Highlight in multiple colours

[nickstenning]

Problem you are trying to address

As a user who makes private notes with Hypothesis
I want to be able to make highlights in multiple colours, denoting my personal categorisation of annotations
So that I can convey meaning quickly and efficiently directly on the document

User requests

• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/776
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/992
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1912
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1969
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1968
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2116
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2328
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2463
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2168
• https://groups.google.com/a/list.hypothes.is/d/msg/dev/B-B5PCAunNk/avLUbqEKBAAJ
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2778
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/3053
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/3228
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/3665

[klemay]

Another user request came in today (#1969, added to Nick's original comment). Would also like to point out that this is an accessibility issue for those with low vision and/or who are colorblind.

[klemay]

And yet another user request (#1968), added to Nick's card

[klemay]

A new review on the Chrome web store mentions this as well. Unfortunately, I don't see a way to link to reviews, so I am adding a screenshot:

[klemay]

Another user request: https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2116

[klemay]

Summary

As a user, I want to be able to highlight in colors other than yellow so that:

• I can categorize annotations by type, topic, or importance (see Zendesk tickets Direct link to a group should cause sidebar to open automatically #992, #1968)
• I can differentiate between text that is highlighted vs text that is highlighted and annotated (Zendesk ticket #2116)
• I can easily see highlights, even if I am low/no-vision and/or colorblind

User requests

• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/776
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/992
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1912
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1969
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1968
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2116
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2328
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2463
• https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2168
• https://groups.google.com/a/list.hypothes.is/d/msg/dev/B-B5PCAunNk/avLUbqEKBAAJ

W3C compliance considerations

• There should be notification of the number of highlights of different types, a way to navigate to each highlight and to choose which type of (color) highlight to navigate between (meaning color of highlight should be reflected in the syntax).
• Make sure that the contrast between background and foreground has a ratio of 4.5:1 or higher
• Most common type of color blindness renders greens and blues indistinguishable, so if we are providing color options, that’s something to keep in mind.
• Furthermore, we might consider differentiating brightness/saturation among options so color is not the only difference between highlight options

Examples

Google Docs & Adobe products offer a palette of default highlight colors to choose from with the option to enter custom RGB or hexadecimal values. There is no limit to how many highlight colors can be used in one document:

Google Docs:

Adobe Acrobat:

Apple's Preview app offers a limited set of options: Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink, Purple (As well as underline and Strikethrough)

Yawas (a Chrome extension for highlighting) allows for yellow, red, blue, and green:

Questions and Considerations

• Should highlight options be available only for private highlights? Or perhaps private + within groups (do we want people annotating over the public layer in various colors)?
• How many colors should we offer? Which colors should we offer?
• How will we communicate the different highlight colors to screen readers?

[dwhly]

Should highlight options be available only for private highlights? Or perhaps private + within groups (do we want people annotating over the public layer in various colors)

Great question. My instinct suggests the same direction, namely private + within groups. I don't think we want folks annotating in the public channel this way. Or if they do, that their personal color choices aren't necessarily visible to all. Private groups are different matter.

[dwhly]

Old vision issue for reference: hypothesis/vision#123

[klemay]

Another user request: https://hypothesis.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/2168

[klemay]

User request: https://groups.google.com/a/list.hypothes.is/d/msg/dev/B-B5PCAunNk/avLUbqEKBAAJ

[ajpeddakotla]

User Engagement	Building Community	Level of Effort
3	2	2