relationship between "emitter" toggle buttons and "wave temporal type"

[pixelzoom]

Noted during code review #259.

A few things that I find odd about the relationship between the toggle buttons on the "emitters" (faucet, speaker, light) and the radio buttons for "continuous" vs "pulse" (WaveTemporalType in the code). See screenshots below.

(1) The toggle buttons change color based on which radio button is selected, but the radio buttons are not color coded the same way (or at all).

(2) The "pulse" icon is shown on the toggle button, but the "continuous" icon is not.

(3) The visual difference between on/off of the toggle button for "continuous" is pretty subtle, especially if you're red colorblind.

[arouinfar]

Thanks for your comments @pixelzoom.

Until recently, the continuous and pulse modes both had a red toggle button. In continuous mode the toggle button is sticky, but it is not sticky in pulse mode. In interviews, some students would switch from continuous (when the source was on) to pulse, and wouldn't realize that they needed to turn on the source again to release a pulse. We decided to give the pulse toggle button a different appearance to draw students' attention to it.

We followed a pattern similar to that used in Wave on a String. In WOAS, there is "Pulse" aqua radio option for sending out pulses. There, the wave generator's toggle button is green and has an iconic pulse.

(1) The toggle buttons change color based on which radio button is selected, but the radio buttons are not color coded the same way (or at all).

I don't think the radio options need to be color-coded. They are indicative of the kind wave that will be released by the wave source: continuous or pulse. The color on the toggle button draws attention to the source so students are quicker to realize that they should press the source button again to actually release a pulse.

(2) The "pulse" icon is shown on the toggle button, but the "continuous" icon is not.

If we chose to show a "continuous" icon on the toggle button, it would need to be present on all screens, for consistency. The sources on the Interference and Waves screens always emit a continuous wave. This seems like overkill since there is no continuous/pulse option on these screens.

The goal of changing the appearance of the toggle button in pulse mode is to draw student's attention to the source button. I could live without the pulse icon, but other team members liked the idea of showing the icon (as was done in WOAS).

(3) The visual difference between on/off of the toggle button for "continuous" is pretty subtle, especially if you're red colorblind.

I would disagree. The colors look pretty distinguishable to me in colorblind preview modes.

[arouinfar]

@samreid and/or @ariel-phet do you have any thoughts here?

[ariel-phet]

@arouinfar @pixelzoom

Looking at the sim, I would actually be fine if the toggle button were always green. The default laser light color is now green, and I think adding the "pulse" symbol may be enough of a difference.

Then I think there would be less disconnect, and no special need to color code the two modes (pulsed vs continuous). And MD always used to love "green for go" 🖖

[arouinfar]

Looking at the sim, I would actually be fine if the toggle button were always green. The default laser light color is now green, and I think adding the "pulse" symbol may be enough of a difference.

@ariel-phet I really like that suggestion! I'd be down with a green toggle button for both scenes.

[pixelzoom]

+1 for green for 'pulse' and 'continuous'.

[arouinfar]

@samreid if you agree, can you make the toggle button on all wave sources green?

[samreid]

After the above commit, all wave generator buttons are green. Assigned to both @arouinfar and @pixelzoom to sign off. If you are the last one to sign off, please close the issue.

[arouinfar]

Looks good to me @samreid.

[pixelzoom]

I still find it odd that the pulse icon is put on the button, but the continuous icon is not. But design is not my call. Code changes look good. Closing.