I am talking with Tom Hogarty about the evolution of the Lightroom interface and he noted that input from photographers was a major part of the evolution of the interface into something new and different from the usual Adobe interface. I am curious to know if the Photoshop CS3 beta program had as much of an impact on how Photoshop CS3’s interface eventually turned out. Lightroom was (I think) the first Adobe app to do a public beta and it turned out quite different from other Adobe apps, but Photoshop CS3 did not change as much (though CS3’s interface is probably the biggest departure yet from the old Adobe interface). How would you compare the two beta programs?

Yes, input from photographers and other customers is hugely important in the development of Photoshop features, of which the interfaces are a major part. In this cycle we got a great deal of feedback on layer alignment and blending, 3D, Quick Select, Refine Edge, and especially the new palette management system, among other features. Each of these went through a number of iterations before reaching its present form.

Lightroom is a much younger application than Photoshop, so it naturally went through more radical evolutions on the way to shipping. We felt strongly that we shouldn’t come out with a 1.0 product without giving photographers a chance to weigh in with their feedback (a very different approach than the one taken by other companies). Because it was a whole new beast, Lightroom changed more between its initial appearance and the shipping version, as it should have. (Making equally radical changes to Photoshop would be more disruptive, given users’ long history with it.)

So, in short, the beta programs for both apps yielded much good feedback that helped shape the new features, but the impact of that feedback may be more visible in Lightroom than in Photoshop.