[Sugar-devel] Physics activity Play/Stop

[Frederick Grose]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com>wrote:

> Hi Asaf,
>
> On 20 Jul 2009, at 06:16, Asaf Paris Mandoki wrote:
> ...
>
> > 4. Make the Play/Stop button more conspicuous, maybe change its
> > color(s).
>
> Not so hot on this one :-) It breaks the Sugar design guidelines
> (colour represents user identity). Now I know Walter has quite
> seriously gone and broken these guidelines with some of his
> technicolor tool icons in TurtleArt... The shock, the horror... But
> not sure we should continue that slide in Sugar guideline standards ;-)
>
> Pro: Yes, black and white for Stop, and colour for Play is quite
> visually effective.
>
> Con: Once we start to creep into colour tool icons they'll start
> appearing all over the place and the collaboration colour == identity
> metaphor will start to break down. The high contrast silhouette of
> icon shapes is a strong component and differentiator of the Sugar UI
> design.
>
> The current 'Play' and 'Stop' icons are from the standard Sugar
> artwork set, perhaps we should just improve them. I was never
> completely keen on both their silhouette shapes being round, or
> perhaps it would be enough for the fill/stroke to be inverted between
> stop & play shapes?
>
> Eben: maybe there is some design middle ground for having some tool
> icon colour in the HIG? Perhaps with a strict specification, say like
> a single colour (different brightness allowed) may be used in addition
> to white & transparent, but only for toggle or radio buttons to
> indicate important active vs inactive states? But I'm not convinced.
> It feels like an erosion of a strong design principle.


Perhaps, anticipating future collaboration of Physics models, the Play/Stop
toggle could bear the color of the invoker.  This would provide some
additional information on who started or stopped the model.

(The toggles are labeled Start/Stop.  Play fits the graphic better;
Pause--with the player control graphics--may be appropriate and distinguish
it from the Activity Stop button label.)
         --Fred
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