[p2pu-dev] UI commentary for new design

Matt Buscemi ikimashoz at gmail.com
Fri Jan 28 17:13:14 UTC 2011


Maura,

I followed your previous discussion on this topic before, because I was glad
you were raising the issue.  I'm sorry to hear that you felt as though you
were being brushed off.

Although I've dabbled in designing webpage layouts, being primarily a
programmer, I've usually left that part to my art team and just found a way
to program whatever design they came up with.  As a result, I didn't
contribute your previous discussion, but I'd like to contribute to this one.

In the case of this website mockup, from the moment I first saw it, I found
the experience of just looking at it jarring.  I couldn't tell what was
disruptive about looking at it, but now that you mention it, I think the
pinstripes and their high contrast could possibly be the culprit.

- Matt

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 6:59 AM, B. Maura Townsend <jauncourt at gmail.com>wrote:

> I put a comment on the new mockup seen at http://p2pu.brianloves.it/
> in the wiki, under the new design's page, and it seems that it's not
> really the best place to discuss UI issues, as I got brushed off.
>
> My first comment was this (I was keeping it short because of the venue):
>
> "Can we try for better contrast in the menus? Also, perhaps swapping
> the background color and text color when highlighted would be better,
> usability-wise."
>
> Unfortunately, this was interpreted as being reference to the severe
> contrast issues that I and a number of others have noticed with the
> current site's styles.
>
> A more in-depth analysis of the contrast issues with the current
> revision of the new design mockup :
>
> "The higher contrast of the black pinstripe texture against the white
> background draws the eye away from the lower contrast menuing, even if
> it is not negatively affecting the main content. Would it be possible
> to make the black pinstripe lower contrast? Perhaps a gray about the
> current color of the un-highlighted menu text? That would increase the
> usability without lowering the overall visual impact.
>
> "The menus at the top are fairly low contrast, light bluish gray
> against white, with the eye drawn away by the high-contrast
> background.The highlight is good, with decent contrast, though I'm
> worried about accessibility for colorblind users. The text in this
> menu should really be at least as dark a gray as the text in the
> captions shown in the main content areas.
>
> "The menus at the bottom are low contrast unless highlighted, medium
> gray on medium-luminance colors. The highlight is so subtle as to be
> lost on many viewers. I'd propose making the text darker on these
> menus and making the highlight a swap of text and background color. I
> realize that this is the same shade as the dark gray in the content
> areas, but that is negated by the medium-luminance background color
> bars."
>
> I'm concerned that I may not be commenting in the correct venue. Is
> there a UI design team? Is there a specific venue for discussion of
> the new UI? I know there isn't really anyone looking at usability
> besides myself and one or two others, and I've seen no comments from
> them.
>
> Thanks,
>
> BMT
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