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Really liked the game, but I'm colorblind and it blocked me on level 20: I can't tell which square should go on which circle ( http://imgur.com/CX7XWJ4 http://i

by ardemue 12y ago

Really liked the game, but I'm colorblind and it blocked me on level 20: I can't tell which square should go on which circle ( http://imgur.com/CX7XWJ4 http://imgur.com/CX7XWJ4 ). I genuinely played that level as if the two bottom squares were the same. Maybe you could add another differentiator, like a different shape.

pdpi 12y ago
It's always a bit of a shame when software provides no affordances for the colourblind. It's not nearly as uncommon as some people think it to be. Games and visualisation software tend to be particularly bad culprits in this. (Also, you want the one on the left)
- MattHeard 12y ago
  While software should be designed with accessibility in mind, ideally this could be managed by the display, allowing applications to be agnostic to the needs of colour blind users. Would it be possible for displays to insert a colour-transformation layer to shift all colours to different palettes which are more distinct for each type of colour blindness? This might only work for partial colour blindness, but does anybody have an idea of accessibility software like this?
  - abhinavk 12y ago
    I have always wondered about this.
  - pdpi 12y ago
    AFAIK, colour blindness ranges from barely an issue to an almost complete "grey-scale" style of insensitivity to colour. In general, the only safe design choice is ensuring that no decision-critical information is conveyed through colour alone.
    - rplnt 12y ago
      So, service idea: pass a complex color-blindness test (on your setup) and it will generate a color profile suited for you (and your setup). I wonder if it is possible without ruining the appearance of everything else (never really looked into how color profiles work).
      - gabriel34 12y ago
        The bad thing about this idea is that it wouldn't be reliable for the user's eye because of the variation of color representation across screens. The good side is that it would be a correct representation of the accuracy of color recognition of the system screen-eye, which is much more relevant from a design perspective.
    - gabriel34 12y ago
      Only if you want to catch 100% of the problems I'm slightly colorblind and have had a hard time on the same level as the parent poster. Greyscale colorblindness (i.e. absence of color receptors) is extremely rare. PopCap does a colorblind safe mode (for zuma, peggle, etc), so did EA for Battlefield 3. It might not be the best solution, but it's good enough for 80% of the colorblind. There is a downside, a midway solution, although more realistic, reduces attention on the bigger problem, the rest of the colorblind population would be less catered to, but imho that already is the status quo and will be for the foreseeable future
  - TuringTest 12y ago
    That may work as well as "ideally, applications should be agnostic to language and an automatic language-transformation layer should handle all the text". While it's technically possible (several app stores do just that), the results are far from good quality. When colors are used to convey meaning, the transformations needed to allow blind-color users to see them will be application-dependent. This may be enough to allow these users to play simple games, but ideally developers should learn enough about the human API so as to cater to the real needs of their users. Depending on invisible colors for gameplay should be seen as bad as letting an uncaught exception crash your application.
  - fiber 12y ago
    At least with Chrome you can install the Daltonize! plugin. That plugin even has a "simulation" mode to help color-visible to see how your page looks like to (some of) the colorblind out there.
- ardemue 12y ago
  Thanks for the tip! But after trying for a while (remembering the positions of these 2 squares), I lost patience and closed the tab. But it lost my progress, even though the game told me that it was saving my progress at each level. That's really too bad, because the game is very fun.
pavanky 12y ago
I am colorblind too, but I solved level 20. I just assumed there were two of the same color. It sounds like I lucked out.. Level 21 however is being a pain.
- chx 12y ago
  Level 21 is impossible indeed :)
myfonj 12y ago
I've hacked quick userstyle [1] that adds text labels into blocks, it seems like [2] then. [1] https://userstyles.org/styles/103877/game-about-squares-colour-labels https://userstyles.org/styles/103877/game-about-squares-colo... [2] https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1571982/shots/game-about-squares-after.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1571982/shots/game-about...
VBprogrammer 12y ago
I think the most annoying thing about this is that there are still 4 blocks, so why after 20 fun filled levels am I not able to differentiate the colours? I was able to, with some more care, figure out level 20 but level 21 I didn't even move a block before I knew it wasn't going to work.

