Dear Adobe
Recently, a couple of accomplished interactive/web designers got tired of complaining about Photoshop’s eccentricities to each other. They couldn’t find a “complain to Adobe” web site, so, being web designers, they made their own at DearAdobe.com.
The site has only been up a week, but John Nack (Photoshop product manager) already wrote about it in his blog and said that some of the end-user rants were making the rounds over at the Mothership, generating an actual response, at least in-house.
And yes, there is a category devoted to InDesign (along with some other major apps). Here’s one I pulled at random:
Another one? Yeah, I know, they’re like potato chips … can’t eat just one.
The general Adobe-using public is invited to post their gripes (and compliments, if so inclined) about Adobe software products at the site, no registration required. You can view a “Top 50 Gripes” list for what thousands of users have posted already, and break it down into the Top 25 for each major Adobe app, including InDesign, or just browse through the posts by clicking the Next Gripe button.
DearAdobe.com is barebones but fast. It’d be great if designers Erik and Adam could improve the database … often the same gripes appear when you’re browsing, even though you know there are hundreds more. (If you have suggestions for improving the site, post it as a comment on their DearAdobe blog.)
Nonetheless, after just a few minutes of hitting that Next Gripe button, you can clearly see how many gripes there are about the user interface, installation issues, pricing, and the dreaded Adobe Updater utility … across all the CS apps, not just InDesign.
Check it out, and don’t forget to check that post John Nack put up, because he responded quite well — especially in the comments to his post— to many of the gripes.
Here’s another InDesign one …
Remember, it’s also a good place to put up reasons why you LIKE something about Adobe … you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
And don’t forget the official Feature Request/Bug Report form on Adobe’s site. That might be your best bet, long term.
very nice!
left them a comment on blog…
Really nice idea, it will give Adobe the feedback, if they read it, and it looks like they are.
Flicked through some gripes there, some fairly valid, a lot very inaccurate, in my opinion.
I agree with the pricing, especially the comment of Photoshop costing the same as a small car, brilliant comparison.
Some of the top 50 are quite the same too, bloated prices, bloated software, bloated downloads etc, bloated file sizes for pdf readers.
Nobody hitting the hard issues? Like spanning columns for footnotes in Indesign.
Yes, I read Nack’s blog, so I’ve seen this site, and even posted a gripe of my own. But what caught my eye here, Anne-Marie, was the pull quote you had about there being no grayscale color management in InDesign! Bingo, that explains some odd, annoying things I’ve seen on my systems, which I’ve thought was probably my fault. So this is really the case? If so, yes, it’s on my wishlist for CS4 for sure.
Great idea. Thanks for the post!
Sadly, I was not impressed with the site. It looks more like some unorganized rants rather than intelligent requests. I’m not saying that there aren’t some good questions there, but overall, I was turned off by either things that don’t make any sense or things that aren’t in any way shape or form helpful to Adobe.
Meaning that a comment like “make Illustrator suck less” isn’t feedback that the folks at Adobe can use. But a comment like “make Illustrator’s dashed stroke feature work like InDesign so that the corners line up nicely” is descriptive, clear, and helpful.
I like the “inaccurate” button. I just found an InDesign gripe asking, “Why doesn’t ID have align/distribute buttons like Illustrator does?” Yikes!!!
Nice site! There’s a lot of things that Adobe needs to fix in pretty much all of their apps. I hope Adobe makes this their official way to listen to customers.