Depending on the app, lightening the bg could be akin to greying-out
the controls. For me, the lightbox, or darkening of the bg indicates
an important change. I hate using it for modal pop-overs (I hate modal
pop-overs anyway), but I LOVE to use it for videos, images etc. - the
purpose of the lightbox anyway. One of the instances I enjoyed its use
the most was on Hulu - they had a the video player pop-up, or sitting
in its frame, then there was a button called 'dim the lights' - all it
did was darken the background/surrounding area, but it made a strong
statement - the user is dimming the lights 'cause they're about to
watch a flick. It's the same thing, but given a real-world analogy
that made perfect sense for/to the user. Plus it wasn't automatic -
the user chose to dim, or raise the 'lights' as they preferred. I
can't remember if it disabled the underlying controls - in Hulu's case
I don't think so.
Brandon E. B. Ward
UI • UX • Ix Design
Flex • Flash Development
http://www.uxd.me
brandonebw...@gmail.com
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders,
give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new
problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight
efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
On Aug 11, 2009, at 3:38 AM, David Drucker wrote:
That would be an interesting thing to see in a demo!
On 10-Aug-09, at 11:30 AM, Jack Moffett wrote:
David,
I have lightened the background, rather than darkened it, which is
closer to what you are suggesting. I prefer this to darkening the
background because it is a subtler change (if the app has a white
background), while still getting the "disabled" point across.
Best,
Jack
On Aug 10, 2009, at 2:10 PM, David Drucker wrote:
that I'm curious if anyone has come across a variant on this with
a visual effect that doesn't simply darken the surrounding window,
but actually de-saturates the content (including both text and
graphics) under it. That would be an even more true 'disabled' cue.
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