Annoyance: Please stop with the fancy annimations

Nik Collection Feature requests
1

Someone please tell me I’m not alone in thinking this…

I’ve been a Nik user since before the Google days. It has always been my go-to for creative edits. I’ve worked my way up through versions 5, 6, and now 7, and it seem like the plugin is getting more annoying to use with each upgrade.

I can’t use my Wacom with it due to how buggy all the panels are. It’s as if the clickable area when using a stylus is not precise at all. I often have to resort to using my mouse. If I attempt to click anywhere on either side, the panels slide and shift and close on me. Turn off the animations so they just appear and disappear. It’s getting ridiculous.

The “filters”, “presets” panel on the left is a mess. Just please make it distinct categories like before. Why is it when I open the “presets” panel, the “filters” panel disappears? Just put it all on screen and stop with the switching and sliding of panels.

There is too much going on with all the filters. It’s like you’re trying to squeeze too many options out of each filter. I understand how great the point technology is supposed to work, but it has gotten worse with each “upgrade”.

I miss the days of the older programs where the aesthetics of the app was more stripped down and it felt like all the effects were much faster. The interface has become so buggy and annoying that I’m finding myself using Luminar Neo more often than Nik, which is depressing because I remember how powerful this plugin used to be.

And before anyone thinks its a “my setup” problem, I’m running an M2 Mackbook pro and my lightroom/photoshop and editing catalogs are all running off 4tb SSD drives, so it is definitely not on my end. Before this setup, I was using a 2015 iMac and the older Nik and Silver Efex used to be so efficient and smooth.

If the interface is not cleaned up, I am sad to say that version 7 which I just purchased recently might be the last one for me.

I hope I’m not the only one out there who feels this way about the software. Please make some options to turn off the animations and “dumb” it down a bit for us pros that need things moving swiftly and efficiently.

Thank you.

2

also a “pre-google” nik user here, although not a pro …

Currently I’m using an Eizo CG2730 with a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 (125% scaling in Win 10). Since Nik 5 I’ve been complaining about readability (font size, luminance …). Some things have finally gotten better in Nik7, although there is stuff that you have to know where to look for – and all if operating with the mouse.
That said, I use a Wacom Intuos medium more or less only to paint / refine masks (selections), more than often much easier and precise than with the mouse.

Now to see how it feels with the pen …
Well, it works but I can imagine it’s really difficult when using a notebook … depending on screen size and resolution.

And yes, this kind of “animation” when closing / changing the menu is just irritating, as it creates playful but useless movements and only attracts attention (= distracting !).