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UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

amortizedcost.net

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Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#71
post #65

Controversial opinion: People don't notice colors on the web, they notice contrast.

It is not controversial, there is a study by NASA IIRC that concluded exactly this.

(edit: add lines below)

They even have guidelines for designing with luminance contrast: https://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/design_lum_0.php

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#73
post #54

Not surprising to see no mention of "let the system (and by extension, the user) choose the UI colours if at all possible". It wasn't long ago that you'd set your preferences for colours, fonts, etc. in one place and every application would automatically use them and be consistent. Perfect for colourblind and those who have trouble seeing smaller fonts. UI design has gone backwards.

:( system colors were deprecated in CSS3. Really handy for LOB apps

So, I looked it up, and it's indeed deprecated.

This is pretty ridiculous. The web is such a hack already, and deprecating this make it even worse at UIs. It seems every decision is optimised for branding (e.g. custom form controls), usability be damned.

https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/REC-css-color-3-20180619/#css2-sy...

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not the parent poster, but one reason I can suggest is: When you know about the security properties of using the HTTP protocol over internet, and proceed to visit a read-only plain-HTTP website, your attention and time are used up unnecessary on thoughts like “did the author really include this bit of content, or is it being MITM’ed?” with no inexpensive way to find out.

... but realistically, the risk of that is extremely low in this specific case.

ISPs have injected ads on http websites in past. So it has happened.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#75
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:( system colors were deprecated in CSS3. Really handy for LOB apps

So, I looked it up, and it's indeed deprecated. This is pretty ridiculous. The web is such a hack already, and deprecating this make it even worse at UIs. It seems every decision is optimised for branding (e.g. custom form controls), usability be damned. https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/REC-css-color-3-20180619/#css2-sy...

System colors are in the CSS Color Level 4 working draft updated less than a week ago. What appears to be (durably) deprecated is just a subset of the system color names, with what sounds like a reasonable reason:

Earlier versions of CSS defined several additional system colors. These color keywords have been deprecated, however, as they are insufficient for their original purpose (making website elements look like their native OS counterparts), represent a security risk by making it easier for a webpage to “spoof” a native OS dialog, and increase fingerprinting surface, compromising user privacy.

https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/#deprecated-system-colors

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#76
post #44

I'm no design expert but this advice is really thin and not that useful. Trust me that using a color palette generator is not the One True Way! Also there's no advice on how to pick a base color, just "pick one". Second this author is basing the advice on this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.amortizedc... Again I am not an expert and I don't mean to be rude, but that's not a very nice looking a…

Looking at the link, I like the colors. But I have to agree the spacing really "appears to have issues". The wording overlaps and the buttons on the bottom have different left & right margin compared to the bottom margin.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#77
post #44

I'm no design expert but this advice is really thin and not that useful. Trust me that using a color palette generator is not the One True Way! Also there's no advice on how to pick a base color, just "pick one". Second this author is basing the advice on this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.amortizedc... Again I am not an expert and I don't mean to be rude, but that's not a very nice looking a…

i found the OP useful. i also kind of feel like your comments distill down to something very close to: "there's no right way to do it, but that way is wrong" design is inherently subjective. no single tool will seem "right" to everyone, and that's ok.

> design is inherently subjective.

It's a really common misconception among technical folks that "subjective" == "arbitrary".

Design is inherently subjective, yes. But that does not mean that all design choices are equally good when goodness is measured by pleasing the greatest quantity of users by the greatest amount.

Ice cream flavor preference is subjective too, but if your ice cream shop only sells "sawdust sprinkles" and "frog's blood", business isn't going to go well for you. Or, perhaps closer to home, the choice of keywords in a programming language is entirely subjective. The compiler does not care if you use "while" or "rkdhx" for loops, but good luck convincing programmers to adopt a language that chooses the latter.

Designers have laboriously learned the aesthetic principles that align with how our visual system works and with the expectations users have coming from our shared culture's graphic history. That's what they mean when they say something is "right" or "wrong", and they have a lot of expertise to back it up.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#78
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the fonts and alignment are deliberately off so that they can be improved in subsequent parts of the cycle. I'm not exactly blown away by the palette either, though. Wording is sloppy, too ("into an email attachments"?).

hey, could you suggest a better wording for that? Will try to fix it in the upcoming release

Is there more than one attachment? In that case remove "an". If not, remove the trailing "s".

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#79
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the fonts and alignment are deliberately off so that they can be improved in subsequent parts of the cycle. I'm not exactly blown away by the palette either, though. Wording is sloppy, too ("into an email attachments"?).

hey, could you suggest a better wording for that? Will try to fix it in the upcoming release

Fotos is a spelling error, should be "Photos"

"into an email attachments" doesn't agree on number--it should be "into an email attachment" (singular) or "into email attachments" (plural).

It's not 100% clear that by "shrink" you mean "reduce file size" rather than "visually scale the image".

"Batch image resizer which will make photos smaller enough to fit them all into email attachments. In three easy steps."

Don't use the comparative form of the adjective "small". "Which" is not needed here either.

"Batch Image Shrinker reduces the file size of a group of images in three easy steps:"

That's a start at least. I hope that helps a bit.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I looked it up, and it's indeed deprecated. This is pretty ridiculous. The web is such a hack already, and deprecating this make it even worse at UIs. It seems every decision is optimised for branding (e.g. custom form controls), usability be damned. https://www.w3.org/TR/2018/REC-css-color-3-20180619/#css2-sy...

System colors are in the CSS Color Level 4 working draft updated less than a week ago. What appears to be (durably) deprecated is just a subset of the system color names , with what sounds like a reasonable reason: Earlier versions of CSS defined several additional system colors. These color keywords have been deprecated, however, as they are insufficient for their original purpose (making website elements look like…

That explanation seems to be having it both ways. If it's really a spoofing security risk, do they still intend to provide functionality that is sufficient for the original purpose?
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