unity-design team mailing list archive

[zekopeko <zekopeko@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 4:29 PM, Mark Curtis <merkinman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Upon experimenting with Unity I've noticed the backlight for running
> applications. Is there a particular usability reason that the color of the
> backlight is exactly like that of Windows 7 where it is the predominate
> color? I'm not saying Windows (or OS X) should never be copied because of
> some NIH syndrome, but that before it is copied, it should be seen why it
> was done and if it adds to usability.
> If the colors aren't any sort of usability factor, then why not make it so?
> Maybe the background color could be based on the category the application
> came from, this may help users find what category an application is in if
> they used another computer.
> Another idea is to make the background white and then it changes to
> green/blue/red for the same reasons as the indicator applet to bring about
> some consistency.
>

You mean the colored background around the icon correct?

If so I think that it reduces usability. There is too much color
flying around the Launcher now. I would like if non-active apps had no
color or border around them. The running ones should have the
backlight. Basically copy Windows 7 taskbar's behavior.