Meg Ford

New Things GNOME

2012-03-01T17:50:00.003-06:00

I haven't blogged in a long time,so I thought I would post about what I've been doing...
I spent a lot of time in the last few months working on integrating my High Contrast work into the Symbolic Theme. Jakub Steiner and Lapo Calamandrei have been very generous with their time and expertise --giving me technical pointers, critiquing my work, editing, and adding new icons to the set. I was looking at the Gnome-Themes-Standard git on GNOME.org, and it looks like Cosimo Cecchi wrote his build-time hack for High Contrast (I get most of my information about GNOME by reading git commits and Bugzilla, so...). The base set for the High Contrast and High Contrast Inverse Themes will still be short some icons, but what we have in 3.4 will be a big improvement :)
My membership application was accepted by the GNOME Foundation a couple weeks ago. The inestimable Marina Zhurakhinskaya sent an email encouraging GOPW interns and past GSoC women to apply, and I was happy to see that a number of us did.
Marina also asked a few of us to help out with a comic that explains the GOPW application process in a simple way. It was fun to work on a project with other women --a rare experience in GNOME! It was also great to meet Christy and Tamara, and to touch base with Liansu again.
My abstract for the talk I'm giving at Flourish! was accepted yesterday. I'm going to be presenting GNOME 3 and talking about ways for students to contribute. I'm looking forward to meeting more members of the Chicago FLOSS community. This is going to be the first public talk I've ever done, so I guess it's good that I minored in performance art in college. (I did minor in performance art, but that is a joke:)
**I just got an email saying that my talk is scheduled for 1 P.M. on Saturday, March 31 at Flourish! in Illinois A of Student Center East. Directions here: http://www.flourishconf.com/2012/directions.php Please come! It will be nice to meet everyone :)

Montreal Summit

2011-10-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

I spent last weekend at the Montreal Summit. I got in early Friday and spent that day drinking cafe au lait and eating poutin with a friend who lives in town. Saturday morning I took the subway to the Ecole Polytechnique.

Since this was the first GNOME event I had ever attended, I set a couple goals for the conference. The first one was to make a plan to get my Womens Outreach Internship project included in GNOME. I met with Andreas Nilsson, my mentor, and discussed wrapping up . We went through my icons and took a look at the ones which need more work, and Andreas showed me how to fix them up a bit. I'll have time to get the changes done over Christmas break.

Sunday I had a chance to talk to Cosimo Cecchi about integrating the icons so that they can be included in the 3.4 release (heads up if you work on icons is that we are going to include them in the symbolic theme) . Once that is done, I will start working on new symbolic versions of all of the High Contrast icons. I'm not sure how long this will take me, as there are a few hundred more of them. When it is done it will be easier to maintain the theme, and will (hopefully!) be better for users, so I think it is worth the time involved :)

The second goal I had was to talk to people about accessibility. Brian Cameron asked me to this, and since there were no A11y team members there, I had to go it alone. I did my best, but it was a little intimidating :)

I took my first stab at this in the GNOME Strategy session. I am always very impressed by the GNOME community's commitment to accessibility, and I wanted to discuss the importance of having better accessibility in GNOME 3. One reason to do this is, of course, because it is a value that we support. However, accessibility required by law. Section 508 in American law (which is what I am most familiar with) requires that all businesses contracting the the US government, and the government itself, to be accessible. The ADA goes farther than the Rehabilitation Act, requiring that all employers provide reasonable accommodations unless they will cause undue hardship to the employer. Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires schools to provide accessible options for students (note, for example, the recent class action suit involving Google Docs ). It is important that we support accessibility because we believe in it, but it is also important to keep in mind that, in many contexts, GNOME OS will only be a viable option for users when it is accessible. Compliance with the law is defined by the accessibility of GNOME in comparison to other available technology, so we have to support features comparable to those that are available in other operating systems.

