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List:       kde-artists
Subject:    Re: [kde-artists] Default colors in KDE4
From:       Olaf Jan Schmidt <ojschmidt () kde ! org>
Date:       2006-07-13 8:56:24
Message-ID: 200607131105.09667.ojschmidt () kde ! org
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Hi James!

Thanks for your detailed response.

[ James Richard Tyrer ]
> I applaud you for realizing that color is a usability issue.

Thanks. I have been in contact with partially sighted users for about two 
years now, which was my motivation to write the high contrast styles and to 
work towards a full solution for KDE4. A few months ago the usability team 
helped us to do a proper usability test of KDE for partially sighted users.

> I have been complaining about a certain icon theme in regard to
> usability issues for some time.

Did you test the monochrome icon theme of kdeaccessibility?

> Specifically, it is the spatial (2 dimension) frequencies that are
> relevant (e.g compare a checker board with a smooth gradient).

Some people even have a one-dimensional colour perception, and there are 
different forms of two-dimensional colour perception. It is therefore 
impossible to define a colour scheme that works well for all users. The only 
solution is to make sure that the colours are configurable in a central place 
and that information is presented in icon or text form as well.

My suggested default colour scheme ensures sufficient contrast between 
foreground and background. For partially sighted users, we will also provide 
a two-dimensional colour scheme (for some colour blind users), high contrast 
colour schemes with light and dark background, and of course keep the ability 
to select user-chosen colours.

> The final consideration with color is which color space would be most
> appropriate -- would a color space other than RGB give better results?

I used the formula described in the draft for the new Web Content 
Accessibility Guidelines, which uses a gamma-corrected colour space and 
different luminosity for the red, green and blue components. If you know of 
any other good-working algorithms, then please let me know.

Olaf

-- 
Olaf Jan Schmidt, KDE Accessibility co-maintainer, open standards 
accessibility networker, Protestant theology student and webmaster of 
http://accessibility.kde.org/ and http://www.amen-online.de/
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