For years at Adobe I’d joke, “If we’d come up with the idea for Instagram, we still wouldn’t have shipped it, because we’d still be debating, ‘Hmm—do you think we need 16 sliders per filter… or is it more like 32?’ The idea of no sliders at all (which makes people feel more confident, because you can’t feel too responsible for getting things really ‘right.'”
Well, there goes that joke: Instagram 6.0 (coming out today) adds the ability to fade filters plus make 9 or so adjustments.
If the new effects feel a bit buried in the editing flow, that’s the point. Systrom tells me “I believe that flexibility and simplicity are often at odds.” So instead of cramming the features into the main composition flow, they’re hidden behind the wrench so hardcore users can dig them out, but they don’t complicate things for casual users.
It’ll be interesting to see how people respond to these.
John, This – what I was readin’ exactly as your blog post was appearin’ – is perhaps a complementary review: http://tinyurl.com/kmzfdrv (because it puts the Instagram new stuff into context with other initiatives).
p.s. I still think that Adobe would have done better to design and introduce just some new Filters … see here: https://creative.adobe.com/addons/products/2317
Welcome, my friends, to the Slippery Slope.
John, you’ve been behind, you know exactly how this work :
– people embraced it because they could do things easily,
– now they feel a bit trapped because they slowly know better and will appreciate the sliders,
– new comers won’t use it because it’s too complicated (and smaller apps will get them)
– old users master it and build workflows, and “please don’t add new features except the ones i need it’s crowded” or “please remove useless features except the ones i lack”.
– and there you go : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i9wUa8ofvE
🙂