Green links in project cloud aren't explained

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

In <https://code.launchpad.net/> and <https://code.launchpad.net/+project-cloud>, some of the links are colored green. There doesn't seem to be any explanation of why this is.

abentley/launchpad/color-explain adds a legend under the tag cloud.

[Tim Penhey (thumper)]

The green links are for projects that have bzr branches associated with their development series.

This is a clumsy way of identifying projects that use bzr officially, and I think we should have something explicitly defined somewhere (wave hands around).

Suggestions on what to say where would be appreciated.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

If you were using just one shade of green, you could have a key under the cloud. "Uses Bazaar" in green, "Uses another system" in blue, or something like that. But since you're not ...

A related issue is that it's confusing to use the same attribute to show two things at once. It looks almost as if the color is a continuum: navy ↔ mid blue ↔ light blue ↔ light aqua ↔ sage ↔ green. I'm guessing that's probably not intentional, though, is it?

I suggest using a different attribute -- such as bold, or a border, or a background color -- to show whether a project is using Bazaar. Then that attribute can be shown in a key at the end of the cloud.

[Tim Penhey (thumper)]

No the colour continuum was not planned.

The colours green and blue were specificly requested. I tried bold, but given the different font sizes it was very hard to determine.

A border maybe? or background colour. I'm open to suggestions.

[Matt Jones (workhorsy)]

I think putting a simple explanation at the top would be good. I created a mockup. looks nice and is intuitive.

[Matt Jones (workhorsy)]

Hmm. We are also making the text bigger if it is darker. If you use my example, you should change the text to say "Project names that are more distinct ..." or "Project names that are stronger ..." instead of "darker".

It also seems that I am misunderstanding what the colors are for still. My project uses Bazaar and it is blue. My old project uses Subversion and it is blue also.

Well, however it works, that is my idea.

[Jonathan Lange (jml)]

Matt,

There's a setting on your project details which lets you say "this project officially uses Bazaar". The colors are based on whether that checkbox is set.

jml

[Jonathan Lange (jml)]

It seems relatively easy to do the change demonstrated in mpt's screenshot.

[Matt Jones (workhorsy)]

jml,

AH. I didn't know that. I always assumed LP looked at the branch locations to determine if bazaar was officially used. Thanks for the heads up.

[Jonathan Lange (jml)]

No more green! Nya-ah-ah-ah-ah!

[Matt Jones (workhorsy)]

I guess that is one way to fix it. Much better.

https://code.edge.launchpad.net/+project-cloud