Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    Martin-
    
    You could always do the men in pink and the women in blue. 
    It would make for an interesting study of sub-conscious 
    behaviour watching people reassess their pre-concieved 
    notions on the separation of those colors! :-)
    
    More seriously, how about two primary colors?  Both
    would be representing fairly "strong" shades and you
    should be able to avoid questions about sexist choices.
    For subdued, burgundy,brown, navy blue, forest green.
    
    Christine
    Christine

    oops, I feel like Mary Hartman,Mary Hartman!
    
    Just once, 
    
    Christine

    I'd suggest lavender for men and light sea-green for women.
    Or red for men and green for women.
    
    And - curiosity gets the better of me - Why do the results neeed 
    to be coded by sex?  I know nothing about marathon running - I know in
    rowing there are different "heats" or races for the teams (which are
    either all-men or all-women if it's an officially official type race
    like for college teams or the olympics or something) - is that what
    it's all about?  
    
    -Jody

    Why not use primary colors...just like someone already stated...
    Red and Blue, green and yellow, etc.
    
    If that doesn't tickle your fancy, why not two shades of the same
    color...dark and light gray, dark and light blue, dark and light
    brown...
    
    Or the oldest standards in the book:  Black and white...after all, the
    heat times are black and white....time is not a gray area!
    
    Good Luck with whatever the color scheme is!
    
    Jill
    

    
    
    
    Forest Green and Maroon.
    
    Or a deep purple and maroon.......in fact, I really like this
    combination!
    
    kath

    Call me ignorant, but when is this marathon?  If it is in December, why
    not use red & green?  If February red & white?  Easter time yellow and
    purple?  
    
    

	Purple and Green

	(They're RUSTIE's favorite colors.)

	Sue

Thanks -- interesting ideas.

I want to avoid primary (and bright) colors, and black-and-white as I need
them for accents and information. This is for the background to the display.

The information will be displayed during the race in the Boston Marathon
pressroom -- it is very important that the 150 journalists there can
comprehend the data quickly.  In fact, if "pink and blue" simplifies
*their* task, I'll just grit my teeth and go with it.

Boston is somewhat unique in that it has four essentially equal classes
of competitors: men and women runners and men and women wheelchair racers.
I suspect it is recognized as the world championship for wheelchair racers.

During the race, we display the intermediate "split" results every mile,
giving the names of the leaders, their time, and the current race pace.
Because it's an international event, my program maintains pace information
in both minutes per mile and minutes per kilometer.  In addition to
presenting accurate information to the journalists, we need to present
it a way that doesn't require a lot of attention on their part: they
need to be able to glance at a display and know what it is trying to say.
Also, I need to take into account the fact that about 10% of the population
is color blind in some way.

Color is one way to simplify that task; but it's something I don't
fully understand: I'm just a simple barefoot computer programmer.

The Boston Marathon takes place on Patriot's Day in mid-April.

Martin.

    
    FWIW, do *NOT* use red and green.  Many people (predominantly men - it
    is sex-linked) are afflicted with red/green colour blindness and cannot
    differentiate between red and green.
    
    						/Rita
    

    A couple of suggestions - (having some experience in the graphic arts)
    
    If you need colors to be used on a TV display, which I think you
    mentioned, test them on the TV before making any decisions.  Colors
    change dramatically on TV - what you may see as two distinct colors can
    look quite similar on TV.
    
    Think in terms of hot and cold colors.  Hot colors are anything in the
    red, yellow orange and yes, even pink family.  Cold are anything in the
    blue, purple green family.  Pick a color from each and test it.
    
    My suggestion would be a bold blue/purple for one set, and a warm
    gold/russet for another.
    
    Personally I see nothing wrong with using pink and blue.  They have
    been so psychologically imprinted on us as male and female that they
    are instantly recognizable as distinguishing the two categories, and
    that is what you want isn't it?
    

re psycological imprinting of blue/pink:

I must be one of the [lucky ?] few who aren't - I always have to think hard
about it.

