Feature request: reverse highliting of tabs in Spark

This is a suggestion to use reverse highliting of tabs in Spark so that, according to Jakob Nelsen’s Tab Usability Guidelines, “the current tab is connected to the content area, just as it would be if we were shuffling several physical index cards that had tabs stuck to them. This emphasizes which panel is being shown, and also helps tell users which tab is selected when there are only 2 tabs. Having the same color for the selected tab and the panel area reinforces the connection between the two.” With Spark’s existing highliting of the current tab (making it a different color than the content area), I often get confused as to which tab is the current tab. Does anybody else feel the same way about this?

Hi,

as every user may have an avatar and also a name and description I have no problems to identify the active chat. I don’t need the highlighting of the tabs.

LG

Yes, I agree. I frequently have multiple chat sessions occurring simultaneously and periodically will post a message to the wrong session due to this issue–particularly when I have exactly two chat sessions open. The mechanism for identifying the active tab does not follow standard practice for tabbed ui design and operation. It would be really nice if they fixed this issue. This could be done simply, as you note, by reversing the current tab highlighting scheme.

it2000 wrote:

as every user may have an avatar and also a name and description I have no problems to identify the active chat. I don’t need the highlighting of the tabs.

So, you dont mind if we change the highlighting?

We have discussed this issue in Live Chat today. Daniel asked me to fill this. So, i’ve tried my best: SPARK-970

I hate to put a “me too” post up, but I specifically created a forum account just to report this bug. Since I saw this thread, I thought I should add my two cents worth:

  1. It’s confusing with two tabs. When I am messaging to two people is the white tab or the blue tab in the foreground?

  2. Switching the title and the information bar right below it helps, but I think the tab placement also leads to confusion. What do you think about moving the tabs to to the bottom of the window? It’s less likely to be confusing if the window says “Rudy” in both the title and the information bar, with no other accounts listed.

  3. I am not quite sure how the tabs are being colored. My active tab is highlighted in a light blue, so it appears “darker” than the other windows. I think this is what’s causing the confusion. Typically, the shaded windows are the ones that are in the background. This could be due to Aero, and having a light-bordered active window. I added a screenshot. pwang_hmc is the active conversation, but when I am switching tasks, sometimes I get confused which conversation is active.

Thanks for listening,

Chris

chayashida wrote:
What do you think about moving the tabs to to the bottom of the window?

There is an option in Spark to move tabs to the bottom of the chat window. Check Preferences > Chat (General Chat Settings) > uncheck “Chat tabs appear on top”

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t see that option. I changed it for now. I’ll let you know if I still run into any confusion when I have multiple sessions up.

Chris

Well, it happened. Two chat sessions open, and I sent the message to the wrong one.

It’s the reverse shading on the tabs that confused me. I moved the tabs to the bottom of the window, but it didn’t help.

Chris