I didn’t want tot create a new thread to give feedback so I thought I’d add to this one 
.
I’ve got to say I’m a little disappointed with the new Evolve. I understand why it’s been taken in this direction and I can see that it needed improvements but I cannot see why making it like other authoring tools is better? Evolve has always been the unique and specialist option, let’s keep it as the “developer’s choice”.
I have used Legacy Evolve since 2020. I was establishing a digital learning function for a small business and was drawn to it because of the level of customisation and with my background in development and coding, I liked that you could get really involved in the minutiae of the design. My only bugbear was the time it took to create a new Theme, and when you’re working as a contractor you need to get the design and the first course out fairly quickly. However, that said I usually used the same theme and just changed the colours for the client branding if this were the case.
After 1 day of using the New Evolve I’m left really quite flat, I see why a cleaner, simpler user experience is desirable and improving set up time is advantageous but I think the customisation and the flexibility was one of the key USPs for Evolve. I miss Article Styles as mentioned in the original post.
Things I do like - I like the previews for the text in the sidebar, I like the speed to set up your theme (in some instances this is a good thing and in others it’s a constraint), and I like the theme sidebar in general, I think it’s much nicer than before, and you can preview your changes on the same screen. I do think it’s too much like Rise now and loses its USPs a little. I used Simulation quite a lot for software training and that doesn’t appear to be there. I also agree with a lot of the suggestions in the original post in this thread.
I’m sure if I try New Evolve again in 6 months it’ll be a different product, I think core functionality is there, I think there is a jump in configuration over Rise and there are features coming which will progress it even further away from Rise. Right now though, I’m struggling to see why an uninitiated person, or a non-technical person, would look at Evolve and go “this is way better than Rise”. If you’re creating software training, Simulation was light years ahead of creating a walkthrough in Storyline and embedding it in Rise. Where’s the thing that sets it apart, i.e. USPs?
I think the Intellum Platform is great and the integration is really beneficial for those customers, but When I last looked into it, it was so prohibitively expensive and only viable for global corporations who were favouring really weak learning platforms like Workday Learning because it integrated with their HR workflow and not thinking about what they were losing out on by using a proper LMS. A streamlined version of the Intellum Platform would be really great, I know that’s a different product and arm of the business but Articulate offer a simplistic LMS as part of their product for lightweight implementations. Ideal for someone contracting to demonstrate their courses, great for small businesses to get their learning out there. I think that’s a market that has been neglected and as someone who dips in and out of contracting and wants to use Evolve, I would like that audience to be helped a little more.
I would also like to see a publishing option that creates a PDF. I was asked for that recently because prospective clients have no idea how to open a zip file, find the relevant HTML page to open, etc. so you either have to jump on a call to demo the course or screenshot things. They just want to see your design style so to be able to deliver a flat version of the design in a PDF would be really helpful. When I create courses using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, I always make sure it generates a reasonable PDF representation for this purpose.
Thanks!