Support for Left handers

Ian Stirling OpenMoko at mauve.plus.com
Sun Jul 15 21:07:51 CEST 2007


Alexander Gabriel wrote:
> Giles Jones schrieb:
> 
>>Other things you need to consider is colour blindness, don't rely on
>>colour too much to distinguish buttons. These are all basic HCI issues,
>>I have an interest in such things.

> I am colorblind and I would really appreaciate it if the UI wouldn't
> rely on red vs. green to distinguish things like online/offline users

To an extent.
With a device this small, removing a significant part of the colour 
gamut that can be used for distingushing states is a bad thing.
Sometimes it's practical to do this, and where it can be done it's a 
good thing.

With a screen this small, some users with various disabilities (poor 
sight, poor coordination, ...) may simply be unable to use many of the
applications.

Some of this can be done simply, and without significant compromise - 
for example, there may be colourblind themes, swapping "Indicate 
on"="green" for "Indicate on=blue".

The approach _must_ not be to compromise significantly by making every 
screen usable by everyone.

It must be to make every screen most usable by the average user, with 
average sight and abilities, holding the phone at an average distance.

Then customise so that it's usable by the largest groups of disabled in 
order of potential users.
(poor sight, poor dexterity, red/green colour blindness, ...)

It will do the disabled far more good IMO if it's a widely spread 
platform that can be easily altered to their needs, rather than a 
platform that is slower to take off, because things do not work the way 
the average user expects.




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