Better styling of active block in admin menu

[demetris]

The operation to restore the balance that the ligher admin header destroyed seems to have gone fairly well, but there is still one part that I think needs attention:

The styling of the active menu block, which now looks too stark and hard.

Specifically, the background of the head item seems to me too light, and the border around the whole block too dark.

I try to explain better with the attached screenshots.

Another problem that I see in that part of the UI is the coloured icons that we use for the active state. They were designed to work on a dark background and they look washed-out on the new light background. But I don’t think we can do much for that bit, other that stop showing the coloured variation on the active block.

(I would add “Patch available upon request” at this point, but I’d rather see someone better suited for the job trying to improve this. I am not a designer.)

[nacin]

I think we can all agree that UI is highly subjective. While neither of us are designers, I know that quite a few looked at this and approved it. It also went under a few iterations based on feedback. It has also been well-liked on wp.com and at least one person has commented that they are visually impaired and it helps them.

My take on two of your main points:

• I think the colored icons stand out beautifully on the lighter background.

• I also like the darker border and the lighter fill, and I think converging them will make them stand out less. The starkness appears clean and professional.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Side note: Seeing the admin menu sans-serif always makes me crook my head to the side.

[johnonolan]

Agree with Nacin on this - I think the slightly darker border is needed otherwise an expanded non-active menu item and an expanded active menu-item look a little too similar.

[demetris]

Replying to nacin:

[SNIP] at least one person has commented that they are visually impaired and it helps them. [SNIP]

Colour contrast in that part is currently well above the recommended thresholds. A slight adaptation will not put is in any danger in that respect.

In any case, this is not the time or the place to address issues of accessible colour contrast, of which the current UI has several:

​http://op111.net/u/misc/wp30-dashboard-contrast-r15086.html

(Report generated by the Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar plugin for Firefox.)

[nacin]

I believe the core and UI teams are satisfied with these changes for 3.0. Anything that would be changed should go through the UI working group.

[TECannon]

There is an existing ticket (#9698) for more accessible Admin Theme option (one major aspect would be a color scheme with significantly higher contrast, but also some options for larger text, etc.) As far as overall contrast & usability concerns go, lets stick the discussion on that ticket. I added the ux-feedback keyword to that one, so it'll be less likely to get buried.