I was able to talk to Jean-François Fortin Tam a little bit about the accessibility of PiTivi (he showed me how to apply a high contrast filter to the image, and noted that the timeline toolbar is not accessible unless contrast is set using the menu bar). I also had a short discussion with Guillaume Desmottes about developing an IM client for persons with language and communication disorders.

It was very pleasant to meet every one, and I was very happy to be able to attend :)

...and the rest of the icons

2011-08-22T10:44:00.000-05:00

I decided to leave the emotes with outlines, so that they would match the emotes we already had in High Contrast (they are 48x48, which is why they look larger here)

In total I drew 81 new icons for the set. I also edited 241 other icons (sometimes changing the names so that they could be recognized as rtl and ltr variants, and sometimes doing color inversions to allow High Contrast icons to be used in High Contrast Inverse). These icons, together with the icons from the symbolic theme, should provide complete High Contrast and High Contrast inverse themes.

Thanks to all of you for your help and support, and thanks especially to Andreas Nilsson, who was always super nice and helpful. Thanks also to Marina Zhurahkinskaya for organizing the program. It was really, really fun.

symbolic style icons (and the rest to come next week...)

2011-08-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

2011-08-05T19:08:00.000-05:00

The occupational therapist who works with Joseph Scheuhammer finished her evaluation of the Symbolic theme last week, and approved it for use as High Contrast. This adds around 80 more usable icons to the High Contrast theme. There are around 195 icons in the Symbolic theme, and while many of these are present in High Contrast, very few of them exist in High Contrast Inverse. I am working on finishing my icons, which, together with the Symbolic theme icons and the icons already existing in High Contrast, will make a complete set. I am also inverting the colors of icons that exist in High Contrast but not in Symbolic, in order to provide icons to complete the High Contrast Inverse theme. That work is very basic (although I have found the invert function in Inkscape to be buggy, so I am doing it manually). I finished around 100 of High Contrast Inverse icons this week.

In order to track which icons are needed, I have been looking at GNOME Icon Themes. It is currently the fallback for the High Contrast and High Contrast Inverse icons (i.e. if a High Contrast Icon is missing, the code specifies that GNOME Icon Themes is used to provide the icon). The icons I have been composing complete the set, so that it will no longer be necessary for High Contrast and High Contrast Inverse to fall back on GNOME Icon Themes. I think that it would make sense for Symbolic to replace GNOME Icon Themes as the fallback for the High Contrast and High Contrast Inverse icons. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please comment on the tracking bug for High Contrast and High Contrast Inverse: 655873

In order to better track the missing Icons, I also filed these bugs in Bugzilla this week:
655836
655838
655839
655842
655844
655845
655846
655847
655851
655852
655853
655854
655855
655856
655857
655859
655860
655863

Womens Outreach Internship Update

2011-07-21T21:32:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past few weeks editing the images I already have, as well as trying to make new icons with a more unified style. Editing is a little challenging. Because I made many of the icons from collaged bits of other icons, I sometimes feel like I'm playing a game of Tango Exquisite Corpse. Lapo was quite critical of the icons I posted last time, and gave me some pointers and a few examples to work from. Seeing as how I was unclear on some basic concepts, like snapping pixels, the criticism was very helpful.

Some new icons

The other aspect of the project I have been working on is integrating the Symbolic Icon set into High Contrast. Jimmac mentioned this possibility when I began my project, and Joseph Scheuhammer has asked an occupational therapist who works with him to look at the icons and give feedback about their accessibility for low vision users.

I ruined my Ubuntu operating system last Friday while trying install the GNOME 3 ppa on my ancient Dell. I had a hell of a weekend trying to recover my data, and tried very hard not to make puns about crash courses in file systems. I ended up using a Fedora 15 live iso (and someone else's computer) to take the following screenshots, which I edited in Inkscape.

So the current idea, if approved by the occupational therapist, is to mix Symbolic and High Contrast (as seen above). This would automatically provide (much) better coverage for users, and allow them to set the colors of the newly integrated icons according to their needs. Needless to say, the project is inching forward, and I hope to have more and better progress to report in the near future.