by ardemue 12y ago

pdpi 12y ago

It's always a bit of a shame when software provides no affordances for the colourblind. It's not nearly as uncommon as some people think it to be. Games and visualisation software tend to be particularly bad culprits in this. (Also, you want the one on the left)

MattHeard 12y ago
While software should be designed with accessibility in mind, ideally this could be managed by the display, allowing applications to be agnostic to the needs of colour blind users. Would it be possible for displays to insert a colour-transformation layer to shift all colours to different palettes which are more distinct for each type of colour blindness? This might only work for partial colour blindness, but does anybody have an idea of accessibility software like this?
- abhinavk 12y ago
  I have always wondered about this.
- pdpi 12y ago
  AFAIK, colour blindness ranges from barely an issue to an almost complete "grey-scale" style of insensitivity to colour. In general, the only safe design choice is ensuring that no decision-critical information is conveyed through colour alone.
  - rplnt 12y ago
    So, service idea: pass a complex color-blindness test (on your setup) and it will generate a color profile suited for you (and your setup). I wonder if it is possible without ruining the appearance of everything else (never really looked into how color profiles work).
    - gabriel34 12y ago
      The bad thing about this idea is that it wouldn't be reliable for the user's eye because of the variation of color representation across screens. The good side is that it would be a correct representation of the accuracy of color recognition of the system screen-eye, which is much more relevant from a design perspective.
  - gabriel34 12y ago
    Only if you want to catch 100% of the problems I'm slightly colorblind and have had a hard time on the same level as the parent poster. Greyscale colorblindness (i.e. absence of color receptors) is extremely rare. PopCap does a colorblind safe mode (for zuma, peggle, etc), so did EA for Battlefield 3. It might not be the best solution, but it's good enough for 80% of the colorblind. There is a downside, a midway solution, although more realistic, reduces attention on the bigger problem, the rest of the colorblind population would be less catered to, but imho that already is the status quo and will be for the foreseeable future
- TuringTest 12y ago
  That may work as well as "ideally, applications should be agnostic to language and an automatic language-transformation layer should handle all the text". While it's technically possible (several app stores do just that), the results are far from good quality. When colors are used to convey meaning, the transformations needed to allow blind-color users to see them will be application-dependent. This may be enough to allow these users to play simple games, but ideally developers should learn enough about the human API so as to cater to the real needs of their users. Depending on invisible colors for gameplay should be seen as bad as letting an uncaught exception crash your application.
- fiber 12y ago
  At least with Chrome you can install the Daltonize! plugin. That plugin even has a "simulation" mode to help color-visible to see how your page looks like to (some of) the colorblind out there.
ardemue 12y ago
Thanks for the tip! But after trying for a while (remembering the positions of these 2 squares), I lost patience and closed the tab. But it lost my progress, even though the game told me that it was saving my progress at each level. That's really too bad, because the game is very fun.

pavanky 12y ago

I am colorblind too, but I solved level 20. I just assumed there were two of the same color. It sounds like I lucked out.. Level 21 however is being a pain.

chx 12y ago
Level 21 is impossible indeed :)

myfonj 12y ago

I've hacked quick userstyle [1] that adds text labels into blocks, it seems like [2] then. [1] https://userstyles.org/styles/103877/game-about-squares-colour-labels https://userstyles.org/styles/103877/game-about-squares-colo... [2] https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1571982/shots/game-about-squares-after.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1571982/shots/game-about...

VBprogrammer 12y ago

I think the most annoying thing about this is that there are still 4 blocks, so why after 20 fun filled levels am I not able to differentiate the colours? I was able to, with some more care, figure out level 20 but level 21 I didn't even move a block before I knew it wasn't going to work.