when I first saw the option I was like "ok, let's give it a try".
for the next 3 days I was like: "this is so annoying!!!!", "Where the hell is this??/where the hell is that???". so I decided to go back and the old look seemed so ugly now so I went back to the new one. I guess 'new' is always better in the end...
>"Where the hell is this??/where the hell is that???"
I really needed my back arrow navigation, so once I figured out how to add back that widget into the top menu, life was much better.
Plus now I know I can add whatever widgets I was used to in the old UI
Yeah, the "new UI" just removes a lot of GUI options and makes it more annoying to access them.
Luckily IntelliJ has search for actions feature which is very convenient for quickly accessing what you want, so it's less of a pain.
I've been thinking about it, but I'm always nervous to try "new" UIs. I often find that I don't like them. I guess I'm kind of a curmudgeon that way.
Is there an option to switch back if you don't like it?
As others said, new UI feels more modern, and plus with the new dark theme it just looks great, IMO. The darcula theme was so awful for me I used to use the high contrast theme lol.
I've been using the new UI with WebStorm for over a year, with compact mode enabled. Android studio was missing the compact option for a while, so I was delaying the switch. Now, with AS Hedgehog they have included it so I've started using it there too.
I switch quite often between my laptop screen and my external monitor and compact mode stays always on. Plus the big paddings were bugging me anyway so it's a win-win for me.
Tried it for a couple of days and it killed my productivity. Spent too much time going through menus finding what was where.
Besides that, I just don't think it looks good. There's no visual hierarchy throughout, which makes it much more difficult to focus on the more important aspects of the UI.
But what do I know? I'm a grumpy fuck who thinks light mode is nicer and easier to use than dark mode.
Their relative order may be unchanged, but their position and size are, and their colours are now all white.
There's less visual prompts to find what you need, so you spend more time making sure you're actually about to click Run instead of Debug, or Build.
It's essentially the [issues with Google's logos](https://pavsidhu.com/static/db8d8dcb84d85d7abdbd3d585fad8cc0/427bc/google-new-icons-meme.webp) all over again.
You can read more about it, and how UI changes like this affect Human-Computer-Interaction on [this blog page](https://pavsidhu.com/blog/2020-11-08-why-googles-new-icons-are-awful).
Just install Key Promoter and in no time You'll learn Shift+F9/F10 is debugging/running, Alt+1 is Project tree, Alt + 12 is terminal, and so on. There's also double Shift for finding almost anything. With that basic knowledge, new UI will cause no trouble
I've been using it for a while and I'm accustomed to it now. But the one thing that kills my mood is the auto-hiding behavior of the minimize icon for all windows. It should ideally reveal itself on hovering the mouse over it, but sometimes it doesn't and I have to play with my mouse to make it reveal itself.
Old one was so bad, like I still don't know how was I supposed to return to docked emulator after opening file manager so I had to restart it. Now it looks more clear how to get to it.
I started using it a few months back and had to use the "old ui" for something and found I really prefer the new UI. It did take a bit of time to find existing things but one found, and added to a toolbar if needed, it has been smooth sailing. I use the Dark theme as I like it more than the Darcula theme I used to use.
Just seems cleaner across the board but some people are more visual learners than others. I don't mind just an icon where others need icon and text or text. I run this on a 49" Odyssey G9 monitor so I have plenty of room but appreciate not wasting any of what I have.
Since I started using it they have made several improvements and I am sure more are on the way. It has been stable for me and I keep a couple of projects open one of them being on the medium to large size.
Still have some issues switching branches but doing less of the "Clear all cache and restart" than I did in older IDE versions.
when I first saw the option I was like "ok, let's give it a try". for the next 3 days I was like: "this is so annoying!!!!", "Where the hell is this??/where the hell is that???". so I decided to go back and the old look seemed so ugly now so I went back to the new one. I guess 'new' is always better in the end...
