Firefox 8 on Ubuntu 11.10 Using Celerity site skin
The browse button beside the icon has an underline (green) under the word browse, as if it's a link.
Problem persists with a change to Tropo red, now the underline is red.
Goes away on hover.
In Chromium 15.0.874.106 (Developer Build 107270 Linux) Ubuntu 11.10 there is no line.
However, in both browsers using keyboard navigation that button "lights up" twice on focus, once around the whole button and then around the link within it.
Design Feedback:
I find the #666 headings on the components a little too low contrast with the #eee background. Changing the text to #444 makes it more comfortable. #666 fails the standard colour difference test by a smidge.
There's a bunch of other grey on grey effects of very low contrast that are difficult for me to read as well:
The headings on the unused modules when one has the module placement editor view up is painfully low contrast with the background.
The cancel link in the Entry Form Options box is borderline uncomfortable in its contrast. (I think it should be a button anyway.)
The borders on buttons are very low contrast to the backgrounds the buttons sit on sometimes (the buttons within the modules like browse for tags). It works okay when the button is grey and the background is white, but when the background becomes grey like the button itself, it all gets a bit samey and blurry. I notice this is a popular style for form designers, I just compared your design to one of my operating system forms, and there, the grey of the background is lighter than the button grey by a higher margin and the button border is a bit darker as is the text. More like the way your buttons look on hover, which is a comfortable level of contrast.
In isolation, things like the button border contrast are less a problem than text/background contrast, and I realize there's a struggle to meet contrast guidelines when you want a fairly unobtrusive look to the form elements. But all that grey in very low contrast can make the form seem vaguely blurry when it actually isn't. Add in the drop shadows, and for someone with my middle-aged vision, the whole form feels uncomfortable to use, instead of looking stylish and modern.
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Firefox 8 on Ubuntu 11.10 Using Celerity site skin
The browse button beside the icon has an underline (green) under the word browse, as if it's a link.
Problem persists with a change to Tropo red, now the underline is red.
Goes away on hover.
In Chromium 15.0.874.106 (Developer Build 107270 Linux) Ubuntu 11.10 there is no line.
However, in both browsers using keyboard navigation that button "lights up" twice on focus, once around the whole button and then around the link within it.
Design Feedback:
I find the #666 headings on the components a little too low contrast with the #eee background. Changing the text to #444 makes it more comfortable. #666 fails the standard colour difference test by a smidge.
There's a bunch of other grey on grey effects of very low contrast that are difficult for me to read as well:
The headings on the unused modules when one has the module placement editor view up is painfully low contrast with the background.
The cancel link in the Entry Form Options box is borderline uncomfortable in its contrast. (I think it should be a button anyway.)
The borders on buttons are very low contrast to the backgrounds the buttons sit on sometimes (the buttons within the modules like browse for tags). It works okay when the button is grey and the background is white, but when the background becomes grey like the button itself, it all gets a bit samey and blurry. I notice this is a popular style for form designers, I just compared your design to one of my operating system forms, and there, the grey of the background is lighter than the button grey by a higher margin and the button border is a bit darker as is the text. More like the way your buttons look on hover, which is a comfortable level of contrast.
In isolation, things like the button border contrast are less a problem than text/background contrast, and I realize there's a struggle to meet contrast guidelines when you want a fairly unobtrusive look to the form elements. But all that grey in very low contrast can make the form seem vaguely blurry when it actually isn't. Add in the drop shadows, and for someone with my middle-aged vision, the whole form feels uncomfortable to use, instead of looking stylish and modern.