[LAU] Some new things to play with

[Folderol]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:43:37 +0400
alex stone <compose59 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:20 PM,  <fons at kokkinizita.net> wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 07:55:09PM +0400, alex stone wrote:
> >
> >> > Not being agressive is important. You should be able to look at a
> >> > screen full of these for hours, without eye strain or getting
> >> > nervous.
> >>
> >> Correct. And as a user, it might be fair to say i spend, and have
> >> spent, more time looking at apps for prolonged periods than most devs.
> >> Saturated colours might seem a good idea at the time, but in my humble
> >> experience, it's a sure fire recipe for headaches, feelings of ill
> >> intent, bleeding eyes, the urge to decapitate something, monitor
> >> destruction, etc,  when used for any length of time on a regular
> >> basis.
> >
> > :-) Also, any attempt to base the colors for a non-trivial audio
> > app on desktop themes is likely to produce something horrible.
> > Getting layout and colors right is IMHO part of designing the app,
> > and after that nothing should interfere with it.
> >
> > Having the choice between a 'dark' and 'light' version does make
> > sense. But I find it quite difficult to get any light one right,
> > and e.g. Ardour's light theme doesn't work at all or me.
> >
> > What do you (Alex) prefer ?
> >
> > Ciao,
> >
> > --
> > FA
> >
> > There are three of them, and Alleline.
> >
> >
> 
> I think you've got it about right for the rev1 background. It's
> neutral, and doesn't "draw the eye" away from the controls.
> Dark themes generally, imho, suffer from the same thing. In order to
> make the controls, or other visual components, stand out on a dark
> theme, devs seem to favour the complete opposite, with garish colours,
> each one competing with the next for the user's "eye".
> In other words, very little middle ground. The light theme in Ardour
> doesn't work for me at all, as it's all of the same thing, lighter
> upon lighter. My benchmark is eye strain, and headaches. The Ardour
> light theme gave me both after extended use. (And i hasten to say,
> this is not restricted to Ardour. )
> 
> I'm cautious by experience with recommending a particular app as an
> example, but there are some that definitely don't fit the bill for
> extended use, imho.
> 
> Sawstudio, Ableton live, early Sequoia and Samplitude all fail in my
> view as they're built on extremes, with garish colours, or conversely
> all nearly the same colour in sections inhibiting any intent of
> relaxed use. I've never liked Logic's "mission brown" background, but
> it doesn't induce eyestrain or headaches for me with extended use, to
> be fair. Cubase and nuendo are fairly neutral, but have had versions
> that swayed from one extreme to another.
> Like using every instrument in an orchestra at once, it only takes a
> short time for the ear to dull, and for unique sound colours to
> disappear in to the wall of "grey". I think the same thing applies to
> visual design, and elegant restraint serves for a better foundation.
> 
> I would say that from a power user perspective, neutral to mildly dark
> backgrounds are most conducive to extended use, and both elegant and
> restrained use of colour seems to be the most pleasant user
> experience. Anything stronger in  intensity, or saturation, wears the
> eyes out pretty quickly.
> 
> I'd also say that if a dev finds himself having to intensify the
> colour of a knob or button to make it "stand out", then something's
> wrong with the base colour in the first place.
> 
> My views are my own, of course, and others will disagree on what
> constitutes a good appearance use case for them.


A point that was touched on lightly is that of desktop conformity.

I personally think it's a bad idea where colour is concerned. If you have a
couple of editing windows open in several different apps, it can very quickly
become extremely confusing, if they all look the same.

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.