Color Coding

[Secret Squirrel]

I just updated our colorcode legends, and made them uniform wherever they are used, so this might be a good time to discuss any changes we want in how we highlight album types with colors. Here's our new legend:


Source Category: Game, Animation, Publication, Audio Drama, Demo Scene, Other Works
Extra Classification: Enclosure/Promo, Doujin/Fanmade, Delayed/Cancelled, Bootleg

I've split the special classifications off from the regular category groupings.

One comment I have -- when there are a lot of anime, enclosures, and doujins on a page, we see lots of Burnt Orange, Harvest Gold, and Avacado Green. For those who were not around at the time, these colors were very popular in the 1970s. (http://retrorenovation.com/2008/03/22/vintage-1966-kitchen-st-charles-mixes-wood-and-metal-and-harvest-gold-and-avocado-arrive/)

It's not a big deal. I'm just not a fan of that scheme, and I've never liked the Doujin or Anime colors we use. It's probably a bit too late to change the Doujin one.

Aside from aesthetics, we can also discuss any changes to how we color code the albums.

[PsychoZeke]

As strange as it may sound, I've always "seen" fanmade music with an orange color.

But I think that maybe the "Animation" category could use a Medium Turquoise color coding: Game, Animation.

That'd be my 2¢.

[Nisto]

I think the "Other Works" color should be a little darker.

If we get another blue color, there are too many, in my opinion...

[PsychoZeke]

Game, Animation, Other Works

Doesn't seem to be bothersome. In fact, it has good contrast.

[Revoc]

The only color I don't like currently is Animation, because it's similar to the Delayed/Cancelled.

Another thing. The classification Video/Animation now is just Animation. Should we classify as Works albums like this (http://vgmdb.net/album/18049) or there will be a new classification Video?

[Secret Squirrel]

Yeah, I changed that because I don't think anime and animation fans really want to see too many movies in the database, so I think Movie soundtracks should migrate to Works. I'm open to other opinions about this though, since I made the change without discussion.

[Revoc]

I'm fine with this. Well, I'll change these Movie soundtracks to Works.

[Cedille]

I'm open to other opinions about this though, since I made the change without discussion.

Now FFVII Advent Children (http://vgmdb.net/album/299) becomes Works?

[seanne]

I don't have any problems with the colors the way they are now. I think the Game, Doujin and Works ones especially are well established by now and shouldn't be altered. And perhaps I'm one of the few who like the Animation one ;p

Now FFVII Advent Children (http://vgmdb.net/album/299) becomes Works?

It should only apply to live-action films, like the American Street Fighter movie.

[Blitz Lunar]

Doesn't seem to be bothersome. In fact, it has good contrast.

There's going to be a lot of anime albums in the DB so it would make sense that they use a colour that works well with the site aesthetically. I agree, it looks good, I prefer that to the light green, but I worry that it might be problematic for some people with poorer eyesight. With the colours right now, they're very distinct from one-another, and thus more practical. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem in practice though. Would it hurt to make the Game and Works classification colours a tiny shade lighter/darker respectively?

As for Doujin releases, orange works fine, I think.

[Cedille]

It should only apply to live-action films, like the American Street Fighter movie.
Okay. I had less of a sense of what's called as Animation.

I feel more comfortable with using "Works" only when the product field is blank, but I think that depends on how to use that field and what's the product we will cover (it remains less clear whether we should put the game's name and platform to the anime/movie adaption entries or not. We could also argue even the concert series, the ballet, or the theater is the product).

Speaking of the color, as I posted somewhere else, I prefer to give higher priority to the colors of Animation and Doujin/Fanmade than that of Enclosure/Promo because the category matters more to me than how it's distributed. This is just my personal preference, though. Perhaps we need to reconsider whether the promo/enclosure deserves its own color coding or not (I think some icons like "P" ultimately works better, as we do for the reprint).

[Dag]

I like the current color scheme, and changing the anime-green to turquoise looks a bit out of place. The only think I wonder is, as the site expands and more categories are added some pages might end up looking like a rainbow or something. And I think new anime users are going to think anime albums are treated differently/shunned, since they don't use the standard link/blue color.

Maybe some kind of notification or such next to the albums so their classification is still recognizable, but they use a more standard link color.

For example (quick hack, please pretend there are cool icons or something):

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3061/vgmtest.png

a.album-game:before { content: "Game "; color: MediumTurquoise !important; }
a.album-anime:before { content: "Anime "; color: yellowgreen !important; }
a.album-doujin:before { content: "Doujin "; color: orange !important; }
a.album-works:before { content: "Works "; color: #00BFFF !important; }

[Kewing]

I wonder is, as the site expands and more categories are added some pages might end up looking like a rainbow or something.
Maybe some kind of notification or such next to the albums so their classification is still recognizable, but they use a more standard link color.

