If a lot of people don’t understand that Photoshop interface is modular/customizable then there’s something wrong with Photoshop, definitely not with people.
Actually the need of customization itself usually means that there’s definitely something wrong with the GUI: when you spend more time tinkering with a tool than using it to do something productive then you have a problem.
The “problem” with Photoshop is that it caters to a very varied crowd of users: photographers, UI designers, graphic designer, etc. etc. And everyone need very different things from the software.
This, unfortunately, leads to a very complex interface.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been using Photoshop since 4.0 (late 90’s) and i couldn’t work without.
But there must be a better way to interface with it: it’s still using the same paradigm it used 15 years ago, it’s been “beautified” (actually i loathe the new “skin”, but it’s just personal) but it’s basically the same thing.
What’s worse is that often what has been changed it’s incoherent with the rest of the GUI (i’m thinking about the liquify tool, the filters gallery, 3D handling or animations).
A great GUI is one that allows complex tasks to be completed with a “as simple as possible” interface.
I think that PS is the best tool available, but i’m not really sure the GUI couldn’t be better.