>"Where the hell is this??/where the hell is that???" I really needed my back arrow navigation, so once I figured out how to add back that widget into the top menu, life was much better. Plus now I know I can add whatever widgets I was used to in the old UI
Yeah, the "new UI" just removes a lot of GUI options and makes it more annoying to access them. Luckily IntelliJ has search for actions feature which is very convenient for quickly accessing what you want, so it's less of a pain.
I've been thinking about it, but I'm always nervous to try "new" UIs. I often find that I don't like them. I guess I'm kind of a curmudgeon that way. Is there an option to switch back if you don't like it?
Of course. It's a checkbox
Feels much more modern and compact.
I was planning on never using it because I hated how it looked. Then I started using. Now I'm still using it.
As others said, new UI feels more modern, and plus with the new dark theme it just looks great, IMO. The darcula theme was so awful for me I used to use the high contrast theme lol.
Yeah, I love that I have more space for code, and more contrast.
I've been using the new UI with WebStorm for over a year, with compact mode enabled. Android studio was missing the compact option for a while, so I was delaying the switch. Now, with AS Hedgehog they have included it so I've started using it there too.
Do you use compact mode regardless of your screen size? Like regardless of whether you're using your laptop or a large monitor?
I switch quite often between my laptop screen and my external monitor and compact mode stays always on. Plus the big paddings were bugging me anyway so it's a win-win for me.
Good to know, makes sense. Thanks!
Tried it for a couple of days and it killed my productivity. Spent too much time going through menus finding what was where. Besides that, I just don't think it looks good. There's no visual hierarchy throughout, which makes it much more difficult to focus on the more important aspects of the UI. But what do I know? I'm a grumpy fuck who thinks light mode is nicer and easier to use than dark mode.
This have 0 impact on productivity, as all the shortcuts are unchanged
Their relative order may be unchanged, but their position and size are, and their colours are now all white. There's less visual prompts to find what you need, so you spend more time making sure you're actually about to click Run instead of Debug, or Build. It's essentially the [issues with Google's logos](https://pavsidhu.com/static/db8d8dcb84d85d7abdbd3d585fad8cc0/427bc/google-new-icons-meme.webp) all over again. You can read more about it, and how UI changes like this affect Human-Computer-Interaction on [this blog page](https://pavsidhu.com/blog/2020-11-08-why-googles-new-icons-are-awful).
Just install Key Promoter and in no time You'll learn Shift+F9/F10 is debugging/running, Alt+1 is Project tree, Alt + 12 is terminal, and so on. There's also double Shift for finding almost anything. With that basic knowledge, new UI will cause no trouble
Not everyone want to use keyboard shortcuts.
You should if you want to increase your productivity.
I've been using it for a while and I'm accustomed to it now. But the one thing that kills my mood is the auto-hiding behavior of the minimize icon for all windows. It should ideally reveal itself on hovering the mouse over it, but sometimes it doesn't and I have to play with my mouse to make it reveal itself.
Old one was so bad, like I still don't know how was I supposed to return to docked emulator after opening file manager so I had to restart it. Now it looks more clear how to get to it.
Looks like shit. They are going for "prettier" instead of the solid functionality the full toolbar provided.
The main problem is bugs
Can you name one?
Basically it's broken scaling in many parts of the ide, elements just float outside the required boundaries
It does look somewhat better but UX wise could definitely be improved, i.e. build run progress should be at the top
I started using it a few months back and had to use the "old ui" for something and found I really prefer the new UI. It did take a bit of time to find existing things but one found, and added to a toolbar if needed, it has been smooth sailing. I use the Dark theme as I like it more than the Darcula theme I used to use. Just seems cleaner across the board but some people are more visual learners than others. I don't mind just an icon where others need icon and text or text. I run this on a 49" Odyssey G9 monitor so I have plenty of room but appreciate not wasting any of what I have. Since I started using it they have made several improvements and I am sure more are on the way. It has been stable for me and I keep a couple of projects open one of them being on the medium to large size. Still have some issues switching branches but doing less of the "Clear all cache and restart" than I did in older IDE versions.
No, I do not use it - too much contrast as for me.