about the new look

I waited some time to see if it'll grow on me and alas it isn't the progress I was hoping for.
Not all is bad, far from it but somewhere along the path of redesign, the focus was lost.
I think though that the design team needs to focus more on human biology now that the aesthetic has been well upgraded. Read on perception, brain etc... and that'll give you shortcuts to nail this like a boss.

So here is the feedback:

PROS:

• the icons describe the function more clearly
• the flat look is easier on the eye more coherent look
• hover state!
• darker top section (the one with the play button) delineates a clear separation with the viewport area

CONS:

1. too much vertical space between the elements = more eyeball and mouse travel more scrolling, as a result more confusion when looking at the inspector, see the bit about the fovea, especially context change. On an inspector with many components this requires user scroll. A tighter layout like in 4.7 would result in a more readable inspector.
2. human biology was not taken into account: the fovea is only 15 degrees view, this is where vision is accurate enough to permit reading. So more spacing = more eye travel, each time your eye moves image context in the occipital lobe needs to be refreshed, think of a pathtracer if you keep moving the camera. This point is the one you guys should pay attention the most because the sort of aesthetic you went for comes from the web and not from research on human perception so if you keep going this route you'll end up with something worse without noticing it. Remember: Unity is not iOS, it's a professional tool so aesthetic takes a backseat on efficiency.
3. some icons are unclear, example: the collab button
4. hover state stops showing up when a pulldown menu is open
5. if the hover state is a welcome addition, the click state is much less pronounced and as a result less readable. Try clicking on a component in 2020 it'll turn into the default non hover color, in 4.7 it'll turn dark. Speaking of hover state, it would be good to change the background of the entire component when hovered, something subtle
6. when a script is missing i noticed that the separation line is dimer, that's a start, even better is to change the font to bold or light, something different than functional components, in fact this could be a way to indicate scripts with errors
7. when unfolding a component in the inspector the new look removes the separation line with the one above, I was wondering why I kept clicking on the wrong thing, that's one of the reason

 

About Vertical spaces, lines that are too tightly packed can be irritating when reading, the other lines distract the eye. But it depends often on the person.

 

There does seem to be a couple of bugs still like dragging components to order them.

Also consider trying another font to see if it feels better for you.

 

Well I like the redesign so far, but what puts me on my nerves is the inconsistency of the icons. Please give them a revision

 

One very confusing thing I've noticed is the object selector window in dark mode - the color of tabs for asset / scene are seemingly backwards than what's normal, throwing me off.