use-revolution Digest, Vol 47, Issue 19

[Jeff Reynolds]

Stephen,

No you are not alone, just in the minority from the work we did. I  
wish i kept the data, the company is now gone along with all the  
files... I do remember that the score distribution was totally moved  
down on the light on dark tests, so it looked like most everyone was  
being affected in stead of just part of the group bombing out badly.  
I'm pretty sure that Xerox, Apple and MS HI research has borne out  
the same conclusions. Light on dark is great as long as folks can  
select what works best for them. Only problem is users may not  
realize their comprehension, speed and retention are going down using  
the dark on light... Even though it may look better to you that does  
not mean you function better with that one. Thats exactly why we did  
the tests so that we would not just do what looked good, but what  
worked better.

in both print and screens i find myself squinting when i go dark on  
light. I dont notice this at first and just adjust, but in a while  
start realizing im squinting and leaning a bit. I know the eye  
doctors dont like you doing that for any long period. my eyes are at  
boarder line needing glasses after years of staring at screens.

Im all for energy reduction and do just about everything i can to do  
it, but in this case i just think its a bad idea unless its totally  
switchable since it can just cause problems. Just seems like there  
are many other ways of saving energy and carbon that are much more  
active and just have all sorts of wins w/o losses. like driving less,  
not only saving energy you are reducing your exposure to injury and  
exposure to high point source pollutants as well as lowering stress!

cheers,

jeff

On Aug 16, 2007, at 6:50 AM, use-revolution-request at lists.runrev.com  
wrote:


> Energy considerations aside,  I <LIKE> a black info window with white
> text. I find it a lot easier on the eyes.  I'd do it with all apps
> that require text entry except many apps don't fix all interface
> elelments correctly to match.
>
> I can't be alone  here...
>
>
>> Kay-
>>
>>>  account the huge number of page views, according to his  
>>> calculations, 750
>>>  mega watts/hour per year would be saved.
>>
>> OTOH, at a 20% wattage savings, if I have to spend 12 seconds  
>> longer each
>> minute squinting at light gray text on a black background then  
>> it's a wash.
>> And if I have to spend any longer because of the unreadable text I  
>> actually
>> waste more electricity than if I'd left well enough alone.
>>
>> --
>>  Mark Wieder
>>  mwieder at ahsoftware.net