Tell Visual Studio 2012 UI Designers What to Fix

If you hate the default interface themes in Visual Studio 2012 as much as I do, you have another outlet to vent.

The UI designers have posted a survey where you can tell them how distracting and annoying you find the gray themes and black icons. You even get to comment on the (fixable) all-caps issue.

The UI people didn’t listen much to the (largely hostile) developer feedback during the product design – or more likely were constrained by some edict from on high - but seem more willing now to create decent themes for updates.

Here’s the Visual Studio 2012 Visual Theme survey URL

https://illumeweb.smdisp.net/collector/Survey.ashx?Name=VS2012ThemeSurvey

VS 2012 is a great product hampered by a lousy UI. If I could have a Visual Studio 2010 theme (with its coloured icons) I’d be more than satisfied with the 2012 release.

10 Comments

  • They seem to have taken guidance from the adage "If it ain't broke, fix it until it is".

  • I disagree, i've changed mine to the dark theme and think it works well. I think calling it a lousy UI is going a bit too far.

  • Who ever changed the color of the Title Bar should be re-assigned to a position that requires no GUI designing.

  • Those who like the new UI may not be as vocal, but we do exist! I much prefer the new UI to the old, find it much less distracting, and much appreciate the inclusion of both light and dark variants out of the box. No complaints here!

  • Those who like the new UI are not vocal because there aren't many of you. You may exist, but that is only because in a universe as vast as ours, most things that can be imagined, exist. And so, I am not surprised that there are some out there that prefer this vile excuse for a user interface to some others. I don't think there's any reason to get into why its so bad. That is well tread ground. And, admiteddly, there may be some nice nuggets of functionality wrapped in this turd. But I don't go digging around in turds looking for nuggets, so this version of Visual Studio is off my shopping list. Maybe its wishful thinking on my part, but I hope someone at Mircrosft is listening to the throngs of customers, and more importantly, evangelists they are alienating and losing.

  • The size of the titlebar is enormous and is barely distinguishable from the menu bar. This makes it a huge distracting area of bland.

  • For what its worth, I think the 2012 dark theme is brilliant, far far better than 2010!

  • I hope that them will fix the ALL CAPS MENU...

  • I would be fine with VS 2012 having added 2 new theme options in addition to the 2010 look, but seriously, a $13,000 dollar program has 2 themes black & white or white & black. Mercy

  • There are so many things that went so so wrong.

    1. The ICONS. I mean just look at them, they're a disgrace. So small and almost monolithic and dull. Go back to 2010 icons please.

    2. ALL CAPS Menu.

    3. The General color scheme especially with the WHITE one. Damn that is a pain in the eyes.


    SO PLEASE... the VS 2010 theme and icons was brilliant. No problems with that. You don't need any of these changes for God's sakes

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