Constantinos Michael — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:23 GMT

After reading your article, I’ve tried very hard to find examples in non-web applications that employ these techniques. Off the top of my head, Firefox is a great example – not only the yellow address bar to signify security, but also the red search box in the bottom when your search item is not found on the page. MacOS X, when searching in the preference pane, desaturates and darkens the window, except for the icons relevant to your query; the icons that have partial matches appear colored with penumbral shadows, and the full matches appear with umbras. But perhaps the best example I’ve seen comes with certain Unix shell customizations that change the user prompt to a different colour if you’re logged in locally or remotely, and darken and lighten the prompt according to the laod of the machine.

I mention this because I think there’s great room for improvement in these areas. Perhaps the MacOS X dock should also change its hue slightly to reflect the machine load. Connectivity to the internet could be indicated by making the shadow of every window that has accessed a remote IP slightly red (Imagine what a great security feature this would be!) How about physical mediums? Library overdue notices should be printed on paper ranging from light pink to red (I receive multiple for the same book, but naturally, I ignore the first few) – similarly, package notices (from USPS, UPS, and Fedex) could use a similar system. Subway systems could use the improvements the Tokyo line has, and more: in New York, the signage leading to the north exit should be a different color than the south.

Much can be done with pigment altering chemistry: Thirty-day Metrocards should be printed on special paper than gets increasingly redder as its expiration aproaches. I’ve seen something similar done in some parking spaces, where either by accident or thoughtfulness, the machine dispensed ticket you stick to your window fades out completely in 24 hours, allowing an inspector to immediately spot a violation. Cups could show the temperature of their contents.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Constantinos Michael