On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:43:37 +0400 alex stone <compose59@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:20 PM, <fons@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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, Âwhen 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. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
