Ludus has just been redesigned
It was time to improve the UI of Ludus. With time, we filled the editor with new options and we reached a point where it became difficult to read.
So here is how it looks now. You don’t really see what’s new? Please read on :)
By listening to and analyzing how people use Ludus, we listed 4 points to improve:
- Screen real estate
- Readability
- Logic
- Contextual menu (!!)
1. Screen real estate
The properties panel on the right was taking way too much space. So we reorganized it. It’s now taking less space, especially on complex objects such as images.
We mainly achieved this by compacting all common actions in a single action bar. You now have depth, flip, enlarge or lock in this bar. It’s good for space but it’s also good for usage, as all these actions are always at the same place, no matter which object you’ve selected.
We also took the decision to remove a feature, or more precisely to hide it a little bit. You don’t have buttons to send to back or bring to front anymore. You only have send backward and bring forward. As we consider this as an advanced feature that only pros are using, you can still activate it by shortcut (Cmd+Shift+↑ or ↓) or by Alt+clicking on the icon (did you know that’s the role of that specific key by the way? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_key). If we see that most users accept that behavior, we’ll push forward that logic on other buttons (click = basic action. Alt+click = advanced action).
There are many other little things that have been improved, such as a bigger window for Unsplash or GIPHY search results, and bigger buttons here and there.
Also: you don’t have to hold Shift to deform a shape anymore. Now it’s the default behavior. Using Shift will constraint the ratio (as in most other softwares).
This new UI is also a way for us to prepare for the next big updates coming soon. Hope you’re all ready!