unity-design team mailing list archive

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

like i often tell friends and others:

imo, a11y and usability are one and the same thing, when we're talking
about basic functionality.

That is why design should be based on a solid semantic foundation:
this way, porting whatever event or state notification to the human
sense realms (ayatana) becomes a trivial task of translation.

The little arrows are of little semantic value, they could be
interpreted as a plentitude of things.

To display an application in the launcher in full color regardless
whether it is currently active or dormant is in itself already a
misleading way of presenting an app. Ccsm offers turning off backlight
for inactive apps.

This is better, but still not enough from a semantic point of view:
i'm still indicating something that isn't there (loaded).

Apps that are inactive should be monochrome in the launcher. If
possible, their "button" should display a symbolic icon instead of a
rich logo. Semantic design is a11y design, but to get that message
across to everyone, i'd probably have to prove the concept first, and
i'm afraid i'm not up to the challenge quite yet.

On 2012-01-06, Matt Wheeler <m@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 6 January 2012 01:31, Bartosz <gang65@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Hi.
>>
>> My friend has a big vision impairment.
>> In every day computer usage he is using Windows 7 with big fonts. He is
>> using computer for checking the mail (thunderbird), web browsing
>> (firefox), and watching the movies (vlc player)
>>
>> I convinced him to test the Ubuntu for two weeks, and tell me his
>> impressions.
>>
>> I installed Ubuntu 10.10. After enable some accessibility and appearance
>> set-up, the Ubuntu works like the charm. My friend was very positive
>> surprised with the Ubuntu.
>
> Great! :)
>
>> Most annoying problem he found:
>> - readability of the currently opened applications in launcher - after
>> open the new applications he has problems with notice, which  application
>> are already opened. There is only small arrow on the left side of icon. In
>> Windows 7 there is no such problem. Is is possible to implement some more
>> readable look?
>> -  readability of the currently active application in launcher - Currently
>> there is small arrow on the right side of icon. Is it possible to do it
>> more readable?
>
> It's possible to change the appearance of running apps in the launcher
> by installing compizconfig-settings-manager and tweaking the settings
> in the unity plugin. Perhaps some changes to the launcher's appearance
> should be made automatically when choosing low, high or high/inverse
> contrast settings, or an option added to the Universal Access settings
> (I'm not sure tying it to the contrast option quite fits... anyone?)
>
>> With this problem solved, the productivity of vision loss with ubuntu will
>> be much higher.
>>
>> What do you think about his ideas?
>> Do you think it is possible to change this looks in Unuty?
>
> It's possible for you do do this for your friend right away, we just
> need to decide whether we should be doing this by default, and also
> whether the current configuration options for the launcher are good
> enough from an accessibility point of view. I'm not in any way an
> accessibility expert so someone who is should probably look at what
> we've got and comment here :)
>
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> Matt Wheeler
> m@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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