Control Selection Colour

[Efvee]

Hello everyone!

In the control colour scheme, which one is "on" the lighter or darker colour?

I am not sure what is selected here:

[MikeTO]

I agree. If you'd taken a larger screenshot you'd have noted that while "darker" means selected for these controls, "lighter" means selected for the tabs above.

macOS uses lighter to mean selected so this part of Affinity is the opposite of the Mac standard. Also, segmented controls on macOS should have rounded corners on the inside border to help you identify which control is selected.

The challenge for designing a single consistent user interface for both Mac and Windows is that the two systems have different conventions. While Mac uses lighter=selected in both dark and light modes, Windows uses lighter in dark mode and darker in light mode. Affinity is consistent with neither, using darker in dark and light modes.

I'm used to it now but it may confuse new users. I think if Serif wants to keep the shades as is then just adding the rounded corners on the inside border would help a lot.

[Old Bruce]

18 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

I'm used to it now but it may confuse new users.

<Cranky old man attitude on>

There is a move away from highlighting the "on" state by borrowing from any real world experience. A push button is on when it is depressed, this means that for the most part there is an inner shadow. The off state has the button flush with or even raised above the surface which means there will be no inner shadow and there may be an outer shadow present.

Lord knows why this use of shadow has been tossed out. Perhaps it was deemed not new and edgy buzzword buzzword buzzword, or the users were distracted by it and couldn't get any work done. I have been continually disappointed and angered by Apple's UI decisions for several years. They eschew functionality and give us Grey on Grey text and odd little graphics which may or may not be a button.

<Cranky old man attitude is never off, it is always on>

[Efvee]

Thanks for the replies! If the controls used some subtle shading it could be obvious...

[NotMyFault]

It is even more complex in reality if we have to deal with

• single push buttons,
• or radio buttons where only one of 2 ( or more) is selected (depressed).

in case of single button, we need to decide if the labeling is asking for state change, advises about new state after getting pressed, or giving the current state before getting pressed. All these button can‘t work when using changing colors depending on day/night mode.

The colors must be:

• Same in day/night/dark/light schemes
• Have a legend / explanation in text form visible 
• must follow one logic consequently (e.g. show current state - after pressing immediately change to new state)
• have color and textual description 

[Gabe]

Thanks. We are aware of this issue.