[LAD] Mouse/knob interaction

[Arnold Krille]

Hi,

On Wednesday 08 September 2010 22:15:33 Paul Davis wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 8:02 PM, Arnold Krille <arnold at arnoldarts.de> wrote:
> > The one the user choose for his desktop. Which is the only real way to
> > compensate for visually impaired people (if thats the political correct
> > name). I don't like this every-app-chooses-its-own-colors at all. Though
> > I do understand that sometimes you need more colors, but that still is
> > different from "I define my apps colors on my own because I think that
> > is cool". The later results in apps with black text on dark-gray
> > background in an otherwise very light desktop-environment => bad. Or in
> > apps with white window background while the rest of the desktop is
> > optimized for on-stage-in-the-dark with black background and red
> > foreground => bad. Or it results with using two collors to "distinguish"
> > which half visually impaired people can't discriminate => bad.
> 
> and which system color(s) do you propose to use to indicate:
> 
>     * this thing is muted?
>     * this thing is rec-enabled?
>     * the value indicated here is at the low end of the scale?
>     * this object is blinking to alert you to some condition?

Here is my shot:

(Speaking in terms of
http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qpalette.html#ColorRole-enum because thats the 
toolkit I know...)

The discussion started with faders showing the value by color. Could also be 
used by meters.

Muted/off: Window-color (that is the normal background of windows)
Really low: Shadow
Low: Dark
Middle: Light
High: Highlight (which would be the alarm color)

I did a quick test with ffado-mixer, the first screenshot is the current version 
with black-blue-green-yellow-red, the second is the window-shadow-dark-light-
highlight version:
http://positron.physik.uni-halle.de/~arnold/fadercolors-green_yellow_red.png
http://positron.physik.uni-halle.de/~arnold/fadercolors-system_colors.png

In the second case I think a small 1px border around each "fader" would be 
appropriate. Have to think about that.


Now to the ardour-specific questions:

Muted could be visualized just by graying out the whole 
track/channel/fader/meter or by de-saturating it.
Rec-enabled would be a border in the Highlight color.
And if its about toggle-buttons that should increase visibility when 
activated, these could be colored in the Highlight color or the Base color 
(used for input-widgets).

Something needing immediate attention could be marked by blinking in the 
Highlight color. Or by having a blinking 5px border in the Highlight color.


Generally there are several ways to make something stand out:

 - Color it to stand out. Which is what the Highlight color is for.
 - Make it big.
 - Give it space.
 - Make it stand out with a simple 3D effect like a raised/sunken border or a 
shadow.

The last three don't require special colors.


I know there are special apps that need so many colors that the system palette 
is not enough. I know ardour is the prime example there.
But I don't understand why apps like puredata don't follow the systems 
defaults? Black objects on white background stand out much to much when my 
laptop is trimmed for live-foh usage where the normal "Text on Base" colors 
would be "Wine Red on Black". If it simply used that colors as provided by the 
system/toolkit, it would blend in perfectly...

Have fun,

Arnold
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