I agree with most of what is said around the icons and I would rather BMD gives us a choice about them between Icons Only, Icons+Text or Text Only. From a development point of view, I don't think it would take any effort to add these options.
I have been using Fusion for a couple of years now and the text icons never confused me. I navigated the interface and controls for each node very easily. But the look-alike icons of Fusion 16 confuse me completely. I either have to hover over each tab in the node controls to figure out what it is called, rely on my memory to remember the order of the tabs from Fusion 9, or just switch between the tabs quickly until I find the one I need.
That is not a better UX, it is not one that is easier to learn for new users, and it is definitely not a productive one.
The other thing that is missing for me is Fu9's tabbed interface and the freedom it gave me to move things around.
For instance, this is the setup I currently use in Fu9 when working on big comps. It utilises my two monitors, gives me a full screen Flow for an easier navigation of the comp, and a viewer on top of a spline editor on the second monitor.
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This is a setup that I can't replicate in Fu16. In fact, I can't seem to even find an option to make Fu16 use my two monitors, let alone using more than two. I haven't checked thoroughly to see if such an option exists, but I couldn't find it during the limited time I played with Fu16.
Worse than that, the F4 key now doesn't even seem to make the different parts of the UI go full screen. In Fu9, it used to be that you would click F4 over any tab and it would fill the entire Fusion window, momentarily hiding the other tabs.
In Fu16, it seems that there pre-defined areas where panels can fill and they can't go beyond that even when you click F4. For instance, the Flow panel would never hide the viewer. It can hide the Spline view if you have it open, but not the viewer. I'd rather have the F4 key make the panel fill the entire window, because when I use it, I am usually trying to focus on something within a specific panel and I don't need the other one visible on the screen for the time being.
As I said in my earlier post in this discussion, I am really happy that Fusion standalone is still alive. And I am glad to hear that there looks to be some improvement on the performance and the speed in the backend. I just would love to see some things improved when it comes to the interface to make sure that my speed and productivity is not hindered by it.
Dont get me wrong, this is not about the change of interface and me wanting what I am use to. This is not why a lot of existing Fusion users are frustrated about the new UI. Personally, I don't mind the new design. It is not my favorite, but I can live with it. It is about the parts of that design that affect our productivity when using the software.
I really hope BMD can listen to these frustrations, and I believe they will. Just please, don't let us wait and entire year for it