Please provide a solid-white-on-solid-black theme

asked 2015-02-28 03:15:51 +0200

ScumCoder
2080 ●26 ●42 ●44

updated 2015-02-28 09:01:23 +0200

jaacoppi
591 ●5 ●16 ●16

http://fromasailfishosnoo...

I really miss the AMOLED screen of my N9. It looked very bright and vivid even outdoors during sunny day. The IPS screen of Jolla is, sadly, no comparison for me. I don't care about better color reproduction or other advantages of IPS (I'm not doing graphical design on my phone).

But while Jolla hardware is, sadly, a given fact, the visibility (and ergo usability) also depends a lot on the fonts and color themes. N9 used plain solid black background and solid white text:

This was just so cool. I could easily read even small text in almost any situation: on the go, at long range, at direct sunlight, at pitch dark, etc. I know that it was part of the design (N9 was very sleek and completely black, so combined with the solid black background it made it almost impossible to see where the screen ends and the housing starts), but still it looked great and (what is infinitely more important) was very practical and convenient.

I beg you to give me an opportunity to switch back to this high-contrast style.

I simply can't understand why you thought that low-contrast text (light blue on slightly less light blue, grey on dark etc.) would be a good idea. (No offense, I'm no GUI designer. Maybe you actually had a good reason for this design decision that I'm not aware of). The fact is, for me Jolla is unusable outdoors during bright sunlight. I actually have to stop, turn my back to the sun so that the phone is in my shadow, put the phone against my face, and then I can read the message/caller's name/whatever.

Of course this won't change the screen back to AMOLED and bring me the same user experience that I had with N9, but it would be much better than now. What I want to say is, if you mostly designed the UI in accordance with your desire to stand out of the herd ("we are unlike"), then it's bad. It's the usability that really matters. Even if the color scheme of your operating system's user interface is identical to the color scheme of some other operating system's user interface.

Another thing that I have is font size. Let me quote a user named r0kk3rz:

Normally I wouldnt suggest copying features from other operating systems, especially not from Microsoft, but this time they've come up with a reasonable solution.

I do not own a WP phone and I think I'll never do (IMO the whole OS is just crap), but eesh, their huge fonts is exactly the thing my strained eyes are yearning for so much:

For me, this is a (very rare) time when Microsoft did something right. They took an already mature concept of solid white text on solid black background, and added huge fonts on top of it. I find the result fantastic.

Now, I do understand that changing the font size is actually a very complicated task since the whole layout just falls apart. That's why I'm not asking you to implement it - I'm just saying that this design is what I consider an example of good usability. But please, please give me back my solid black background and solid white font. I do not care that my phone will look less "cool" or "special".

P.S. This whole contrast issue was already raised several times:

lhorga complaining about poor visibility in direct sunlight - 7 months old (asked in June 2014), commenters mostly discuss various screen types and not UI color schemes

mcantsin complaining about "grey text on black background" and calls the text "unreadable" - 8 months old (asked in May 2014), commenters mostly discuss other things like mapping apps

jsiren complaining about "almost unreadable" font - 1 year and 2 months old (asked in December 2013), there were a couple of comments and suggestions and then the thread died