Make Manage Circle's Colour display options more flexible and useful

[zellieh]

Title:
Make Manage Circle's Colour display options more flexible and useful

Area:
reading filters, manage circle, colours

Summary:
When you add someone, or on the Manage Circle page, you can pick from a selection of colours for the name to show up on your reading page in that colour. At the moment this tool is rather limited and can be hard to use. I'd like it to be more user-friendly and more flexible.

Description:
I'd like the Colours options to be more user-friendly. The Add or Subscribe pages where you select colours for new people seem to work well enough, but if you forget, then you're in trouble.

At the moment, on the Manage Circle page, the colours are not displayed, so you have no idea who has or hasn't had a colour selected. You have to spot it on your Reading page, and then go to your Manage Circle page and then you have to change colour options one person at a time, by typing in each name individually.

Because I am lazy, I would dearly love this tool to be more useful. I can think of several ways in which it could be made more flexible and more useful, although I'm not sure all of them are possible.

First, I would like a better display of colours chosen for people, and people who are set to default colours, so you can see who has what colour(s) at a glance. Maybe a little box, or maybe have the username show up in the chosen colour on the Manage Circle page?

[ETA: I have been told by Zvi that this does exist in a primitive form on the Manage Circle page; in the second column of asterisks, the background colour of the column is the background colour you have chosen, and the asterisk is in the foreground colour. Unfortunately, this column is unlabelled, and the asterisk is very small, so it's hard to see colour differences clearly. I'd like to see this column labelled and the asterisks replaced with something visually easier to see. I'd also like to see this column turned into links so that you can change the colours right there rather than having to go to the bottom of the page and do it manually.]

Second, a way to set a default colour for everyone all at once, if you just want a colour that will go with your layout/style.

Third, a way to set rules and pick colours for entire groups or classes of people. All feeds are red, for example, or everyone in Filter A is blue, or everyone in the GMT timezone is orange, or everyone with a USA location gets green.

Fourth -- and I think this would be more work, but it is a dream of mine -- if you could give me a way to combine groups/classes, so I could sort and set colours by personal journals AND location AND Filter A, for example.

Fifth, a way to resolve conflicts, and to point out potential conflicts, so I get to pick which colours I want for accounts that may be in more than one group or class, or for which I've already set colours on a previous occasion.

Sixth -- another dream -- if I could set up rules for DW to follow in the future, so that all new accounts that fit those rules are automatically set certain colours, that would be awesome.

I am not a coder. I have no idea how difficult this would be. I'm not sure if all of it would be possible. I'm suggesting it, though, because I know some visually-oriented people who like using colour to sort groups, and also because it could help with accessibility for some users.

Poll #2710 Make Manage Circle's Colour display options more flexible and useful

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
8 (27.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
2 (6.9%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
18 (62.1%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (3.4%)

Comments

[zvi]

Selected colors are (or should be) displayed on the Manage Circle page.

The account name is in the first column, for the second column, the background color should match the background you have selected, and the foreground color matches the foreground you have selected for an account. If you aren't seeing that, please make a support request.

Two, I'm not sure that letting people assign colors by location is useful, since (a) people are fanciful and (b) people don't fill it out. I mean, I'm not 100% opposed, I'm just not convinced that making rules based on people's claimed location would be actually useful.

[zellieh]

Okay, I just went back to check my Manage Circle page, and you're right: the selected colours are showing in the second column, if you mean the tiny little asterisks.

I may have to go back and edit this post, though, because that column is completely unlabelled, so I had no idea what it was even there for, and also those asterisks are so small I had to magnify the text five times before I could even see what colour they were.

Two, I'm not suggesting it would be a perfect system, but it might help save time. I have a UK filter, a Europe filter, a USA & Canada filter, and an Australia and New Zealand filter, which is mostly about timezones, partly about TV shows & cultural differences, and partly about politics. In my experience, some people do leave it blank, some make stuff up, but most people who do fill out locations are honest.

[jadelennox]

I would love to put some real work into rethinking the way color selection happens in a way that would be useful and user-friendly. The fact is, with a large reading/access list, managing a useful set of colors is a nightmare. It's also true that enabling color picking accessibly is really difficult (because the colo picker, with its small selection, is mouse-driven); personally, I manually type in hex codes that I randomly generate and then look to see if they are useful and provide sufficient contrast.

I think this is a case where universal design principles will really pay off. Something which is usable and intuitive yet has rich functionality for people with large read/access lists will probably provide equally good usability/functionality for people with small lists, people with mobility-based accessibility needs, and people with cognitive/visual processing based accessibility needs. But I think rather than just adding on more features, this needs to be a well-thought-out redesign.