I want to mention a UI complaint. In 2023, the icons changed. I find this very distracting.
The original icons, the eraser and paint bucket, for example, were easy to identify at a glance.
Even though I use keyboard shortcuts for many features, having logical icons made the experience much more pleasant. Eraser = pink, let’s your brain see it faster. Paint Bucket with a can and yellow paint, you can’t miss it!
The new all-faded blue with red accents is hard to see. For example, if you glance at the circle and the hexagon tool, they look identical. Since all icons are just light blue and red lines and dots, it’s hard on the eyes and not quickly discernible like the originals.
Please revive the original icons.
I know for certain others feel the same way.
I have mentioned this to three other SketchUp users, and they all agree with me. So, 3 out of 3 should speak loudly. Please vote this up!
100% agree, the red and blue icons all look the same to my old, tired eyes. At the very least give us the option to switch to the legacy icons if we so desire, but leave the new icons as default. I don’t think this would be too hard to do.
I agree, many people have been saying this for a long time, but nothing is really happening. Click on the arrow to see why I think they won’t change back:
Any similarity to reality is a coincidence
I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of the employees, and I found these reasons why the new icons are better, or why they won’t change it back.
I said back then that before we make new icons, we should ask the users!
We voted on the icons back then, the old one won, but the bosses’ votes counted twice.
I’m the decision maker, the decision has already been made, this is the new corporate UI. That’s it.
The CEO’s son made the icons, I’m not going to criticize him.
Come on, just a few loudmouths are posting about how the new icons are bad…
We have a particularly sarcastic critic on the forum (I do not want to point on him, but … ) , that’s why we’re not putting the old icons back!
It’s at least the third, if not the fourth time I’ve seen the icons changes since I started using SketchUp. It’s a branding thing. The developers have no say in the matter. Might as well just get used to the current icons. Seems to me there are bigger things to worry about.
If I recall right, when this change first came about the explanation was that it was mandated by the Trimble higher-ups, who wanted all Trimble apps to have a standard set of colors and overall feel. Pushback by users was ignored.
Wouldn’t it satisfy the higher ups if we made the new icons the “defacto standard” or default that the product ships with. Then have an option buried deep in the settings somewhere which allow us older folk (with bad eyes) to toggle them back to the original icons. That way we keep our cake and eat it too.
Thanks for your note. It’s important to note that it is not a matter of getting used to it; your brain responds intuitively. When everything is blue and red, ther is no intuitive distinction to click on the right object. This is a keystone of design psychology. Additionally, the original icons are much more distinctive than these bland replacements.
I’m not defending the new icons. I’m just saying I’ve gotten used to the change three or four times over the last 23 years of using SketchUp. The change in icons has never prevented m from doing my work.
If you’re asking me, I don’t really care. The change didn’t cause me any problems at all. As I wrote, it’s part of Trimble’s Marketing and Branding department you’d have to convince them.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a choice.
Your profile says you are still using SketchUp 2024. Even if they set up an option to allow you to select the icon style it surely won’t apply to SketchUp 2024.
Modus does a lot as far as color schemes… but they don’t seem to break it out for SketchUp and other software even though they have Connect (at least for icons). It seems they’d provide the ‘color families’ for each. Isn’t the idea of have Modus as their ‘design language’ to get consistency across their applications? I’m putting this on my list of things I don’t understand.
) , that’s why we’re not putting the old icons back!
