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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: [KDE Usability] Review Request: --hard_coded_colors in kalarm
From:       "David Jarvie" <djarvie () kde ! org>
Date:       2009-08-12 16:48:49
Message-ID: 9d42210e191fbfa4bf30e01da5770a8f.squirrel () www ! sensical ! net
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On Wed, August 12, 2009 4:21 pm, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
>> Ah hah. OK. I agree with David about the purple color in the sense
>> that it isn't a good once. The contrast between the purple and the
>> gray is very low, and I think that is probably why David doesn't like
>> the proposed color. If the purple were something more like #800080 (or
>> something with more red and hue and less blue and white) it will be
>> better.
>
> I still don't have a problem with that screenshot.

I have to disagree. If only one of the two statuses was visible in the
list (so that the two different colours weren't visible for comparison),
the user might well have to think about it to decide which type it was.
Given that KAlarm only displays 3 statuses in total - normal, disabled and
archived - it seems really unnecessary to make two of them look so similar
when there is such a wide range of colours to choose from.

> Anyway, it's entirely dependent on the color scheme (e.g. on Wonton
> Soup, VisitedText is medium-bright blue). What would you use that is
> different and isn't semantically wrong?

The fact that the *default* KDE colour scheme has this problem means that
some alternative has to be found. I'm not convinced by the argument that
it has to be semantically the right colour if that means that people can't
readily distinguish between the two statuses. I prefer usability in
KAlarm's very limited colour scheme over semantic correctness.

> (An alternative option would be to use background color either instead
> or in addition for archived alarms; not sure how much technical work
> that is...)

That wouldn't be any great problem, but it seems overkill. All that is
needed is to have two contrasting colours to use.

-- 
David Jarvie.
KDE developer.
KAlarm author & maintainer.
http://www.astrojar.org.uk/kalarm

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