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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BryanJ
commented
How **** depressing - It is a real mess. ( I could not have made a bigger mess if I tried. )
I just cannot believe anyone can come up with this mess and try and say they have done research. Please MS you have absolutely no experts left and if you are listening to your own experts then fire them.
You would have done better if you had done nothing.
TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU, I AM SICK IN THE STOMACH TO SEE THIS MESS AS I HAVE BEEN AN MS FAN SINCE THE 1990's and I am just cannot see this lasting any longer.
I went to the Apples store for some relief and I saw their amazing screen with fantastic resolutions, fonts and icon. This is where your experts should do research.
Finally I have spend the last 2 weeks, complaining and trying to fix the stupid mess, instead of getting on with my programming.
My suggestion is to recall the product and re-imburse me for all the time wasted on trying to make this product useable.
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radioman.lt
commented
@exalting ;D
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exalting
commented
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Guy
commented
Microsoft please remove from your team all those developers that work for Sauron! The Visual studio 2012 theme is worthy of Chernobog! And please bring forth the light in the next update. I'm switchiing to Eclipse for the IDE. It's only take an hour of work to feel depressed with the new IDE theme.
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David
commented
The color theme editor, whilst a welcome improvement, does NOT address the real problem, which is the difficulty of differentiating UI elements from each other - everything just blurs into one big mess, and it's hard to see where one element ends and the other starts.
We need a "Theme Editor" rather than a "Color Theme Editor" - with a VS2010 theme as one of the available options.
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Les Arnott
commented
The VS 2012 UI looks like a perfect example of HOW NOT TO DESIGN A USER interFACE. Microsoft should realize that professional developers care more about efficiency and productivity and less about fashion.
Take the childish black and white toolbar icons for example. I want to quickly identify and click on such an icon maybe hundreds of times during my working day. I do not want to pause each time, checking which monochrome squiggle I intended to click. Color is an extremely powerful aid to identification.
The CAPS registry tweak, the color theme add-on and the VSIP icon fix all help to restore an element of sanity. Let's hope Microsoft listens to the requirements of their paying customers.
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Anna Metcalfe
commented
@Roman I don't see how that's appropriate to the issues raised in this thread.
BTW if you knew me you'd already know I'm very much one to weigh things up and come to a balanced judgement on both sides of any argument. That doesn't mean I won't call out things when I think they're misguided - but it does mean I have some understanding of the human factors that may have led them to end up that way.
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Roman
commented
Anna Metcalfe, I suggest you study and put to use the book called "The Mood Cure" by Julia Ross. It could help you become less dependent on what other people say. You will be more easily able to live according to this principle: "Live and let live".
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exalting
commented
radioman.lt>joke
You think, they will fix win8 to became consistent with VS2012?www.google.com/search?q=windows+8+explorer&tbm=isch
_Some_ icons are monochrome (if search), but not _all_, like in VS2012.
Where are "consistency with win8", which MS people talking about? -
radioman.lt
commented
"Because win8 doesn't have "all black&white" icons" ..oh it WILL ;} ..it will ;]
...it will be a joke of the age, ha ha -
exalting
commented
Why everyone is talking about "it is all for consistency with win8"?
From the start, VS2012 does NOT have consistency with win8!
Because win8 doesn't have "all black&white" icons. -
Anonymous
commented
There's over 111K downloads of the theme editor. I see the proliferation of Metro to MSDN and Blog content. Buttons and navigation targets the size of my mouse, barely contrasting colors selected for text, confusing layouts...
How does the primary creator of so many things cool on the web fall so far? The principles responsible for the mess are leaving or being asked to clean out their desks. A person could be forgiven for thinking the desktop has taken the hit it has over ego's and personal agenda.
And so here we are with the... the... mess.
Not happy.
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Axel Charpentier
commented
I don't understand what led MS to design this UI, consistency with MS UX Guidelines for win8 ?
Well there is no consistency between users. An Win8 RT on surface user does not expect the same UI the a Software architect or a developer!!I am paid to use visual studio a build nice app, VS2012 makes my productivity fall dramatically. I am loosing time (and my company money) searching the right icon… we have lost all our marks and getting them back is a pain with this UI
It is not a question of taste, it a question of usabaility/accessibility and productivity.
For the first time in my career and as a head of architecture in my company, I'll not push for upgrading our dev tool …. because of an UI issue….absurdeAnd the worth thing is this UI issue is likely to discourage people to use all new cool features of VS2012…
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Jayson Parkour
commented
The VS 2012 Color Theme Editor doesn't seem to fix all the terrible icons and their lack of color. This is not a solution.
This issue still has so many votes, because it is STILL not fixed.
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Anna Metcalfe
commented
@exalting Your comment is offensive - misogyny has no place among developers.
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exalting
commented
Gustavo Ganna>Girls have a good taste for visual
It's very girlish - take all these scary and weird technical buttons, switches, indicators, and throw them away, or at least cover up with lacy doily. What do guys say, they understand it and use it for work? Actually, they just show off and boast! -
radioman.lt
commented
ha ha ;}
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Gustavo Ganna
commented
@exalting ... naaa I don't think so. Girls have a good taste for visual. This is the end result of letting the COLORBLIND guys at Redmond work on the UI.
If you don't believe me, look at the Doug Turnure response, you can use the VS 2012 Color Theme Editor ... to change the UI's background color LOL.
With a reply like that, makes me want to throw my useless led color monitor to the middle of the street, and reconnect my old Commodore 64 ... at least I could enjoy SIXTEEN colors.
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radioman.lt
commented
..a coders from india take over ms$ ;}
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Gustavo Ganna
commented
'************************************************************
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'THIS IS AN INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE!
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The NEW toolbars looks like Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0 for Windows 3.1 in 1991, that’s more than TWO DECADES AGO. Instead of moving forward you are forcing us to go backwards.This FAILED UI experiment it’s an insult to professional programmers who have invest more than 20 years coding.
Finding the ErrorProvider control now took 2 minutes easily, when we should spec a white cross inside a red circle but no ... now everything is greyscale flat.
You guys are INSULTING US, and spec that professionals do rewrite their minds and train for a new unnatural visual pattern recognizance in order to ATTEMPT to find something inside VS2012.
