UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

General discussion about the game.
Justin
Site Admin
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:52 am

UPDATE#1 - REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Justin » Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:17 am

Calling all colorblind people! We're looking into color swapping for a colorblind friendly mode. Can we get your opinion on these images.

ORIGINAL http://i.imgur.com/Be6YB.png

COLORBLIND FRIENDLY? http://i.imgur.com/wyIXs.png

For reference:
-Player
----Weapons, Oxygen, Piloting, Sensors, Doors = ON
---- Engines = DAMAGED
---- Sheilds = IONED (with 1 Zoltan power bar)
-Enemy
---- Oxygen, Engines, Weapons = ON
---- Medbay = OFF (only in the colorblind image)
---- Shields = DAMAGED
---- Piloting & Doors = BROKEN
-Enemy crew have BLUE outlines & Health bars
-Player crew have GREEN outlines & HP bars.

(Note: The hazard stripes are for no-oxygen rooms. This would potentially be a change for non-colorblind as well)

Is this totally readable for you colorblind folks?
Thanks!
If you're having hull problems, I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a breach ain't one.
Thann
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:33 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby Thann » Mon Nov 12, 2012 7:48 am

This is an amazing idea, Thanks for thinking of us!

1) What is the color/look of a partially O2 deprived room?
2) You changed a lot of green UI elements from green to white. aesthetically i thinks its a down grade and with most red things becoming blue, I don't have a problem seeing them.
3) I don't like the new look of the zoltan power bars, seems too busy. Perhaps if you revert the powe rbars to green you could make the zoltan's white.

I like the direction you're heading, keep up the good work =)
iCurse
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:20 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby iCurse » Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:25 am

This does help quite a bit. Only problem I'm having (which is not too much worse in the game right now) is the glow effects (on the Drone Parts icon and the lock/door icon). This makes it pretty hard for me to see what the icon is.
Also, seeing the oxygen levels in a room has always been hard for me. Isn't it possible to have a mouse-over counter for that?
cougarhart
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:27 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby cougarhart » Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:36 am

I'm so happy you guys are considering this. As for comparing the 2 pictures I like all the changes except I find the damaged system rooms harder to see in the colour blind version (I have no problem in the normal). I also don't really care for the change in colour of the Zoltans as well as the Health/Energy bars; but that is only an aesthetics thing. I am a mild-medium red-green colour blind.
boran_blok
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:35 pm

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby boran_blok » Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:04 am

I am slightly red/green colorblind.

The top half of the colorblind version is easier to read, however the bottom half (status and power icons) are harder to read, white does not have as much contrast vs grey as green does.
ilikemilkshake
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2012 12:15 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby ilikemilkshake » Mon Nov 12, 2012 12:26 pm

Thank you so much! Too often us colourblind folk get left out in the cold =[
This layout works much better for me. Unfortunately because there's more than one type of colourblindness, you might get conflicting responses which could make your job difficult.

If I had to be picky I'd say the blue health bars are a little difficult to see, especially in the no oxygen room and the original damaged system colours would actually be slightly better if kept while still changing all the other stuff. (I prefer the white)
HighScore - 4502
mrw423
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:00 pm

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby mrw423 » Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:09 pm

As someone with deuteranopia, the second image looks MUCH better (especially the stripped red parts which looks almost unreadable in the original image). The little bars above the unit's heads are much more legible as well.

As for the O2, Missiles and other buttons along the bottom of the ship, the different colors make them no better or difficult to read. I think I prefer the original color palette though. I also prefer the original green color of the Hull and Target bars.However, that is more of an aesthetic suggestion rather than a necessary one.

I hope this helps and thanks for thinking of 'us' !
odony
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:34 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby odony » Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:13 pm

Excellent, it is much more readable for me, and you seem to have taken many of our suggestions [1] into accounts already, thanks so much! :-)

My comments:
  • Really love the hazard stripes, and it's a very good sign when your colorblind adaptations can become the default for all players :-) You can even increase the alpha transparency of the stripes to make them less prominent if needed, they're quite strongly visible to me as they are.
  • I like the outlines of player/enemy crewmembers, and their health bars - quite easy to see now!
  • I can clearly see the difference between ON, OFF, DAMAGED and BROKEN system status, that's great! The DAMAGED systems look like they're in better shape than the ON systems (perhaps because the white/grayish ON color looks a bit dull), but I can live with that. Also as @Thann's noted, it sure becomes obvious now that many UI elements share the "green/ON" status and have switched to white, making the whole screen a little bit less attractive indeed. Going back to a greenish color for this status wouldn't be an option as long as some orange/yellow/red color remains - like the current DAMAGED status.
    I feel we could find a set of ON/OFF/DAMAGED/BROKEN colors that are both nice *and* readable. I'm obviously terrible at picking colors, but here is a mock with 4 colors that are easy for me to tell apart: http://i.imgur.com/QMWaU.png - not sure if that helps or if that works for other colorblind people?
  • I still can't quite make out the depleted drone parts icon, nor read the "Relationship: Hostile" text on the enemy, though there's already an improvement there. Red text on dark background or dark drawings on red icon backgrounds are difficult to read (the glow effect does not matter much here).
  • As iCurse said, the glow effect can sometimes be disturbing, but for me the only case where it is a problem is the ioned lock icon. In the colorblind version the lock seems to be in reverse video now, making it almost invisible in the glow (the whole thing looks like a big blurry light spot on top of the bars). This was not the case in the original palette. Not sure how to improve, perhaps the glow can be made more transparent or even lighter than in the original?
  • Just noticed (while playing with color filters in gimp) that there were different 3 health bar colors in the crewmember list. I had only ever seen 2, i.e. Artyom vs all the rest.
  • Another thing I've just noticed: when a crew member skill is between level 1 (1 star) and level 2 (2 stars), I think the skill bar is supposed to show the progress. To me it always looked like there was no way of knowing the progress after level 1 because I cannot see the difference between the level 1 and level 2 colors, so there does not seem to be any progression in the color. The 1 star/2 stars icons are great, but perhaps we could have a more readable progressbar on the skills as well - like some striping or a contrasted border between the 2 colors that would act as a progress mark?

Thanks again for making FTL colorblind friendly, we know how difficult it is to work on a problem that you cannot actually see! ;-)

[1] https://getsatisfaction.com/ftlgame/top ... r_ui_hints
belal
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:28 pm

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby belal » Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:30 pm

I am not colorblind, but an easy way to test if your changes will work for most colorblind people is to use http://colororacle.org/. Just thought it may help!
undergroundmonorail
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:00 am

Re: REQUEST - Colorblind color-swap test.

Postby undergroundmonorail » Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:10 pm

I'm mildly red-green colourblind and I'd use the second one purely for the enemy health bars. I can see everything in the game normally, but at first glance it's hard to tell if a tiny health bar is red or green and red/blue negates that problem entirely.