[Usability] Black and white notification icons/ Popups

[Leen Toelen <toelen gmail com>]

Hi all,

I am using Windows, Gnome and Mac OS X all the time. One of the things
that makes me prefer Mac OS X over the other two most of the time are
the icons in the notification area. The doc icons are simple black and
white most of the time with some exceptions.

Some examples:
- The battery icon shows a red indication only when battery is low
(15% or so). Only when it becomes critically low (10 and 5%) is gives
a popup. At 3% Mac OS X forces you to hibernate. Not showing a popup
dialog makes it look friendy, and making the icon red really grasps
your attention.

- The wireless icon is greyed out when there is no connection. When a
connection is available the icon shows the signal strength but again
does not give a dialog.

I would suggest adding some remarks to the HIG to use black and white
most of the time and using color signals first before popping up a
dialog. What are your ideas about it?

Regards,
Leen Toelen