Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Color Tabs

Added an alternative color scheme, based on a set of colors I have used successfully in the past, with some modifications. This scheme is based on pale colors that are pleasant to the eye and do not attract unecessary attention from the text. The subcategory colors are same hue but darkened about 30% of the category color. Will the tabs have text? Icons? Both? ≈ jossi fresco ≈ t • @ 20:54, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I like the new scheme, bright but not too bold. As for the second part, I think the most likely way to go is text. I've suggested Icons as well but as far as I know Wikipedia has yet to use Icons successfully. Perhaps text and Icons? For example the little guy next to the username at the top of the screen. I'll put a few examples up to show people. Please edit the examples if they don't look right to you. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 22:56, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

For these icons to work best, I wil have to scale them myself using a better algorithm than what the browsewr uses for rescaling. Also, from usability perspective is better to have the icon before the caption. ≈ jossi fresco ≈ t • @ 23:50, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Another thing to remember here is the fact that the tabs are going to be "tall" i.e. along the side of the page and not "long" like to editing tabs. This will of course affect how we present them. Perhaps a more applicable example is in order. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 00:54, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

This may present some technical challenges. What is the policy on using Javascript on WP? ≈ jossi fresco ≈ t • @ 01:04, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

There are ways that the vertical tabs can work, using CSS and a technique called "sliding doors". You can read about this at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors/. Surely it can be adapted for a vertical design. ≈ jossi fresco ≈ t • @ 03:09, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

As much as I attempt to learn this stuff, I just can't figure it out. I think I'd need to take a course or read a book to figure it out. Jossifresco, if you know about this then great, but I'm going to ask for some help from the users under Category:User css, see if we can get this project some support. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 01:25, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Issues I have...

1) color tabs vs. text color. Remember we need to remain high enough contrast to avoid color blindness usability issues.

2) this could cause problems for blind users screenreading

3) what about on PDAs? cellphones? currently as wiki stands it is usable on these platforms ... anything that would change the overall width of each page would be bad.

4) is this going to be a forced default? or can users opt out?

5) are we going to allow a black & white or greyscale only version?

This is just a few of the first issues that came to mind. If i come up with a few more i'll post them. I'd like to state i'm not entirely opposed to the idea but that we have to be careful in how we impliment this.  ALKIVAR™ 21:20, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Good questions to ask. We do need to think of any result of our actions and plan for them here. To some this will be a massive change and will (over)react accordingly. In reponse to your issues:

1)Should the tabs then remain default and the text be colored. Or are you suggesting a bigger contrast between text and tab color?

2)I'm totally ignorant to the funtion of screenreaders. If someone could comment that would be great.

3)I don't want the tabs to change the width of the body of the articles. I would like them to be placed in that small gap between the sidebar (navigation, search, etc) and the article body. If required a few pixes at most could be shaved of the sidebar (if that works, I don't know yet.). I'm sure with testing this could be worked out to function as well as the top tabs.

4)If it's not too intrusive (and I hope the final product isn't - then I hope no one would want to opt out), but I guess it would be possible to write a preference out option.

5)I think that the color part is intrinsic to the function of tabbed browsing and improved Category sorting as a whole. If this goes through then someday people will see blue tones embedded in a page or on the tab and immediatly think "Oh, this is obviously a science page". If we take baby steps here perhaps we could implement the tabs first and bring the color as a later option. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 22:38, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Use of tabs

Nice idea, for those who want tabs. I would start by introducing this as a user preference; you can have tabs, perhaps along the right-hand-side, tht will quickly take you to a portal page for that super-topic. At some point, the kinds of tabs could also be customizable. +sj + 22:32, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

I was hoping for something more than just an optional user preference setting, but this may be too bold to impose it on everyone. Also, I would like there to be more than just a tab that functions like {{portal}} (which is I believe what you were suggesting, correct?) I was envisioning tabs placed on the left edge of the page, either 1) a bunch of tabs that are browse related (one for each basic category from Wikipedia:Browse or perhaps an A-Z from Special:allpages/A etc..) or 2)partly Category related (the tabs will change depending on the category the currently viewed page has been placed in ....

Maybe in the User preference you will be able to select from the following list of tab preferences:

1. A-Z tabs - One tab for each letter of the alphabet.
2. Browse tabs - One for each basic category. Selecting a tab will take you to a category and change the tabs to show the current Cat at the top and its sub cats below. When the sub cat is select it will move to overlab the parent cat (with the top showing) and another line of sub-sub cats will appear etc..
3. Category linked tabs - displayed tabs will be directly pulled from the categories the viewed page is placed in.

I don't know what is actually possible in CSS or what will actually work. We need a functioning test to work on. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 16:25, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Vertical Tabs

The vertical tabs look very appealing, but:

1. They are images - some people are still using old browsers that won't cache the images, and some people are still using dialup.
2. They need to be made to stand out more - people miss the simplest of things.

The Neokid Talk 12:23, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Don't use the first example

I was looking at it with my iBook G4 and could barely see the colour difference, even with close scrutiny.

Aupajo 08:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)