New dropbox interface is not user friendly.

[shass]

Is there any way I can change the dropbox user interface on my PC. This new trend for modern light grey fonts is all well and good but I have very similar names in some files and find it really difficult to see at a glance. I have to double check when i select a folder as the highlighting is also too feint. I have tried increasing contrast settings on my monitor but then everything else looks awful. Why has a program which is meant as a utility been designed to be so bad to use?

[Daphne]

Hey @shass, I hope you're well today!

Just to make sure we're on the same page, are you referring to the new Dropbox desktop app interface?

Would you mind sending me a screenshot (excluding any personal info) illustrating which parts are causing you these issues?

Let me know - thanks!

[GKC_fan]

The new interface is designed for use on a phone or tablet: so a very small screen and very limited button/mouse interaction possibilities. But of course a PC or laptop doesn't have those huge limitations.  

Some of the fundamental problems with the new interface:

1. By making everything large and with large gaps of space so it's easy to read and use on a small-screened device, the new interface wastes tons of valuable and useful screen space on a large-screened device. 
2. It thus forces users to spend far more time and effort than they used to; it forces the users to work inefficiently. Exactly the opposite results of what a so-called "update" is supposed to do. 
3. The dim colors that user shass referred to. They might look cool or retro or hip, but it makes the text so much harder to read, so it's usually a bad design choice. 
4. It trashed many quick and powerful options that the classic interface had.

So the new interface might possibly(?) be an improvement for use on a phone or tablet, but it's a horribly inefficient and frustrating design for everyone who uses Dropbox on their PC or laptop. 

Shass asked, "Why has a program which is meant as a utility been designed to be so bad to use?"

Dropbox made the classic big mistake--as many companies did years ago when people started using their smartphones and tablets for many more things--of assuming that they could use a one-size-fits-all interface in a situation with very different users and needs. At least it's a huge and horribly frustrating mistake from the PC and laptop user's standpoint. Maybe Dropbox has so few PC- and laptop-users now that this change made sense for the company, but that seems hard to believe. 

This is why so many companies now have both a mobile-friendly website and their classic site, and they have an obvious link or button to easily revert to the classic design. This way they don't force their PC users to try to work while wearing the interface straitjacket that mobile users are forced into. This way they keep all their customers happy. Which is smart design.

[PhilJ]

I have a very jaundiced view of 'design'. A very large number of changes to interfaces in software these days seems to be design driven at the expense of functionality or useability.

The trend for light grey fonts is hard to justify for desk top users and the other trend for dark themes also goes badly on some large screens especially when drop down menus have some items in dark blue text. I can see battery saving potential for smartphones.

[GKC_fan]

The problem is that companies and managers often (sometimes unknowingly) hire mere visual designers rather than trained user interface/human interaction designers.

But there's a massive difference.

User Interface/ Human Interaction Design is all about functionality, usability, efficiency, and an excellent overall user experience. These of course include the look and feel of the software, but also entail many other crucial items, such as empowering the users, giving them the functionality they need to make their life or work much better, and not making things any more difficult for the users than they have to be.

Purely visual designers, of course, don't study those subjects, because visual design (as valuable and nice as it is) is about looks over everything.

This is how innocent and unsuspecting users get a hellish monstrosity like Windows 10 inflicted on them . . . because someone from marketing decides that the product needs a new look, so they hire a visual designer to make it look "cool" or hip or "the latest trend" or innovative or whatever, instead of being useful and helpful to their users.