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Subject:Re: Jump colours for help From:Glenda Jeffrey <jeffrey -at- HKS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 8 Jul 1996 13:15:46 GMT
Colleen Dancer (02) 333-1862 (DANCER -dot- COLLEEN -at- a2 -dot- abc -dot- net -dot- au) wrote:
: Can someone tell me if that horrible green is really the windows standard
: help jump colour and if so what rgb value it is. I can't get hold of a
: copy of the standards today.
Thought you'd like to know what the real scoop is on that green color,
from Designing Windows 95 Help: A Guide to Creating Online Documents,
by Mary Deaton and Cheryl Lockett Zubak (paragraph breaks added for
better online readability):
That Yucky Green Color
----------------------
"Since the first day the lime green hotspot showed up on someone's
computer, you've been able to guarantee that any poll of Help authors
taken will result in a resounding "Yuck" as the communal opinion of
this color. Online forum threads abound with explanations of how to
control the color of hotspots, and authoring tools flaunt the ease
with which you can have red hotspots or purple hotspots if you buy
their product.
"There is one small problem: testing shows that lime green is the color
that works best for color-blind or color-confused users who don't
actually see color, but rather notice a change in hue from surrounding
text. Red appears as black to most of these users. Other colors in the
standard Windows color palette may change hue for some viewers but not
for others. Removing the solid or dotted underline from a text
hotspot, or changing the color used for hotspots, might mean that some
users never see that the hostpot is there.
"And if you want to argue that there aren't very many of these people
with special needs, and you should be able to use purple hotspots if
you want to, then realize that you're also arguing against the value
of giving users a consistent interface across multiple documents from
multiple publishers. Do you have to learn a new set of colors for
traffic lights in every town you drive through? No -- so why should
online document users have to learn a new set of hotspot colors for
every document they open?"
====
Unfortunately, the authors don't mention what the RGB values are for
that yucky green color.
Glenda Jeffrey Email: jeffrey -at- hks -dot- com
Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc Phone: 401-727-4200
1080 Main St. Fax: 401-727-4208
Pawtucket, RI 02860 Web: http://www.hks.com
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