I am a new user and before I get used to all the little quirks I think it’s important to point them out. Unattended, little unnecessarily ugly, counter-intuitive, counter-productive and annoying things add up over time. That’s not a problem for old users who will have had enough time to get used to all of them, but it will be a problem for new users who will not waste their time with an ugly, weird and unusable program with an unnecessarily steep learning curve. Especially if the makers of the new kid on the “blog” “Vulcanic Pumice Stone 2026” will have invested 15 min in reading some random “10 golden rules of UI Design” instead of delegating essential work to their users.
I have the impression, the current userbase doesn’t really represent all potential future Obsidian users.
A young biologist, busy with exams, work in the laboratory, publications, etc. may not be as excited as others about having to learn amazeballs markupanddownandupagain lingo just to able to type a word in bold or italics.
The fact, that there are already ridiculously expensive courses out there, teaching how to use Obsidian should ring the alarm. Loud.
A few examples:
- The title bar is way too thin.
→ Not functional (harder to grab & move the main program window around, add the low contrast and the buttons (like the go back / forward arrows) beeing tiny are even harder too see.
→ Aesthetically ugly, especially because it’s right above the huge bar of some sub-window / pane or whatever you call that thing.
→ Unnecessarily confusing: a tiny “x” of the thin title bar closes the whole programm, while a huge “X”, ( in close proximity) closes some sub-window.
→ Once confused, hovering over the x’s in order to find out what’s going on, you’re starting to get annoyed because
a) You should never ever, under no circumstane, have to hover over an “x” in the upper right corner of a program in order to find out what’s going on to begin with.
b) Even in case of bad design forcing you, you should at least get the info you’re looking for. Not the tooltip that “x” in the upper right corner may mean “close something”.
c) And even if the tooltips turn out to be useless, they should at least be consistent. Not “Close window” here, “Close” there and “I don’t care” elsewhere…
2.) Left ribbon:
→ most symbols are too detailed for their size = practically useless
→ So: tooltip once again.
Ah! It’s the famous “Quick switcher”! Noice! Finally!
Now we’re talking! Now we’re cooking with gas!
Knock knock!
Who dere?
It’s me! Switchy!
Really? Switchy Gonzales??? The fastest…
No!
Switchy who, then?
Switchy, your favorite friendly switcheridoo - but always remember: only for yooo-hoo-hoo!
Bingo!
Probably the best tooltip ever!
→ Time to take a deep dive into the real “help” for half an hour. Shit just got real. Ah! Now, I get it! There: word on the street is, Switchy is hanging wth the Hadcore Plug Gang. Makes sense. Let’s see if we can find out somethig about his real identity. Aha! Apparently he goes under the name of “Jumpy” now. Jumpy the Notejumper aka Jumpstart the Startup.
Hi “Switchy”! Long time no see. Say hello to my little friend!
All right time to go! Just click on the x. Upper right corner. Alright, no prob. Stay calm. Restart Obsidian. Nice. We’re in. Now click on the giant x and we’re out of help. Nope, we’re not.
Tell you what.
Try vault switcher.
I don’t know what a vault is.
Hey! Since we’re locked in help anyhow, let’s find out!
Aha!
A vault is a folder.
Genius to call a folder vault. Tip: call the first sub-folder of a “vault” “Fancy some gold nuggets? Type 0001-TFDG3 and say loud and clear: YOU TELL ME! HAHAHA!”
So how do I close help?
Amazeballs ‘community’ though.
Etc.
You’re not paying me enough to list everything, just go through everything with a new user in mind Why no “Menu tabs on top?”, “Why no simple, clear language?”, “Why confusing, ugly out of whack proportions that make you constantly think you have several windows open?” "Why useless tooltips like “lightning fast switcheridino”, “x means clouseau something”, “hashtag close my window” "Why just ‘core plugins’ " instead of "From zero to hero - check out our new hardcore pluggos, powered by Switchy, the Jumper?
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it turns out that I am completely wrong. In case I’m not: build a solid foundation. Take a moment and impress your users with a beautiful, stable and easy to use program instead of letting your users point out self-evident defects that need renovation before Obsidian is even completed.
PS I’m a Pro. Buy my video course “Obsidian Wisdom of a legit content creator. Get influenced NOW if you’re a REAL Obsidianista!”
Only $ 3,899 for the first 10 Obsidian followers who have zero idea how to take notes with Obsidian.
Free lesson on youtube “Switchy or Jumpy? Why there are always twelve Obsidian notes jumping in an octave.”