Perhaps it is because when I was born clothes rationing was in force and *all*
my baby/infant clothes where white or grey. My earliest memories of my nursery
are that it was painted battleship grey and army camouflage green.

"Blue and pink" have an imprinted meaning? yes  ---  "civilian" !

/. Ian .\

	Does it have to be a solid color? Could you use patterns or would
	they tend to blur on TV? Use horrizontal strips for men, vertical
	for women? Or the other way around. Perhaps with a more subtle difference
	in color then you would have to use other wise?

			Alfred

        Does it have to be a color scheme at all?  Yes, the
        colors can be different, but why not also use icons, such
        as the Venus/Mars symbols or the international restroom
        signs?  There is also a wheelchair icon.
        
        Can you digitize photos of last year's winners?
        
        Dan

re: .15:
        Does it have to be a color scheme at all?

Currently, both the "men's" and "women's" displays use the same
color scheme, with a title giving the race class.  There are actually
four primary classes in the race, since the wheelchair race has equal
priority.

Up to now, I've used two different monitors, one always displaying the
men's results and one always displaying women's results.  The wheelchair
results are not displayed (and I can't get timings for the first woman).

What I'm hoping to do for next year's race is to have a single display
that switches between classes -- hence the need for quick recognition
of the class being displayed.  Also, instead of being primarily text-
based, I want to add flash-and-glitter with a variety of graphs
showing speedometers and such-like.

Using a wheelchair icon (vs a runner icon) is a great idea, but I'd like
to think we could find something better than the restroom icon (reserve
that for drug testing?)

Thanks for the suggestions.

Martin.

    
    restroom?
    
    the only icon I can think of that you might mean really equates to
    "disabled access".
    
    As somebody recently assigned to a building that is anything but
    disabled access, I would love to see this icon on the front door...
    
    /. Ian .\

    How about //// striped background for men and |||| for women ?
    From the icons 
    
    
     /    O
    O     |

    Martin, are you still taking suggestions on this?  I did a little
    bit of reading about background and contrast several years ago
    in connection with a report for a course in learning disabilities. 
    I skimmed research about how color, layout, and other aspects of
    presentation could encourage or inhibit learning in children with
    various cognitive differences.  It never was enough to make me an
    expert, and I don't remember a lot of it, but a couple of things
    come to mind. 
    
    As I recall, the best contrast is provided by very dark blue
    against pale cream, gray, or off white.  I've got my color
    terminal set to navy on gray right now and it's much easier on my
    eyes than black on white, or other colors I've tried.  Very dark
    green is also good.  Red is not.  
    
    Framing is an excellent way to call attention to a bit of material
    on which you want to focus.  Would it work if instead of a full
    background, you framed each display with a different color?  You
    could then use any colors that showed up well on TV as well as
    live.  
    
    For the color blindness problem -- get a chart that shows the
    relative values of different colors.  You should be able to find
    one in art stores or in old cinematic technique books.  "Value" is
    basically how gray the color would look if it were to be shown in
    black and white, which used to be an important factor for TV. 
    People who are color blind don't swap colors, as is popularly
    believed, it's more that they can't distinguish between different
    colors of approximately the same value.  A dark green and a pale
    red look different, but a dark green and a dark red don't.  You
    can then choose four colors of very different values. 
    
    --bonnie

Yup, still taking suggestions -- trying to get the rest of the program
working, right now: color changes are trivial to do.

My current source of inspiriation is Tufte's "Envisioning Information" --
he recommends large areas of very subdued colors (background) and small
"splashes" of bright colors.  (Look at Swiss topographic maps for a
very good example of this.)  I'll probably use an off-white background
(with slightly different tints for the different groups), black letters,
and yellow or blue accents.

With some luck, I'll get some help from the tv folk this year.

Martin.