For example (quick hack, please pretend there are cool icons or something):

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3061/vgmtest.png

a.album-game:before { content: "Game "; color: MediumTurquoise !important; }
a.album-anime:before { content: "Anime "; color: yellowgreen !important; }
a.album-doujin:before { content: "Doujin "; color: orange !important; }
a.album-works:before { content: "Works "; color: #00BFFF !important; }


^ This. It's quite similar what I proposed on the Submissions- Release Type thread (http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?p=19446#post19446) (I guess that wasn't the right place to post it).
with that, you manage to keep the listings aesthetically coherent, while having the possibility to show overlapping categories, something that with the current color coding you're forced to show just one. It could be possible to even show track percentage of each category as a tooltip above each category icon of a certain album when the Track table is implemented.

The color coding could be simplified then to just a couple of characteristics which are the same for any kind of album, be it anime or game-related (those would be normal release, upcoming, delayed, cancelled, bootleg, enclosure/promo).

[Secret Squirrel]

I don't know. I'd hate to see the color coding based on category go, as I really like it.

By the way, we do have the option of presenting a different color coding depending on the filter settings (or depending on which portal you enter, or the category switcher ... however it ends up being implemented.)

[Another Soundscape]

I think the user (through the lovely preferences) should be able to somewhat modify color coding. For example choosing to have a "title" before the name like [Doujin] or similar as suggested. Thoughts?

[DarioEMeloD]

^ That

And I think icons would be just perfect.
Or maybe an abreviated prefix, like:

[Gme] Title
[Anm] Title
[Djn] Title
[Wrk] Title

And so...

[Liontamer]

I think the user (through the lovely preferences) should be able to somewhat modify color coding. For example choosing to have a "title" before the name like [Doujin] or similar as suggested. Thoughts?

I wouldn't be in favor of anyone being able to modify the colors, just noting. The look needs to be consistent. :-)

[Nisto]

I think the user (through the lovely preferences) should be able to somewhat modify color coding. For example choosing to have a "title" before the name like [Doujin] or similar as suggested. Thoughts?

I'd really like this too!

[Secret Squirrel]

Yeah, while customization is nice, I don't see it as particularly useful or practical to provide the users with custom control of group colors.

Looking at some of the responses, I'm surprised at the amount of support for replacing color coding by Category with category tags.

Arguments against Color Coding
"Rainbow of colors"
Loss of information in color-limiting formats
Some users are color-blind
Multiple categories can't be displayed
Precedence of some other color classifiers over the Category

Arguments against Tagging
Less visual contrast between Categories
Takes up some variable-sized part of Title's field during display


Obviously, based on this simple analysis, Tagging is the better solution. But these two disadvantages hit me hard, affecting how I gather the inrormation I need when I view Updates, Discographies, search results, etc.

[Myrkul]

I am in favor of more color than tagging.

The later is probably a better choice for visitors, but it does not help staff & staff's work.

Maybe a switch (configurable) between the 2 modes ?

[seanne]

I don't see any need for tags as I don't think it's that that hard to learn what colors correspond to what category. Not surprising perhaps that it seems to be mostly newer members who want tags.

[DarioEMeloD]

Heh, I'm the only 'new member' on this thread XD
But I still prefer icons... You could always use the same color scheme, something like this:

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/MisterDarius/OST.png Game
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/MisterDarius/Anime.png Anime
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/MisterDarius/Promo.png Promo

[Another Soundscape]

Hey, just to make it clear I didn't suggest that the user could pick COLOR but instead customize how the color is displayed. That's already true since you can pick cat no. or title or both. So yeah, don't shoot me down for something I didn't mean. Customize how color is displayed, icons and so on though is awesome.

[Secret Squirrel]

"Wheat" is another cool color. We're now using it for Flexi Disc on the Recent Media page:

http://vgmdb.net/db/recent.php?do=view_media

[Fearin]

It may be a bit helpful/useful if the color used for the album also transfered over to when looking at the album directly, thus coloring the word doujin/indie, etc. on the album page itself.

[Phonograph]

...

Speaking of the color, as I posted somewhere else, I prefer to give higher priority to the colors of Animation and Doujin/Fanmade than that of Enclosure/Promo because the category matters more to me than how it's distributed. This is just my personal preference, though. Perhaps we need to reconsider whether the promo/enclosure deserves its own color coding or not (I think some icons like "P" ultimately works better, as we do for the reprint).

I agree with prioritizing the category and with using an icon for enclosure/etc.
but maybe not with a "P", probably something like a sort of box (like to show there are a cd + dvd or whatever goodie/game/etc.)