This morning I tested the Color picker in beta 1 against iris-picker-13.diff.
First user
Here’s the video.
Notes
- In her very first use of the color picker, she thought she had changed the color to light blue, but she had only changed the hue. She had to go back after playing with the other color picker and fix it.
- Once she got the hang of it, she found both color pickers fairly easy to use.
- Overall she prefers the color picker on the left (the one currently in beta 1).
Second user
Here’s the video.
Notes
- In her very first use of the color picker, she had some difficulty discovering the need to click both the left box and the right hue slider.
- The lack of handle on the left side hue slider seemed to pose a bit of difficulty for this user, whereas, she moved the right side (HSV) hue slider with ease.
- After figuring out how to use the color pickers, she didn’t have much trouble.
- Had a bit more trouble selecting “White” on the HSV color picker
- Overall she prefers the color picker on the right (the HSV one).
Third user
Here’s the video.
Notes
- In her very first use of the color picker, she used the right one first (HSV), and seemed to like it more than the one on the left (the one currently in beta 1)
- Mentions the one on the right is similar to one she’s used before (in windows)
- 6:20 – “Why is this whole thing black?” she says looking at the right HUE slider bar.
- Overall she seemed to like the right color picker better, except for the last task which was hard for her to select since the orange range of colors is small (squished between red and yellow), with not much room for selection.
Try them out with your friends/family
I’d love to get more insight into which color picker works best. If you’ve got a spare couple of minutes, please feel free to try these out on friends, family members, or co-workers, and post your observations in the comments (specifically which color picker worked best for them, and any thoughts on tasks where they got stuck):
http://wpusertesting.com/iris-a/ (light gray to light blue)
http://wpusertesting.com/iris-b/ (green to black)
http://wpusertesting.com/iris-c/ (blue to white)
http://wpusertesting.com/iris-d/ (black to dark orange)
lessbloat, and 2 others are discussing. 
Kailey Lampert (trepmal) 7:35 pm on October 10, 2012 Permalink
I didn’t observe, but I did ask some coworkers to self-test and share which side they thought was easier to use for the task. Three people responded:
developer:
A. Left, hue is easier to pick in the large box.
B. Equally easy
C. Left, more like photoshop. What I’m used to.
D. Both were difficult.
server admin/developer:
a: left
b: equal
c: left
d: left
graphic/print designer:
a. left
b. equal
c. left
d. left – primarily because it is the color picker I am most familiar with. Change the color picker in Adobe CS5 to the one on the right and after a while I would be more comfortable with it.
I also prefer the left side. No matter what color I’m viewing, I only have to move one handle to get to either white or black. I like that I can broadly change the color from green to blue (with the slider), then have finer control over what shade of that color.
The right-hand rainbow version always feels like target practice, and I always fail…
lessbloat 12:01 pm on October 11, 2012 Permalink
Awesome. Thanks for doing that trepmal!
Tom Auger 9:40 pm on October 10, 2012 Permalink
This is a very good test, and quite clever of you to start with S=0%.
It really seems to me that the Hue slider (on the left interface) should have the spectrum in it, regardless of the current value and saturation (S, V). Rather than have the slider represent the colour you currently have selected, provide the user with the visual cue of what that slider controls. Let the 2-axis box represent the actual colour and leave it at that. This approach has the added benefit of not requiring you to redraw the contents of the slider as the user interacts with the controls.
GreenDiablo 4:15 pm on October 11, 2012 Permalink
As a designer I think the color picker on the left is more user friendly. It feels more familiar compared to other software/tools I’m used to and once I my color it’s easier to fine-tune the shade of it!
The picker on the left makes it harder to pick a hue because there are too many colors packed into this small square.
omnimobile 1:06 am on October 14, 2012 Permalink
i woudl prefer the blue to white