#8645 NORM 9.1.0: Battery icon de-coloring intention is missed by users

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#8645: Battery icon de-coloring intention is missed by users
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   Reporter:  bert              |       Owner:  marco        
       Type:  defect            |      Status:  reopened     
   Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  9.1.0        
  Component:  interface-design  |     Version:  not specified
 Resolution:                    |    Keywords:               
Next_action:  never set         |    Verified:  0            
  Blockedby:                    |    Blocking:               
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Comment(by Eben):

 Replying to [comment:5 mikus]:
 > I'm not going to re-open, but I *do* disagree strongly:
 >
 > ((1)) I believe that in human-computer interfaces, white is often used
 for the 'absence' of something (vs. color being used to indicate
 'presence').  Here I think the user is more concerned with "is energy
 coming in from the outside?" than with "is my XO using its battery at this
 moment?".  So I would prefer to use color to indicate "battery is taken
 care of" (i.e., there is an external plug supplying electricity), and to
 use white to indicate "the XO is running on its own" (i.e., the battery is
 draining because there is no supply of external electricity).

 Well, this is a boolean choice.  I wonder if your inclination to relate
 color to AC power is because you're used to running while plugged in.  The
 charging state will, of course, often be less frequent or continuous for
 kids in schools.  I still think it makes sense to have the battery color
 indicate that the battery is discharging (as it's actively doing work).

 > I believe *white* for the "watch out" condition will be more noticeable
 than colored.  This is the OPPOSITE of the design described in the first
 comment.

 I think we should keep this part of the discussion separate from the "your
 battery is about to die" case, since this is a persistent state regardless
 of the level of the battery.  We'll have other mechanisms for indicating
 when the battery is getting critically low.  I'm open to more input on
 which state (charging or discharging) should be white.

 > [[BR]]((2)) No matter which design gets chosen, what it tells the user
 needs to be CONSISTENT.  As it is implemented in

 Agreed.  That definitely needs a fix.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8645#comment:11>
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