We would like to color code constituent headers to convey key information (VIP, special seating needs, etc.). Is anyone doing this? If so what, what has worked well for you? How many different colors/categories did you use?
We use colors to show if a membership is active (green for active, red for inactive). Our members get one free omni movie per member per day so we also have a counter that shows how many Omni’s they have used that day. Also we have a VIP flag and We highlight our supporting members in blue.
From: Tessitura Customer Service Forum [mailto:forums-cust.serv@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Chris JensenSent: Monday, January 23, 2012 2:02 PMTo: jstrothman@smm.orgSubject: Re: [Tessitura Customer Service Forum] Custom Consituent Headers
We use several different colored flags to alert Box Office staff about various things, e.g. an open CSI, and open Sub CSI specifically, a bad e-mail address, or an urgent note. We use four different attention-grabbing colors, otherwise they function much like the standard "inactive" flag.
These have worked well for us.
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We're going to use it - but sparingly - the fear is that if it's too complex, users will need a colour chart and for us, there there are issues about not disadvantaging users who may have a colour blindness.
So far, we have the email address show in dark green if the patron has signed up to the newsletter and/or has an active website login. We have set up headers to have an 'person' icon so that the transition to v11 isn't such a shock - if the record is inactive, a different icon is displayed. It's basically the same but with a big, red cross over it.
Rather than colours, we prefer to (sparingly) use an icon in the header to indicate monies owing, special access, important notes, etc exist
Martin
As Martin noted, do be careful with the use of color for alerts as that veers away from being ADA compliant from what I understand. It's one of the reasons that v11 Tessitura will have less colors in it as well.
Saving the world one color blind person at a time,
Heather
Heather and Martin - I wonder if there's some guidelines we can look to for ADA compliance in software design.
We just started color coding headers for a select set of patrons. Marketing wanted the entire header to change color for certain patrons, which I accomplished by adding a colored field that covers the entire area of the header and moving it to the background. It took a bit of tweaking to get the spacing all right.
Well there is lots of stuff out there, but this page seems to have a nice break down of the various regulations in place:
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Technology/design_software.html
In particular in Section 508:
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element
HTH,
Thanks for the link, Heather! This is great information to keep in mind.