Reversed highlight color for selected buttons

[PaoloT]

Hi,

I find the current way of showing enabled/disabled buttons and options counter-intuitive. When a button is enabled, it is dark grey; when disabled, it is light grey.

The common experience says that an illuminated switch is enabled, and a dark one is disabled.

Paolo

 

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

The common experience says that an illuminated switch is enabled, and a dark one is disabled.

No - common experience says that a button when pushed into a panel is partially shadowed and therefore darker than the surrounding panel.

[MikeTO]

4 hours ago, Pšenda said:

No - common experience says that a button when pushed into a panel is partially shadowed and therefore darker than the surrounding panel.

But not on macOS.

On macOS, "lighter" = selected in both light and dark modes. 

On Windows, "lighter" = selected in dark mode, and "darker" = selected in light mode.

Full details in this other thread.

 

[loukash]

It's generally an utter mess, and on Apple's UI it's presumably having its origin in "Sir" Jony Ive's twisted mind. (thank you, Jony. NOT!)
Meanwhile, some 1st and 3rd party apps have got it right (again), regardless whether buttons are going "lighter" or "darker". Affinity is not among them (yet).
Visual context matters™.

For the record, in my not very humble opinion, the classic Mac OS Platinum theme has got it right in this regard. (It was the OS underneath that sucked… )

[MikeTO]

32 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

Really?

More Pages:

I believe you're using an older version of macOS and all of this has changed. For example, this segmented control is now reversed and lighter equals selected.

  

But macOS is getting more inconsistent and you will find examples of controls that get darker when selected. It's getting harder to know what the standard is. 😞 

[PaoloT]

15 hours ago, MikeTO said:

But macOS is getting more inconsistent and you will find examples of controls that get darker when selected. It's getting harder to know what the standard is. 😞 

Guidelines are still quite clear, in all cases suggesting coherence.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/segmented-controls

All the examples given by Apple in they HUI guides show the selected option as if illuminated (with a color other than the background), with solid instead of greyed out symbols or labels, and/or a slight extrusion and rounded corners.

Paolo

 

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, MikeTO said:

On Windows, "lighter" = selected in dark mode, and "darker" = selected in light mode.

No - if you're talking about "common experience", as the OP mentioned, the pressed button is always in shadow and therefore darker than its surroundings. And that regardless of the color (darkness or lightness) of your surroundings. To do this, just take the physical button and press it. Despite the fact that in your linked post you are mixing together buttons and tabs, where of course it is the other way around - because they are on the contrary raised and therefore more illuminated and therefore brighter.