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KDE Receives New Human Interface Guidelines for 2024

30 points by mikece 2y ago

o11c 2y ago
Symbolic (monochrome) icons are a crime against human-readability. A dozen slightly-different-shaped rectangles/circles in a row are indistinguishable from each other. The color channel is useful information!
- spauldo 2y ago
  The trend in industrial automation these days is to use grayscale graphics for most HMI elements and use color to indicate alerts and alarms. The theory is that an experienced operator can navigate and view everything they need for normal operations just fine without color, and abnormal conditions will be stand out as they're the only things with color on the screen. It seems to work, and I encourage my front end guys to follow that pattern, but I'm not sure how well it would translate to desktop computer use.
  - hulitu 2y ago
    > It seems to work Did _you_ tried it ? After 8 hours of staring at a monitor when everything is gray ?
    - spauldo 2y ago
      Thousands of people do it every day. And yeah, I've tried it - I'm the one that does integration and testing.
  - fl0ki 2y ago
    This reminds me of a depressingly common mistake in web design that seems to affect almost every internet banking system and most government web sites. You know the one: having an "inbox" of automated messages with a number in the corner, which you slowly see tick up as you check the website a couple of times per year for a decade or two. It's the most user-hostile web design imaginable, far beyond just being ugly or unclear, because it creates busywork or stress or both. It's effectively saying that you might have an actually important update to read, but you won't know that unless you sit down to read dozens of automated messages to sift through them; and if you don't have time or motivation to do that right now, you're left wondering if you're making a mistake that might cost you down the line, especially when it comes to many of the kinds of websites that choose to do this. If you actually want a user to take action, you need to tell them that front-and-center in the first page after the user is authenticated, and design cues like size and color can help with that. A truly serious matter can put a modal in the flow. They have no problem doing this for the triviality of requiring you to change your password "for your security"[1], but a message about possible financial consequences is unread message #73. [1] They had a breach they hope you don't know or care about.
- garciansmith 2y ago
  Doesn't it depend the context? I've always liked monochrome icons much more than color for basic indicators on a desktop (e.g., volume, connectivity). Less color means less likely to distract me when I'm focused on whatever task, but they are in the corner and easily identifiable when needed. Generally feel the same way with toolbar icons in applications: monochrome is less distracting and allows me to focus better.
  - o11c 2y ago
    Well, in a sea of indistinguishable squares and circles, the few triangles do stand out ...
- squigz 2y ago
  As a visually impaired person, I strongly second this. Having to parse a row of icons and figure out what little difference between this icon and that icon there is... Gods, just add a bit of muted color!
Modified3019 2y ago
Link to blogpost here: https://pointieststick.com/2024/06/09/new-human-interface-guidelines/ https://pointieststick.com/2024/06/09/new-human-interface-gu... Link to guidelines here: https://develop.kde.org/hig/ https://develop.kde.org/hig/

30 points by mikece 2y ago

o11c 2y ago

Symbolic (monochrome) icons are a crime against human-readability. A dozen slightly-different-shaped rectangles/circles in a row are indistinguishable from each other. The color channel is useful information!

spauldo 2y ago
The trend in industrial automation these days is to use grayscale graphics for most HMI elements and use color to indicate alerts and alarms. The theory is that an experienced operator can navigate and view everything they need for normal operations just fine without color, and abnormal conditions will be stand out as they're the only things with color on the screen. It seems to work, and I encourage my front end guys to follow that pattern, but I'm not sure how well it would translate to desktop computer use.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > It seems to work Did _you_ tried it ? After 8 hours of staring at a monitor when everything is gray ?
  - spauldo 2y ago
    Thousands of people do it every day. And yeah, I've tried it - I'm the one that does integration and testing.
- fl0ki 2y ago
  This reminds me of a depressingly common mistake in web design that seems to affect almost every internet banking system and most government web sites. You know the one: having an "inbox" of automated messages with a number in the corner, which you slowly see tick up as you check the website a couple of times per year for a decade or two. It's the most user-hostile web design imaginable, far beyond just being ugly or unclear, because it creates busywork or stress or both. It's effectively saying that you might have an actually important update to read, but you won't know that unless you sit down to read dozens of automated messages to sift through them; and if you don't have time or motivation to do that right now, you're left wondering if you're making a mistake that might cost you down the line, especially when it comes to many of the kinds of websites that choose to do this. If you actually want a user to take action, you need to tell them that front-and-center in the first page after the user is authenticated, and design cues like size and color can help with that. A truly serious matter can put a modal in the flow. They have no problem doing this for the triviality of requiring you to change your password "for your security"[1], but a message about possible financial consequences is unread message #73. [1] They had a breach they hope you don't know or care about.
garciansmith 2y ago
Doesn't it depend the context? I've always liked monochrome icons much more than color for basic indicators on a desktop (e.g., volume, connectivity). Less color means less likely to distract me when I'm focused on whatever task, but they are in the corner and easily identifiable when needed. Generally feel the same way with toolbar icons in applications: monochrome is less distracting and allows me to focus better.
- o11c 2y ago
  Well, in a sea of indistinguishable squares and circles, the few triangles do stand out ...
squigz 2y ago
As a visually impaired person, I strongly second this. Having to parse a row of icons and figure out what little difference between this icon and that icon there is... Gods, just add a bit of muted color!

Modified3019 2y ago

Link to blogpost here: https://pointieststick.com/2024/06/09/new-human-interface-guidelines/ https://pointieststick.com/2024/06/09/new-human-interface-gu... Link to guidelines here: https://develop.kde.org/hig/ https://develop.kde.org/hig/