Add some color to Visual Studio 2012
Usability studies have shown that both shape and color help to distinguis visual elements in a UI. The upcoming/current beta release of Visual Studio 2011 has removed color from the toolbars and from icons in e.g. the Solution Explorer.
Please make this optional so those of us that want a more accessible and user friendly IDE can have their cake and eat it too.
Michiel
shared this idea
Hi folks,
Take a look at the VS 2012 Color Theme Editor – it is an option for creating and editing your own Visual Studio themes.
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05
thanks,
Doug Turnure – Visual Studio PM
1156 comments
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Sam Blowes
commented
@Harrison this already exists, make sure you have all the latest updates
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Harrison Moccio
commented
Please implement a third default theme which emulates the color palette of previous Visual Studio releases: VS2010 is an excellent start.
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elderbenassi
commented
Almost 20 years ago I started developing software. I had a 286 PC with a Hercules display adapter and a monochrome white-phosphorous 12-inch monitor, running Borland Turbo C IDE under DOS.
Five years later I got a new PC with a VGA full (read 256) colors on Borland IDE. I was absolute surprised how beautiful and productive the same Borland was under a color display.
Today I feel the same as I went back 20 years, sitting in front of that miserable Hercules display, when I start VS 2012.
One thing that the VS team might not realize is that regular (not Microsoft ones) software developers usually doesn't have much time to waste on "fine tune" or "create your own hundred-thousend-icon IDE theme from scratch". They usually need to work hard on profitable things to earn some money and pay the bills... -
Ali M
commented
Dear Visual Studio Team,
One question always goes in my mind any time I look at the VS 2012 UI:
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU DECIDED TO CHOOSE THE BLACK AND WHITE ICONS?I use VS12 every day and I really comprehend how you could make such decision for the icons. I am really concern for the future of the product.
Regards,
Concerned developer … -
Gustavo Ganna
commented
@Anonymous ... Well maybe the UI is the first major issue ... some devs don't want to invest time trying to decrypt what means such bicolored icons.
I personally start to check the product capabilities "only if" the GUI is in some fashion ... usable ... if not (like this case) I simple close the **** out and return to a well know & productive enviroment ... almost there is no such feel of increasing stress by trying to adopt and work with those products designed by marketers. -
Anonymous
commented
Are you ******* kidding me? There are major issues, and the top problem people vote up is that there isn't enough ******* color?
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brian
commented
Please you are still not listening:
a) Its not enough!
b) VS should come out of the box with a usable and workable interfaceWhy can't you take the feedback on-board? The tools group are becoming as bad as the Windows group at turning what should be a winning product into a lame duck with such amazing gusto and arrogance.
The comment from Anonymous April 24, 2013 2:20 p.m about says it all for a lot of us developers
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Anonymous
commented
As a longtime developer all I can say is wow. I've invested 25 years in learning and promoting the use of your products and managed to build a career for myself. Why? Because you had a successful business image and Exec's were comfortable with me using your products. I followed your design cues and produced applications that solved business problems i.e. we put some serious money on the table with good custom software. It looks good and it works even better.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - there's real work to do out here. Giving serious development tools a modern or metro interface treatment is not necessary. It's a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. We need elegant development tools that are aligned with how we work today and are not being mocked by the entire user community as consumer oriented toys. Whatever your goals were with the desktop - it hasn't exactly been a hit.
VS2012 needs the VS2010 skin and icons. The Windows desktop needs Aero, the Start Button and the Start Menu. Why? Because we need a consistent development platform to innovate and move technology forward. Out here in the real world it takes time and by extension money to change things. You're not helping us at all by giving the development tools a consumer interface treatment. Stability is everything. I see it. My customers see it. Why don't you?
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Anonymous
commented
It's the most minging UI I've ever had the misfortune to have to use, but with some of the third party hacks coming online it's possible to make it usable.
Visual Studio Icon Patcher is a good start but misses all the Class View and C++ Project icons. Just release an official patch to reinstate the VS2010 coloured icons and all will be calm again in the land of the Windows developers.
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Axel Grude commented
add userChrome.css, like a xulrunner app. support gradients and background-image / list-style image overlay and border-radius, then I will style it back to something usable.
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exalting
commented
Why VS became do-it-yourself kit? MS was sold to Ikea?
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Kwan McComas
commented
Is there a way to add color to the icons as well?
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mjohn
commented
If Micsoft was disliked and dead, win8's UI designer and vs2012 UI designer Make a lot of force.
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angieK
commented
Typical Microsoft; some team needed to justify its existence so they cook up some bogus research data to show how this new UI will be great for developers and everybody will love it. In reality, it's just **** being shoved down customers' throats and since the people who sign corporate purchasing agreements can't tell the difference between a C++ project and the Matrix screensaver, people who have to do real work get screwed.
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brian
commented
The art of not listening is going to be Microsoft's downfall. The sooner they start listening and correct the serious usability problems in Windows 8 and VS 2012 the better.
You have let the new boys and girls on the block try their new look and ideas - its been a failure now go back and keep your real users and customers happy!
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Ben Bowen
commented
The Color Theme Editor doesn't begin to address the usability issues introduced by this version of Visual Studio. Give the option to restore the window borders, return to the familiar and usable icons that we all loved in VS2010. This new version is almost unsable, even after applying the third party hacks to return some of the look and feel of VS 2010.
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Anonymous
commented
I HARE the look and feel ... VEEEEEERY BAD ... CHANGE IT
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exalting
commented
>Just give me a real UI or bring back VS200X!
No. ZOG decided all must become imbeciles, and that's why all will work in square-clustered monochrome indistinguishable ui. -
UI Sucks
commented
Fµckìnġ UI, NiceVS and "Color Theme Editor" can go to the same **** as all other fµckėd-up toolbars crâp. Just give me a real UI or bring back VS200X!
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ThomasX
commented
Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 released. UI issues remain unfixed.
