svanbergio wrote:
I have read many threads regarding the ugly green icon that haven't yet been changed to black in the menu bar when running Skype on Mac OS X. If you try to modify images in the Skype/Contents/Resources/Presence*, Skype refuses to start due to integrity check.
Is it so hard to give us at least the opportunity to change it to black in the next update?
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Are all the green (and red, etc.) arbitrarily "ugly" then?
Is there somehow no utility value/purpose in color-coded icons?
If so, shall we not rightly divorce ourselves from color then?
Or is black and white just "stylistically superior" according to your arbitrary opinion?
Apple may have been headed a direction of eradicating color for quite some time, but that doesn't mean the direction makes sense.
Color-coding is vital to useful interface design. With color-coded icons, you can tell without even studying the top system bar whether your state is online or do not disturb.
If it were a good idea to eradicate color, then why not make the icons within Skype itself black?
I don't even believe many people requested black icons on the system bar. If anyone did, they're as backward as Apple on the matter.
Don't believe for a moment that there are many Apple system engineers who are in favor of the colorless interface. I'd bet you could query Apple engineers and find most are opposed to eradicating color.
And the rest?
If they're right about this, let's all do black and white, exclusively!
"Great idea."
Let's face it. That (as well as this) would be a giant step backward. In fact, it's just part of the many inconsistencies of "Lion" that prevent many of us from "upgrading" to the giant steps backward, of no more color-coding, no more custom icons, etc.
The whole reason to do these discontinued things were their many advantages. If you can't color-code final document copies for instance, you have to study a list carefully for what would otherwise slap you right in the face.
Eradicating color is just plain STUPID.
Worse, if it were intelligent, this implementation is entirely inconsistent!!!
There's an indispensable principle of quality engineering: It is "form follows function."
EITHER get rid of ALL THE COLOR then, OR recognize its USEFULNESS!
ENGINEERS NEED TO MAKE UP THEIR MINDS.
It's true that color is useful. It may also be true that folks who don't recognize that fact would arbitrarily prefer to fall in line with the status quo of the arbitrary and temporary style point of the moment.
But the truth is, qualified engineers would never force the wrong decision upon us:
THEY WOULD *ALWAYS* GIVE US THE OPTION *TO HAVE IT *OUR* WAY*.
Hope you enjoy...
