Colour Palette update

Here then the different palette (as partly agreed). Normal objects are white, PreviewOff objects are dark and disabled objects are grey (and blurred icons).

As you will note, dark icons are difficult to read on the dark background.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 13, 2009 at 11:51am

Hi David,

I personally would prefer the current colour for preview on / unselected components to become the Preview off / unselected the new white to be preview on / unselected and the disabled component to be the darker one.

What happens downstream of the disabled component do they go orange?

Best regards,
Danny

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 13, 2009 at 12:00pm

Yes, when a component is disabled it will not produce any data so the output parameters will all be empty (i.e. orange wires).

Are you sure about black = disabled? Traditionally, on all OSs, disabled items are drawn in a low-contrast palette. Wouldn't non-dull-grey-disabled items be very unintuitive?

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 13, 2009 at 12:05pm

I think that the contrast between the icons and the dark component is not easy to follow. What about changing the icon only to a blurred grey scale version or even using a x icon like the timer when the global abort is switched on?

Permalink Reply by taz on November 13, 2009 at 12:35pm

Not to be obnoxious, but this is a mockup of my previous suggestion (done with PowerPoint, sadly) for "Preview On" that may have been lost in the shuffle.

It would eliminate the need for so many different colors... Now I'll let it rest. Have a good weekend.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 13, 2009 at 12:49pm

I think many people agree that it would be better if all components that don't display anything in the viewport + components with disabled preview have the exact same color scheme (light gray) and components with enabled preview be the exception.
Actually, that's how i currently use grasshopper. I select everything except the last component and click on preview off. All components except the last are displayed with the hatch pattern.
Maybe something like what Taz suggests but better looking :P would be nice. Maybe the halo inside the component? A thicker yellow border instead of the black one?
I'll let it rest too.

Permalink Reply by taz on November 13, 2009 at 3:11pm

You've crushed my dreams of being a graphic designer... On Friday the 13th no less.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 13, 2009 at 1:03pm

It wasn't lost Taz, I saw the post. I have no idea how to draw fuzzy borders like this (should they be behind all wires, or in front of wires or...?), but perhaps a non-fuzzy thick outline would work just as well.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Sameer Kumar on November 13, 2009 at 1:19pm

I am all for a thick yellow/orange outline which will not be lost even when the canvas is zoomed out.

Permalink Reply by Andy Payne on November 13, 2009 at 1:21pm

I just thought I'd throw my two cents in. Just out of curiosity... have you played around with the contrast of the original hatch pattern? Or perhaps just using a different hatch pattern (perhaps criss-crossing the hatch pattern). I actually prefer that hatch over any of the above schemes, but it can be hard to determine whether or not the hatch is on or off mainly because of the hatch contrast and the hatch scale. Perhaps if the hatch had more contrast or larger spacing between the hatch lines, it might help eliminate some of the confusion. Or maybe it's a combination between a slight halo (like Taz suggests) and a larger contrast hatch pattern. Thoughts?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 13, 2009 at 1:31pm

Hi Andy,

I have experimented quite extensively with hatch patterns. Basically the trade-off is that the more contrast you add to a hatch, the less readable text and icons on top of it become. I wasn't able to find a satisfactory combination.

I think the basic divide here is between people who have preview switched on for almost all components vs. those who have it switched off.

I'm afraid I won't be able to escape the fact that eventually this all needs to become a user-setting. But I'm not looking forward to trying to interpret screen shots of Grasshopper networks with colours that might mean anything.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Andy Payne on November 13, 2009 at 2:35pm

Hi David,
I took a stab just to see if the idea in my head would work (which I'm not sure it does)... I just wanted to see if I could combine a higher contrast hatch with a halo like glow from Taz. Again, I'm not sure this gets us any closer to a solution... I just thought I'd try it out.
As for the user-settings... (and I can't believe I'm taking the top-down approach)... I do not like the idea of letting users totally customize all of the different visual elements on the canvas. Once that happens, the communication between different users will be extremely complicated and I would think that there should be some standards that all users abide by in order to facilitate the communication process. Now, I think it's absolutely crucial to get feedback from users (which is what this thread is all about) so that the interface can expand/grow with the needs of the general user group... but I for one would advocate against complete user customization of the interface.
-Andy
PS, for some reason, I'm having difficulties adding an image in these posts... I have to keep adding an attachment. Any ideas?

Attachments:

Icon_preview off.jpg, 97 KB

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 14, 2009 at 9:12am

PS, for some reason, I'm having difficulties adding an image in these posts... I have to keep adding an attachment. Any ideas?

You must think in Russian.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia