POLL: Colored Icons or Gray Icons?

[Guest]

I use a lot of notes + disabled events and I need them to stand out.

[randy]

Gray icons. Looks more professional. Also colorblind people will not see the colored icons (colors to prevent red, green, blue and yellow).

Please keep in mind that companies as Apple are using grey shaded icons. There should be a reason for that.

---
John

While I don’t care either way, I agree with these statements.

[John245]

modern UI design standards suggest all one color. I don't necessarily agree. I think the right answer is somewhere in the middle. Color can be used when it has a clear meaning and is standard across the app, and to common practice. The examples shown in the colored example are all good choices. I think red for delete and other negative actions is ok. Yellow or amber for disabled or warning actions is ok. Green is good for positive actions. Neutral stuff should be neutral colored. This includes stuff like the arrows and add. I could go either way on the blue edit button. I don't think it needs to be colored, but because it's the most common action, the blue is a good hint of that.
I would add though that the colors could be a bit more understated from what's in the screenshot. The colors shown above are a bit too in-your-face. More muted colors would look more modern.
Also, I don't like multicolor icons. (like the disabled icon example) They tend to look outdated and childish. Single color is both modern and useful.
One place in those screenshots that could use improvement is the alignment of the icons. The position of the icon is just as important as the image and color. These should be in a columnar layout. All edit buttons should align, all up arrows should align, etc... If a particular function isn't relevant for a given line, that column should be blank for that line, leaving the void where the icon would have been..

I agree with the one color approach. There is a reason for that.

----
John

[John245]

ah.... forgot that possible answer so I added it. Sorry if you already voted!

macromark
If you choose for the colored ones. Please add a toggle so we can switch to the grey ones.

When I look at the colored icons for a couple of seconds it hurts the eyes.

---
John

[mbdirtfarmer]

I currently prefer my icons colored and my beer dark. Just cause.

[TC1]

I prefer icon themes... for example, a Simpsons icon set where the trashcan is Homer's head...




And yes, I'm kidding. Please don't do that.

[andyf]

No Question, colored icons for me. I can't tell you how many times I hit the wrong icon just because. Please change the enabled/disabled icon in the Event Group list also. Make it more obvious which events are disabled.

[macromark]

macromark
If you choose for the colored ones. Please add a toggle so we can switch to the grey ones.

When I look at the colored icons for a couple of seconds it hurts the eyes.

---
John

Not to worry... We're just getting feedback at the moment.

[TrEigh]

I prefer the colored icons, maybe toned down a bit. I definitely agree with the comment about the icons lining up.

[macromark]

... Please change the enabled/disabled icon in the Event Group list also. Make it more obvious which events are disabled.

That's already in the screen shot in the first post

[davidcald]

I voted for color but I'll add qualification... IMHO color should be used for a purpose, to highlight an unusual condition or case. In the example I would only use colored icons for the case where the event is disabled. Or maybe gray out the entire row also. The red trashcan doesn't do much for me over the B&W version.

I would suggest while tinkering with this, to add the icon for a note that can be accessed directly from this event list. And, if a note exists give the icon a color.

[kenm]

I know these comments will date me, but back in the days of Bell-Atlantic (Bellcore) of telecom, colored indicators were not allowed to be the only alarm indicator. There had to be a flashing, blinking, winking, signal. Yes, winking is defined. I haven't looked at the Telcordia spec for a while, but I suspect this is still the case.

Whether color or gray is used, bold, italic, etc should be considered as well.

[nunoary]

I had no doubts, for me colored icons is clearly an improvement, at least in terms of "more ease to read".

[ksum]

I do not care either way but I do think the idea of allowing either via a Toggle is the best option. That said, if they do go colored, I would suggest 1 color for a given icon or colors that do not contrast so much.

[macromark]

I do not care either way but I do think the idea of allowing either via a Toggle is the best option. That said, if they do go colored, I would suggest 1 color for a given icon or colors that do not contrast so much.

I assume you're referring to the 'disable' icon being red with a yellow background? That one does stand out.... maybe should be more like this?


Reducing contrast too much causes readability issues for folks who are sight-impaired so we don't want to get too aggressive with that.