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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: Error messages and the status bar
From:       Dirk Hennig <Dirk.Hennig () stud ! uni-hannover ! de>
Date:       2000-04-20 9:31:49
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Dave Leigh wrote:

> I once worked on a commodities-trading package, and we had coded "buy" opportunities to
> appear in red and "sell" opportunities to appear in green in a grid.  Three months into
> the project the project sponsor asked if we couldn't add some kind of status indicator
> other than the amount... that's how we discovered he was color-blind (it also explained
> why he kept asking for the "hot dog" color scheme).  We compromised by keeping the
> red/green colors, but adding bold or italic attributes for buy and sell (normal
> attributes for hold).

This is the way to do it: Make things easier for the normal user by using colors. And for
the small number of color-blind people find an alternative solution. In your example, it
should have been configurable if you want colors, bold+italic, both or none. Than everyone
will be pleased. In KDE, I think, we should first work for the normal user, but have these
problems in mind and find alternatives, which can be configured. The best would be some kind
of "handicap master control" in the KDE Control Center, where you can enable color-blink,
deaf and so on and all KDE applikations will then switch to the suitable alternative.

Dirk

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