these comments.

There are nice additions in this version of lightroom mobile, but also major downgrades.

Swipe rating is still there in the phone version but not in th ipad version... it should at least be an option.

When making adjustments, the photo is now very small on the screen, and so are the slider.

With previous version, we could adjust one slider very smoothly using all screen width... now it's very hard to make a precise adjustment.

The new UI has some advantages, but in my opinion it's very important to keep the ability to make adjustments with big sliders and a full screen image.

[Rick Baumhauer]

Could not agree more strongly.

LRQ says that Speed Flagging will be back, but that doesn't do anything for the projects I was depending on it for right now, and who thought making photos MUCH smaller while editing was a good idea? I suggested that Adobe take a look at how Polarr handles sliders and interface obtrusiveness, and they went in the complete opposite direction. Duplicating the desktop editing experience is NOT the way forward!

[svskier]

Thought up a solution last night to the UI problem:  the image should just stay full screen all the time with the ui on top.  When you touch any adjustment slider, the rest of the ui should fade away save for the slider you're working with.  When your finger comes off the slider, the rest of the ui should re-appear.  The ui should also have some translucency to see through to the entire image at all times.

[Rick Baumhauer]

Yes, that's a good option, though I think it would work better if they hadn't gone to the "desktop" editing setup with the short sliders on one side of the screen.

There are plenty of decent options for improving LR Mobile - I'm mystified that Adobe seems to keep finding ways to change it for the worst.

[svskier]

Theoretically they could just keep the slider dot unconstrained and the width of the screen could serve as the length of the adjustment sensitivity, similar to the old version.

[Rick Baumhauer]

The issue with that is that many sliders in LR start out in a middle position, with adjustments in both directions possible. Putting the interface on one side of the screen puts the starting point for the slider far from the center of the screen, so values can be adjusted much more in one direction than the other. I really wish they'd follow Polarr's approach - each adjustment is a box, and you adjust them by tapping the box, then scrubbing in either direction.

I really can't fathom how anybody thought the new iPad interface in 2.8 is a step in the right direction, and the fact that it got released doesn't make me optimistic about Adobe's ability to figure this platform out. It's like we've all gone back to being beta testers as they destroy workflows on a whim.