My cellular phone suffers from the same serious color design flaw that you'll find on many modern devices. Here's the keypad of my telephone in standby mode:
This is a good simple, no-frills design in shades of gray. For so long the iPhone is not available in Europe, I'm perfectly happy with it. That is: until I bring it out of standby mode to type a phone number. Here's what happens:
The back lights of the keys turn on. The numbers and symbols that previously appeared dark grey suddenly become much brighter. Result: the numbers can hardly be read. The numbers become invisible only when I need to see them. It boggles the mind...
How did this design become standard practice? Please, Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, Sony, etc., could you please avoid this design stupidity. It isn't terribly complicated. Just keep an eye on the contrasts involved..
Comments (2)
I actually used to write programs, that program cellphones and I always noticed this too. More importantly this shows up on my back lit Keyboard on my PowerBook, I always turn it on in low light only, to turn it back off a few minutes later. The White light looks cool, but just not enough contrast.
Posted by Ben Sochar | September 4, 2007 3:04 AM
Posted on September 4, 2007 03:04
Some later phones, including those from motorola have ambient light sensors that prevent this problem by only turning on the backlight in the dark. I think they were more concerned with battery life, it solves the issue regardless.
Posted by AF | September 20, 2007 11:39 PM
Posted on September 20, 2007 23:39