To me, these round colored spots look like colored lights on hardware that light up (turn on) when indicating something.
Yes, using color+label is a best practice, because color alone can't signal well if you don't know which color it is.
If only one color of light is shown at a time, and if labels next to the lights also indicate the state, and if people can understand the labels, then I think we avoid the colorblindness issues. So maybe this won't be a problem for this dialog.
Alternatively, lights that appear only when indicating something is "on" may avoid the issue and signal in a more obvious way.
Alternatively, small, icons (glyphs) are often used to reinforce labels and colors. So, instead of coloring the same shape in different ways, the difference in shapes of the icons convey meaning. But maybe that won't be necessary.
Some examples of these problems and solutions in UIs:
http://www.particletree.com/features/interfaces-and-color-blindness/
The "Bad Cues" examples are commonly tried but don't work well.
Testing with people who see limited colors makes sense to answer the question of noise vs signal.
On Aug 13, 2016, at 7:27 AM, sajolida wrote:
> Susan:
>> Maybe this was discussed already, but red/green color blindness means that it's
>> a problem to use those two colors in meaningful ways, together.
>
> Thanks for reminding us of accessibility issues! In the screenshots that
> you sent for reference we use red and green lights in two different
> places (in the left pane and on the right of "Status") but each time
> combined with labels ("On" and "Online"). Do you think that this is
> acceptable or would recommend to avoid red and green all the way, even
> when combined with labels?
>
> In the case of the left pane for example, when people might have several
> services configured, the light *in addition to* the label could help
> people who distinguish red and green to parse the status of their
> different services a bit faster maybe. Or would you recommend removing
> the red and green light in the left pane as well to remove noise for
> colorblind people?
>
>> Some ideas to consider if needed:
>>
>> To attract attention, some alternatives:
>>
>> (quick fix for users not noticing) Pulse a color (blink) on or near the switch
>> to attract attention.
>
> segfault: should we use an animation when the service fails to start and
> the switch is turned off as a consequence? Is there something to do this
> in Gtk already (otherwise we shouldn't bother coding it ourselves I think)?
>
>> (better solution perhaps) Take away the switch and replace it with a "Start"
>> button that's 3D enough to look pressable. Show on/off/trying status separately.
>> Change button to "Stop" when status is on.
>>
>> Rationale against using the switch for this purpose: Although they are currently
>> very popular, toggle switches tend to be ambiguous in many cases. The problem
>> depends on design but they are worse when also acting as state indicators as
>> this one seems to do. Labels next to the switch (instead of on the switch) tend
>> to work better than integrated labels for disambiguation, but that takes up more
>> space.
>>
>> Also, with labels on the switch, "On" and "Off" may cause confusion, because
>> they could be status indicators instead of actions. A person may reason that
>> they are revealing the state they want by pressing the switch, or they may
>> believe they are doing the thing the switch says to do ("turn on" / "turn off").
>> Many of the light switches in the wall in the US have this problem.
>
> Yeah, I'm aware of the controversy around these switches...
>
> In the screenshots sent by segfault in the thread "More Tails Server"
> the switch is combined with a label for the status, either "Online" when
> running, "Offline" when stopped, and some progress indicator when
> starting or stopping. I think this would solve the "status" vs "action"
> dilemma.
>
> We're using the default switch from Gtk which is used all over the place
> in GNOME and Tails already. So being consistent with their look and
> behavior elsewhere we play in our favor.
>
> But still, I agree that, as you are suggesting, trying to use them as
> little as possible is also a solution.
>
> Build upon the screenshots of segfault from "More Tails Server", maybe
> we could do:
>
> Status: On [Stop]
> and Status: Off [Start]
>
> to get rid of the switch.
>
> I'll let segfault decide if he wants to try this out and also clarify if
> he encountered any problems around this during his tests already.
>
>> To show status (together might be best):
>>
>> . Graphics: on/off light and spinner for trying to connect (green / very light gray)
>
> What do you mean by "light" here? A light bulb that's on or off?
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