Make matrix colors work for color blind people

[gorhill]

No description provided.

[gorhill]

I knew the issue would be brought forth eventually: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7744585

Now I need to figure the best way to solve the issue. Need more input from color-blind people.

[RobotCaleb]

The problem with relying on color alone as a way of presenting information is that some people can't tell the colors apart. A very small percent of people can't see shades of color at all and are limited to shades of gray.

Trying to choose proper colors that color blind people can discern well is shifting the problem to other color blind people (admittedly a much smaller set).

I worked with the developer of 2x0ng to get a color blind friendly mode implemented. His game went from http://blocky.io/2x0ng-media.html to http://imgur.com/a/098zC which helped improve playability by a large amount for myself.

I suggest either patterns or symbols (check mark, X, exclamation point, whatever). Since patterns (and even symbols, to a lesser extent) aren't necessarily universal in their meaning, a legend would help. Even without a legend simply adding that extra method of information portrayal will go a long way.

Thanks

[gorhill]

Ok, thanks for the input. I will think about this to try to find an optimal solution.

[sorniva]

howdy.

just started to use this and I have to say at first it felt that it wasnt very intuitive and was difficult to use. ..I realized shortly that it was because I couldn't really tell what colors things were.

I would echo the above, patterns, symbols, or something, will be very useful.

As is, on the sort of 'half and half' selection within one cell, I cannot see any difference between them at all and was only able to find out which half (top or bottom) did what through trial and error.

I didn't notice there were any color differences in the cells in their default state on a page (i.e. before you had explicitly set a allow/deny rule for that cell) until reading the documentation.. I can now faintly notice a difference ..but it is not a usable one.

Granted, the amount of people this may impact is very small.. But, even as someone who is likely above the average in terms of knowing how this stuff all works, I was nearly ready to give up in trying to figure out how to use it, even with the help of the documentation,.. merely because nothing seemed to make sense... and that was only due to my visual deficiency.

Otherwise, so far, it is great... I imagine that the issues with color could be a problem for users who arent even colorblind,.. in situations with poorly calibrated screens, or in adverse lighting conditions.

[gorhill]

I did start to experiment with patterns, but I realized there was a complication I didn't think of beforehand: there little visual indicators in the top left corner of a cell which has a persisted state, no pattern can fit in there. Now this is what is blocking me really, I have to think of something for that small indicator.

Meanwhile, as a work around, I can tell you were in the CSS file the entries are for the color of the cells if you don't mind playing in there until I find a definitive fix. If you go ahead with this workaround, make a copy somewhere else because when the extension updates, your changes will be all overwritten.

The file is https://github.com/gorhill/httpswitchboard/blob/master/css/popup.css, so wherever that file is on your computer (depends of OS).

And the places in the CSS files which dictate the color of the matrix cells, starting at line 413:

.rdt {
    color: white;
    background-color: #c00;
    }
.gdt {
    color: white;
    background-color: #080;
    }
.rpt {
    color: black;
    background-color: #f8d0d0;
    }
.gpt {
    color: black;
    background-color: #d0f0d0;
    }

.rdt means "red dark temporary", this means a cell is directly blacklisted.
.gdt means "green dark temporary", this means a cell is directly whitelisted.
.rpt means "red pale temporary", this means a cell is blackisted by inheritance.
.gpt means "green dark temporary", this means a cell is whitelisted by inheritance.

Now for the permanent state indicator, there is no workaround, as these are bitmap images.

[gorhill]

What about black / dark gray / light gray / white? Would the shades of gray be distinguishable enough?

[RobotCaleb]

As Joe Color Blind, how do I test this?

[gorhill]

how do I test this?

By installing the extension and see if you can operate the matrix?

[RobotCaleb]

I've had it installed since my first comment in this thread. I was waiting to see if it updated and showed me the new features. Since they hadn't popped up yet (on any of the three computers I regularly use) I figured I had to do something manually.

[gorhill]

What version are you at? Color-blind mode was released in version 0.9.5.3. There is a setting in the dashboard to activate the mode.

[RobotCaleb]

That's what I was missing. I'm at 9.9.1. I didn't realize I had to enable
it. I'll play with it for a few days and try to remember to provide some
feedback.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Raymond Hill notifications@github.com
wrote:

What version are you at? Color-blind mode was release in version 0.9.5.3.
There is a setting in the dashboard to activate the mode.

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[RobotCaleb]

I've grown used to it. This works for me. Thanks