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A comment on Canvas Gauges. Parent comment

Re:Canvas Gauges by coredog64 on Monday September 26, 2016 @10:00AM (#12581838)
They take up a lot of real estate on a display and aren't particularly easy to read unless you get up close. If you already know what thresholds are it is far better to display a number and use the color to indicate where that is within the continuum of states.

There are practical uses for steam gauges, but I would argue that monitoring complex IT systems is not one of them.

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Re:Canvas Gauges by white-flame on Monday September 26, 2016 @10:26AM (#12582047)
Taking up lots of real estate on a display is kind of the point of high-visibility indicators.

Regarding "aren't particularly easy to read", are you talking about reading numbers on the ticks? That's not the point of those indicators; the point is to be familiar with the low/expected/high ranges of the needle for various situations and be able to see with clarity the current state of expected/unexpected range of an indicator. Which then can be further inspected if necessary to focus in and see an exact number.

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Re:Canvas Gauges by jsmthrowaway on Monday September 26, 2016 @01:56PM (#12584024)
> If you already know what thresholds are it is far better to display a number and use the color to indicate where that is within the continuum of states.

Since this thread is already on the topic of accessibility, I feel compelled to point out that this is the single worst option when considering colorblindness unless you mean shades of one color.

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