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Government standards never allow only color distinction. There always must be an additional factor than just color. For instance, here's some icons from NATO,
by jdmichal 9y ago
Government standards never allow only color distinction. There always must be an additional factor than just color.
For instance, here's some icons from NATO, which used to be MIL-STD-2525. You'll notice that all the icons differentiate in both color and form. The NTDS standards for Naval systems are similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology#Battle_dimension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology#...
- noir_lord 9y agoHadn't seen this, it's brilliant.
- usrusr 9y agoWell, in addition to the color coding I suppose the text would still be different? To me, the screenshot looks more like a list of user-defined presets than something that went through the original software development process. Maybe something along the lines of only superuser can define new presets, but lower users can activate them. That way, at least random "I love you honeybunny" pranks would be avoided, but the risk of skipping a real warning because of insufficient permissions would be avoided. A physical UI would have an openly accessible switch for "drill" and "not a drill" protected behind a seal that needs to be broken, this is difficult to replicate in software.
- jdmichal 9y agoI did think of the covered switches that are common in movies. I think the equivalent in software are confirmation dialogs, but those are not as effective as the physical counterparts due to click-through-itis disease. [0] This could actually be one of those types of things that might benefit from a different presentation, such as a silly skeumorphic design involving a graphical cover. [0] Which, to be fair to users, is a disease introduced by putting too many switches under covers which shouldn't be.
- mikeash 9y agoThey could use an actual covered switch. Maybe something this important should have a bit of physical infrastructure associated with it. Doing everything in software can be great, but it's not always the best solution.
- zimpenfish 9y ago> You'll notice that all the icons differentiate in both color and form. Good stuff but I think they could probably have gone with something else for "Neutral" - the distinction between a 16:10 rectangle and a square could easily be missed in a hurry, especially at small sizes.