I've been updating WebMerge to take advantage of Rev 2.5's improved support for native XP appearances -- so far not bad:
<http://www.fourthworld.com/wincolors.jpg>
As you can see in that image, WebMerge's background color is the same as XP's background for the Display control panel and other UIs where a tab control is behind most of the other controls.
While it looks OK to me, my beta testing customers have submitted reports saying the UI is "too light"; the previous version of WM used the Win95 appearance with its dark, dank gray.
So I have three ways to handle these reports:
a) Tell them it's conformant with Micro$oft's published spec and so they need to get used to it, possibly providing an email address for Micro$oft's design team so they can complain directly to the source.
b) Ignore Micro$oft's XP Visual Design Guidelines and use their darker background color (the tan behind the tab) for the tab control itself.
c) Use the Gaslight method: Tell 'em it's actually the same but their vision has changed. ;)
I've been doing a), but as more reports come in I'm considering the possibility that the enormously-well-funded-yet-still-tasteless UI team at Micro$oft may have gotten it wrong; maybe that color is indeed too light.
So do I conform to Micro$oft and face the wrath of customers, or conform to the customers and face the wrath of reviewers?
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation Developer of WebMerge: Publish any database on any Web site ___________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
