Patron status indicators in summary: color, messages, icons?

[Stephanie Leary]

Good morning, everyone! I'm working on the Angular Circ interface, and I'm looking at the patron status color codes and messages in the summary box.

Since a patron can have multiple statuses, it seems to me that trying to assign a single color to their name is not very effective. Right now, it looks like the text of the status appears in the summary box only if the account is about to expire, is juvenile, or has standing penalties. I think it would be clearer if we showed the text of every status that applies, and the color coding went on the status message rather than the patron's name. 

Is there a reason the status shouldn't be shown as text as well as color? Is there concern about the text of the status appearing where a patron might be looking over a staff member's shoulder? Were these left out just because of space considerations? If there's history behind this decision, please fill me in!

I see that Diane filed a bug about this a few years ago, and there's a little bit of discussion there: https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1811140

The accessibility rule in play here is that meaning can't be conveyed by color alone; there has to be text and/or an icon (but preferably text) so that color blind folks are not left out. We do have icons and status columns in the grid, but those don't appear in the summary box. I'm also going to have to change the colors themselves to meet contrast requirements.

I'd like to hear from you all on this. How would you like statuses to work in the patron summary?

Stephanie Leary
Front End Developer
Equinox Open Library Initiative
stephan...@equinoxOLI.org
https://www.equinoxOLI.org
phone: 877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)

[Benjamin Kalish]

I know one concern, historically, has been making sure folks on smaller screens can still see important patron information that might be pushed below the fold. I'm not sure if this influenced the decision to use color alone, but I can imagine it might have.

That said, I definitely think the status messages should display, though, with the above in mind, we should make an effort to be as concise as possible while retaining intelligibility.

Benjamin Kalish

Cataloger / Technology Librarian
Forbes Library Technical Services

bka...@forbeslibrary.org

413-587-1011

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[Stephanie Leary]

I think badges are the way to go here. I've experimented with changing the current border colors into badge styles, keeping to the same general color family. The attached screenshot shows every possible badge corresponding to the current status borders. Note that only a handful of these would appear in a real account; this is a wildly unrealistic screenshot, just for color and icon demonstration purposes.

Does this seem like the right approach, in general?

If so, I thought we might workshop the specifics on a Monday board: https://evergreenils.monday.com/boards/5654491410

Galen pointed out another handful of statuses that don't have corresponding border colors, but should probably have badges--in collections, invalid contact info, etc. I've added those codes at the bottom of the board.

Stephanie Leary
Front End Developer
Equinox Open Library Initiative
stephan...@equinoxOLI.org
https://www.equinoxOLI.org
phone: 877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)

[Benjamin Kalish]

I agree badges are a good solution. I'd love to reduce the number of colors, as they currently feel arbitrary. I think we could also reduce the use of red. Red seems appropriate for PATRON_BARRED, but I'm not sure it is justified for any of the others.

Benjamin Kalish 

Cataloger / Technology Librarian
Forbes Library Technical Services

bka...@forbeslibrary.org

413-587-1011

Support Forbes Library:

• Consider giving a gift to Forbes Library
• Vote for the Friends of Forbes in the Florence Bank Community Grant Program.
• Join the Friends of Forbes today!

Currently reading: Defiance by C.J. Cherryh

Just Finished: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

For information about accessibility at the library, please see: http://forbeslibrary.org/accessibility/