This post contains usability issues that I am not sure are intended or not (for me, they make using LucidChart more frustrating). All of these were noted when using LucidChart in Chrome on Windows 11:
- After the latest noticeable update (~1/22), lines retether a little too aggressively. They jump from one shape to another or attach to a line.
- When multiple documents are open, unpinning the Text or Shape Options unpins them on all tabs.
- Shift-arrow isn’t working when text within a shape is highlighted. It is treated as just arrow.
- Clicking on text in a shape group is really hit or miss. It often takes more than five double-clicks to get the text selected.
- Ungroup sometimes needs to be called multiple times to finally ungroup everything.
- Paste Style is sometimes disabled.
- For a grouped shape, double-clicking twice on one of the shapes in the group gets to a state where everything has a grey overlay and the quadruple-clicked shape is highlighted. If the Text or Shape Options dialogs are pinned, pressing Esc first unpins any pinned dialog. Pressing Esc again removes the gray overlay. It really should be order of precedence (i.e., since the grey overlay appeared last, it should be the first thing escaped out of).
All of the documents I’ve noticed this on have been around for a while, though some are recent duplicates of older ones.
Also, the following comments/ideas are things that I’m not seeing anything applicable that would change/add the behavior in the application. I understand that users use your product in different ways, so a setting that allows a customization (that applies to all documents) may work for some of these:
- A group of objects should automatically ungroup when all but one object has been removed from the group. Alternatively, a group should have some visual indicator that it is a group.
- Objects should have a lock size only.
- Automatically delete lines connecting objects when all objects the line is attached to is deleted.
- Enlarge the font for the measurement of a line when zooming.
- Show dimensions of a line while an attached object is being moved with Shift-Arrow.
- Have the ability to take actions (e.g., make changes to a setting or style, exporting) against a group of documents.
- Set a global default style for an object (e.g., line thickness for lines) and allow all of that type of object to be (re)set to this global style.
- When deleting text at the beginning of a line by backing up over it, the formatting (e.g., font height) should revert to the default size or size of the next character remaining.
- Allow resizing of any dialog (e.g., Shape or Text Options).
- The change shape hotspot that appears (usually… it doesn’t for some shapes) when selecting a shape should not be directly above an attachment point. This positioning can cover the line’s length on the attached line when that line is vertically attached to the attachment point.
- The add shape pop-up (for lack of a better word… the appearance of a faded shape and connector when hovering over a dot just off the perimeter of a selected shape) can make it difficult to detach a line from the shape without triggering the new shape to be created. This has also been a problem with accidentally adding a third line (labelled Option) to decision diamonds.
- Allow copy-pasting of a style across documents.
- Have a way to turn off the hyperlink getting auto-created.
- Have a way to resize the Crop to content (from the Crop dropdown seen when exporting to PNG) buffer zone on a permanent basis. The current Crop to Content implementation (usually) does a consistent job of cropping, but I always end up having to recrop (either in LucidChart or externally).
If any from this latter list is already available in the app, there should be an option to turn on help on hover, or provide a Settings item on the pop-up context menu for objects.