in reply to Re: (tye)Re: Use a Different Default Theme When Authenticated
in thread Use a Different Default Theme When Authenticated

I would have the site set someone's default theme to the red theme (or something else close but not the same) when they create a new account from now on.

I never really played with my theme settings untill today, but having now seen the Red Theme in action I can safely say that if the very first thing that had happened when i registered was that everything went red -- it would have seemed very confusing, and i would have spent a lot of time trying to figure out why.

Defaults for newusers should not be different from "visitors" so as to preserve the "element of least surprise"

Personally: I think the lack of an XP Nodlet, the lack of voting radio buttons, and the giant "Login" Nodlet at the top right of every page is a pretty good indicator to regular users that they aren't logged in. For people who need a bigger reminder ... that's why they can customize their own theme.

  • Comment on Re: Re: (tye)Re: Use a Different Default Theme When Authenticated

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Re: (tye)Re: Use a Different Default Theme When Authenticated
by ignatz (Vicar) on Jul 22, 2002 at 18:11 UTC
    I've just noticed a lot of people posting accidentally as Anonymouse Monk and then following it up with another post lamenting the fact that they forgot to log in. Since I use the dark theme, I never have that problem. It just seemed like a cute idea to use the sites ability to change look and feel to reenforce the state of the user with a little change in color.

    > ...red -- it would have seemed very confusing,

    Would green be better?

    > the lack of voting radio buttons,

    New users don't see the radio voting buttons since they can't vote yet.

    > preserve the "element of least surprise"

    The fact that users so easily confuse the state that they are in seems to go against that rule. Using color to reenforce state just seemed like good UI design to me.

    ()-()
     \"/
      `                                                     
    
Re(4): Use a Different Default Theme When Authenticated
by FoxtrotUniform (Prior) on Jul 25, 2002 at 03:53 UTC
      Defaults for newusers should not be different from "visitors" so as to preserve the "element of least surprise"

    Mentioning that "Perl Monks' colour scheme will be green, not blue, by default when you log in" in the new-user password email from vroom may not completely eliminate the surprise (since when do users RTFM? :-), but it'll at least give us another "that's not a bug, it's a feature" to harp on about at new, confused users besides the Stumbit button. :-)

    --
    The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!
    :wq