Well i’m unable to present my ideas in their entirety because I don’t have the graphical skills. I think that functions such as the Fixed Pitch, One Shot, Play Mode, Loop Mode and Reverse would make more sense if they were all grouped together and located down in the “Playback” section for example.
Even if the current toolbar icons were grouped together in a more logical order would be a massive improvement.
As this discussion has gone on for a while, I’d like to remind people that UX/Ui issues are not “aesthetic choices” as many assume.
User Experience Engineering (UX and User Interface [UI], which is part of the UX discipline), is a Profession based on a great deal of scientific research. It’s not what “looks cool”. In many ways, what it looks like isn’t really relevant.
Users are tested on variant interfaces while things like eye-tracking, physical stress monitoring and other statistical tracking are captured. The results help people who build software build their technology interfaces in the best way possible for the intended audience (this applies to physical technology as well).
Most of the complaints on CB 14 here are because the new UI (as opposed to experience) violates many well-known standards in UI design (lack of contrast, lack of visual separation of action modules, etc.)
It’s not just because “it’s different”.
I know when companies want to tighten their HR spending, things like UX/Ui expertise is a tempting area to cut. When UX/Ui done well, it seems so obvious (believe me, it’s not!), it’s like “well, of course! Why would we pay for this?”.
Here is a fun site that can give you some background on all this
The things that I post are not saying that this is exactly how Cubase should be. It’s just about having discussions on UI design philosophy in general.
Color palette, lighting, shadows, highlights, contrast, gradients, spacing, sizing, depth perception, location, organization, clarity, sharpness, customization, iconography, scalability, everything listed in the website above and more.
Even If I was a professional UI designer I would still have to go through a dozen different prototypes because there are so many different ways that it can be approached.
Cubase GUI is good but there’s room for improvement. Toolbars, Transport Bar, Inspector Views, MixConsole, Track List, flagship VST Instruments, Control Room are quick examples that I can instantly think off the top of my head.
If you think there is nothing that Cubase can improve upon than you must think it’s the perfect GUI. However I do not think that.
In regards to iconography, what do you think about the concept of integrating icons that are longer in width where it’s suitable ?
I feel like Cubase kind of strongholds itself into trying to standardize singular width icons where as if it was longer in width than it could hold more text or detailed symbolism that would make the function more obvious.
This is the VSTi tab in the Right Zone.
Curious to know if anyone can read this from a normal sitting distance ?
I understand that this section is probably not used very much by users, but maybe it deserves to be looked at being improved in the future ?
Reads just fine here and Im about 3’ away from my monitor. Little small but the text is all legible and readable.
You have great eye sight. Than I guess the question would become should it be left like this for eternity ?
I can’t think of any solution that would suits me and majority of the other users.
From one side, grouping should help, from the other side, it would bring more clicking. We would need to have a huge customization options for this, that’s for sure.
This is my conceptual redesign prototype version 1 of the Sampler Track.
This is just a single version proof of concept showcasing what could be possible. The point is to try and demonstrate that there is room for improvements.
Would you consider it an improvement or not ? Do you think the idea could be built upon ? Or would you simply keep the original design ?
I admire the time you put into this. People who really care about making Cubase look and feel as comfortable as it should. What I don’t think is fair to users is that they spend their time on something Steinberg doesn’t seem to care about.
I do think that Steinberg cares. I don’t mind spending my time on this topic because it is one that interests me and I am passionate about 
If they cared, they would have already addressed the issue, or at least given it priority and visibility, as it’s been a rather controversial issue since v13 was released.
We’re on v14, with a couple of patches, and the complaints continue. As a user, I appreciate and value your efforts, and I hope they come to fruition.
Unfortunately, font- and design changes doesn’t get you customers.
I assume that the recent changes with CB13/14 are simply based on the fact that the old graphics layer is so out-dated that they rewrote the whole thing (also, to accomodate for HiDPI displays). Now that it’s done and (most of) the technical debt is paid, they need to focus on new features to attract new customers.
Making font-sizes and colors a user preference is very difficult to do. One post above highlighted areas where additional info could have been squeezed in, but you need to make sure it works for the UWQHD as simple Full HD.
It’s not an easy task, but I guess the number of posts in this thread at least show there is a need and really hope it’s going to be addressed.
It’s not as simple as it may feels. This is not a one, two guys projects where it’s easy to go from an idea to development. In bigger companies, even if you have an idea for something, it must go trough many hands before it’s accepted, and even then, during the development it’s not guaranteed that something will end up in the final version.
In a software that is as huge as Cubase, it’s taking lots of time to test all the changes. The amount of bugs and issues that are happening in the software development is huge, even in tiny projects.
Also, one year is not much of time in software development. Who knows, they may surprise us in C15 but I wouldn’t keep my breath. If they’re even working on an GUI overhaul, it would be a miracle if they could bring it as fast as this year. Of course, I’ll be happy to be wrong and see new improved GUI in C15.
It’s only in their hands to do it quickly. (From one version to another) They won’t address it in C15. They wanted that change in 13, and it will remain for several years, when they decide to change it again. They won’t always get it right either. But before those changes, it was good to do a survey or have a Plan B.
I would disagree on this - accessibility and UX polish does get you customers
Well said! I’ve spent most of my career as a designer in the cooperate world, working at a certain large tech company. It is difficult to champion change. One of the best ways to do so is to have data in hand (whether from in product telemetry, usability studies or qualitative research) and to communicate the narrative, and truth of why it matters. Unless it’s already been engrained in the company culture, quality design practices and product craftmanship is almost always something that has to be fought for, no matter the industry.
The look of the GUI is one thing, but the fact that opening the Sampler window (bottom) is adding 25-35% CPU tax on my Mac Mini M2 is another thing.
I know that opening some 3rd party plugin windows is affecting the performance, but Sampler? Really? There’s nothing in the Sampler GUI that could explain such a high CPU spike.
In recent years, optimisation has not been the strongest point of Steinberg (plugins especially).
The Sampler Track window in the lower zone using 25-35% CPU on your Mac Mini M2 does not sound normal. Have you created a separate forum thread with a “issue” tag on it ? This is worth bringing to Steinberg’s attention.
I doubt the issue will get solved, but there are some forum users who have direct lines of communication with Steinberg. Also, allegedly Steinberg does check the forum sometimes. This would be just another Cubase performance issue thread to add into the myriad of various other performance issue threads, which may encourage Steinberg to write better code for the future. We can only hope and dream.
