When the tab is not active, you see this stray looking orphan pipe sitting over to the right of the button. The close “X” icon seems way too big so it throws off the vertical alignment of the button text slightly (only obvious on an active tab). The tabs have unproportionate padding on them so the pip rubs up right against the side of the button. With the new design they threw in their horrible dark blue branch colour, light font weight text and a pipe to separate the tabs. The previous design had visually distinct and separate tabs so your eyes could easily see what tab was what. Maybe I am not the majority here, but it is not uncommon to have 2 or more repository tabs. Yet another misstep in the design bastardisation of Sourcetree. The proportions of the icons also look way too big, especially the file status icon which looks like a giant monitor on a little stand. The same washed out, colourless and thin icons make an appearance. Even though the branch name text is smaller, because it lacks any kind of indent which gives it visual hierarchy my eyes focus on “Branches” or “Remotes” before finding their way to the branch.ĭon’t get me started on the iconography in use here. When I look at the following, my eyes don’t know where to focus. Now look at the heading above it “Branches” Pay close attention to the active branch styling which is just bold text. Take a look what what one of my repositories looks like with one branch. Take for example the left hand branch pane which shows you your branches, etc. While typography has only been tweaked a little bit, to add to the confusion there is now a lack of true visual separation and hierarchy. In the older version the colour and definition of the icons was an important part for me moving around the application, not things are just confusing. It is a minor nitpick, but the first thing that I noticed when I opened up the new version. The biggest for me is the push/pull notification icons.īecause the new icons lack any colour, it isn’t immediately apparent what is what.
Yes, the old version looks like an early 2000’s software application, but at least it was usable. You can see them fine, but they get lost. This in itself would not be so bad if it weren’t for the fact the background is grey, so you get these light grey outlines on a grey background. The latest version of Sourcetree sees the icons adopt this pseudo pencil drawn look where every icon looks thin and transparent.
The Windows version is like the ugly step sister from a fairytale who wants to go to the prom, but nobody wants to take her.
If you’re fortunate enough to be a Mac user, you get a nice polished looking app with a few UI quirks, still a dumpster fire on wheels, but better than the Windows version. I realise I have a choice and I could use the command line (which I do) I work on multiple repositories and the convenience of being able to switch between them is reason enough to use Sourcetree, especially when it comes to merge conflicts.Īlso worth noting that the design for OS X actually does not look bad.
What happened?įalling into the trap of everything must be flat, WHY CAN’T WE MAKE IT FLATTER trend of removing shape and definition from interfaces, Sourcetree finds itself entering a bad neighbourhood with new shoes on. Given the previous design of Sourcetree was not exactly the prettiest application out there or modern looking, usability wise it definitely ticked all of the boxes for me personally.
It handles the basics of Git, allows you to visually merge/rebase your repositories, handle conflicts like a boss and more.īut we need to talk about the redesign they just launched across both Windows and Mac OS platforms in version 1.8.1. When it comes to GIT clients, you can’t really fault Sourcetree by Atlassian.