Digital art programs
User interface and experience
Is the creative process helped or hindered?
What we’re looking for in an art package is a smooth workflow that doesn’t keep bogging us down with technical options. That means a clear interface, and one that doesn’t cause us to stop and start when switching between commonly used features.
The user experience of an art package represents a conundrum because the more features that it offers, the more complicated things necessarily become. This means that less fully featured, or more singularly focused packages have a built-in advantage due to their simplicity.
Often, with applications of this sort, you’ll arrive at a work pattern that you come to rely on, so configurability is important. Indeed, being able to come up with your own user-interface layouts can overcome basic design shortcomings in some cases.