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
1167 comments
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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.
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MS 31684
commented
Read the comments and open your eyes..please don't change good things to ugly...
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MS 31684
commented
we don't need this stupid theme extensions..we are used to color codes for visual studio...why u guys r changing things which people like...thts how u wana start developer hating Microsoft or what..the visual studio 2010 has the great theme and people want to be stable in this as you guys release a new version every 2 years...insane it is..i scrictly condemn this action which puts this organization at risk of peoples hatred..
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Anonymous
commented
vs2012, garbage,rubbish
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exalting
commented
What about sales statistics? Does anybody buy this wonder of usability?
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ste
commented
This has nothing to do with personal taste - it's an accessibility issue!
Surely this was brought up in the beta? oh wait.. it was.
I've been considering Android development for a while now, but I love Visual Studio too much. That's why I've spent a day of theme/icon hacking, and after almost two weeks of trying to get used to it, it's still not usable.
Thank you Microsoft - the desktop certainly is dead now!
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Wayne Bloss
commented
I don't want to edit the theme or hack the good icons back in.
I just want it to look good out of the box like VS 2010 did.
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gerdi
commented
amazes me how many votes basic little user interface tweeks are getting. I get the feeling that visual studio has become extremely popular. So much so that designers are opening up VS instead of photoshop.
All you ppl complaining please do yourself a favor and download any other IDE ( free or other ) and use that and let the users trying to create a productive environment for development get on with issues pertaining to the actual framework and its integration with the IDE. You can sit and struggle with those platforms while we get on with it ... they do have "color" well not really xcode but hey apple made that so it must be good hey.
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DevMaster
commented
The color theme editor can not recreate the vs2010 look and feel and thats what people want back!
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exalting
commented
Why tool for qualified engineers got interface for housewives?