Thank you to everyone for your support and feedback.

Four Weeks of High Contrast Icons

2011-06-28T16:14:00.000-05:00

These are most of the images I've been working on. The last two lines are icons that still need a lot of work....

2011-06-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

Last week I spent way too long trying to install SparkleShare. I think I installed and uninstalled and re-installed four versions. I couldn't get any of them to work (some versions were old, and some I must have built incorrectly), and so I wasted a couple of days. Luckily, Lapo Calamandrei asked a friend of his to make a ppa, and then he and Andreas Nilsson walked me through the installation process (Thanks, Lapo and Andreas!). All went well, and now you can look at the icons I'm working on. These are all drafts, so please feel free to suggest changes. I have close to thirty in process right now, and I am hoping to add at least ten more by the end of the week.

Last night I read a lot about reducing file size...Now I have a fairly complete (I hope!) method for reducing it:

Remove unnecessary gradients
Look at icon in outline mode to check for forgotten objects
Set alpha layers on fills to zero when possible (This sometimes makes a difference, and sometimes it doesn't. I also may be imagining that it does.)
Vacuum defs in the terminal using "inkscape -f file_name.svg --vacuum-defs (Lapo mentioned that this method is less buggy than vacuuming defs via the drop-down menu)
Delete unnecessary nodes
Save as plain svg (Vish recommended this)

In general, this method is reducing file sizes by about 1/2, sometimes more, which is good, because my file sizes were much too large.

2011-06-01T19:26:00.000-05:00

I spent last week getting things organized - downloading tarballs, collating the icon sets, making metaphor lists, and flagging for accessibility issues.

Yesterday I was able to start drawing. I am basing most of the High Contrast images on 16x16 icons from Gnome Icon Themes 3.0. These drawings are pretty fantastic - I'm learning a lot by looking at the way the designs from the 48x48 icons are simplified and adjusted. I still need to make adjustments (other than making them black and white) to simplify the 16x16 images, but often very few changes are necessary.

It's kind of odd to be drawing in all black and white...I think the last time I did it was in Design 1 back in college. After a few hours, I start thinking in black and white. So I find myself getting confused when I toggle between windows and go from this:

to this:

Wait, which one is the icon...?....

GNOME Internship Project

2011-05-23T18:40:00.000-05:00

My project for the summer is providing a complete set of icons for the High Contrast Theme. I am also checking for consistency in the metaphors in the High Contrast and Gnome Themes Standard.

In order to do this, I am looking at Gnome Icon Themes, High Contrast, Gnome Themes Standard, and Gnome Themes Symbolic. So far, I've identified about 170 icons that I need to provide.

The purpose of the High Contrast theme is to provide the following, as outlined in Section 255 of the U.S. Telecommunications Act:

1193.43 Output, Display, and Control Functions.

All information necessary to operate and use the product, including but not limited to, text, static or dynamic images, icons, labels, sounds, or incidental operating cues, shall comply with each of the following, assessed independently:
(b) Availability of visual information for low vision users. Provide visual information through at least one mode to users with visual acuity between 20/70 and 20/200 without relying on audio.

And from Section 508 of of the US Rehabilitation Act:

Subpart C - Functional Performance Criteria

1194.31 Functional Performance Criteria.

(b) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 shall be provided in audio and enlarged print output working together or independently, or support for assistive technology used by people who are visually impaired shall be provided.

The point of the High Contrast Theme is to provide icons to users who, because of vision problems, cannot use GNOME's regular icon sets. These are users who do not use the screen reader, either:

1193.41 Input, Control, and Mechanical Functions.

Paragraph (b)

Operable with Low Vision and Limited or no Hearing

1. Individuals with low vision often also have hearing disabilities, especially older individuals. These persons cannot rely solely on audio access modes commonly used by people who are blind. Tactile strategies are still quite useful, although many older persons may not be familiar with Braille. The objective, therefore, is to
maximize the number of people who can use their residual vision, combined with tactile senses, to operate a product.

