Membranophonist's Ramblings

Interaction and interface design, technology, politics, music, and random thoughts…

I Scheme In Color

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I recently used Color Schemer Pro to choose colors that would contrast without becoming garish or overly visually prominent — important data charting considerations.

  • The File menu could be renamed Scheme; the application’s conceptual focus is on color schemes, not files.
  • Inline renaming of colors would prevent the user’s eyes from moving away from the color swatch from which they are likely to derive a name.
  • The swatch contextual menu command is “Rename” (should be “Rename…”), but the resulting dialog refers to the name as a caption.
  • The three-sectioned view switcher (Color Wheel, Harmonies, Suggested) really ought to go above the content it switches among. The norm is for such tab views to be above the content they switch between.
  • The pop-up menu that allows style selection should also be above the color wheel.
  • When in the Harmonies view, clicking on the label in the center could cycle through the different options (Complements, Split-Complements, etc.).
  • For color swatches in the right pane, Spotlight’s circled i icon would be more logical than a disclosure arrow; the hex and RGB values for a color are metadata, not objects contained by the color.
  • Option-clicking on a color swatch arrow should toggle the display of the details of all colors in the right pane.
  • The Escape key should be bound to Cancel in the Export Wizard.
  • Wizards are generally referred to as Assistants in the Mac universe (AirPort Setup Assistant, Bluetooth Setup Assistant). Wizards lack magic, making the label quite inaccurate.
  • The (Actions) gear menu should open on mousedown, not requiring that the button first be released.

Author: Daniel J. Wilson

Interface and interaction designer and jazz drummer based in Brooklyn, NY.

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