2. Strategies for addressing this provision may include the following:
a. Make the information on the product easier to see. Use high-contrast print symbols and visual indicators, minimize glare on the display and control surfaces, provide adequate lighting, position controls near the items they control to make them easy to find, and use Arabic instead of Roman numerals.
b. The type-face and type-spacing used can greatly effect legibility. The spacing between letters should be approximately 1/16 the height of uppercase letters and the spacing should be uniform from one label to the next. Also, symbols can sometimes be used which are much more legible and understandable than fine print.

d. A judicious use of color-coding, always redundant with other cues, is extremely helpful to persons with low vision. These cues should follow standard conventions, and can be used to reduce the need to read labels (or read labels more than the first time).

So for some of the users whose disabilities fall into the "low vision" or "partially sighted" category, color is a very helpful cue - but the catch is that it has to be a REDUNDANT cue. On of the issues that I've seen in converting the icons from the standard themes to A11y is that color is often used as a cue in the designs, but it is not always made redundant.

Some icons do, however, comply with this standard. These icons will translate more easily into the A11y theme. In the following example, the color indicates the level of charge that the battery contains. The height of the shadow in the battery also changes to indicate the same thing, which renders the color redundant:

EXAMPLE OF COLOR AS REDUNDANT CUE IN SYMBOLIC THEME
Battery-Good-Charging Icon from Symbolic Theme

Battery-Caution-Charging Icon from Symbolic Theme

High Contrast is also accessible for color blind users, and one of the easiest ways to comply with standards for that group is to present information in black and white.This section of the law defines strategies for color blind users:

Paragraph (c)

Operable with Little or No Color Perception

1. Many people are unable to distinguish between certain color combinations. Others are unable to see color at all.

2. Strategies for addressing this provision include:

a. Eliminate the need for a person see color to operate the product. This does not eliminate the use of color completely but rather requires that any information essential to the operation of a product also be conveyed in some other fashion.

b. Avoid color pairs such as red/green and blue/yellow, that are indistinguishable by people with limited color perception.

c. Provide colors with different hues and intensity so that colored objects can be distinguished even on a black and white screen by their different appearance. Depending upon the product, the manufacturer may also be able to allow users to adjust colors to match their preferences and visual abilities.

d. Avoid colors with a low luminance.

So this has been my attempt to provide a basic overview of the purpose of the High Contrast Theme (as I understand it). I think that the current theme complies well with these standards, and also with the standards outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). I have been getting a lot of support and help from my mentors, Andreas Nilsson and David Bolter, and also from Jakub Steiner and Lapo Calamandre. I also welcome input from anyone else who is interested in A11y and/or art. Knock on wood, by August GNOME should have a complete High Contrast Theme.

GNOME

2011-05-04T23:58:00.000-05:00

I was accepted last week to the Womens Outreach to work on accessibility and art. I was really nervous about applying, since I am new to open source, and honestly, really new to computer use at all. I got my first laptop for my birthday in 2007, and while I have learned a lot since then, I am still very unsure of myself. I'm excited to be working on GNOME; very happy to have the opportunity to spend forty hours a week doing things I enjoy. I think the internship will be challenging, and I intend to learn a lot, and hopefully make contributions that will be valuable to the community.

So far, my experience with open source has been really positive - the people are nice, the software is excellent, and for once, I don't have to try to pay for things I can't afford. Some of the information is really confusing - at first I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I was somehow expected to build icons by writing the code in Pygtk. I know, fail. I was suddenly in the middle of the computer, and able to build everything from the ground up to the sky, if I needed to. It was really shocking and interesting...

Anyway, I hope that I haven't gone on too much. I'm excited to be working with all of you, and I can't wait to get started. If you see me looking lost, please point me to the right road. I'll keep at it until I get there.