Forum Discussion
Edge Color Limitations for Workspaces
Earlier today, I installed the latest Edge updated and noticed that my color options for themes has been severely limited, with very poor choices.
I am a heavy user of Workspaces in Edge and rely on colors to quickly identify each workspace that I use for different projects. Previously, I had a mixture of dark and light colors assigned to different workspaces that were a quick visual identifier. To get any sort of color separation, I now need to go with the light color theme to identify my workspaces. These colors are not as distinctive for me and the dark therme colors are so close together in the color palette, there is absolutely no distinction. Additionally, the new light theme even makes the tabs within the brwser harder to differentiate or distinguish. The tab icons are too softened and difficult to discern.
While I don't mind suggestions or options for my personal settings, I do not appreciate being artificially limited to what the Microsoft design team has determined to be aesthetically pleasing. This should be a matter of choice. No one is a better expert on what works best for me than myself.
Lately, I'm noticing in multiple Microsoft applications, visual design changes are being made arbitraily that negatively impact my daily workflow, with no added benefit.
4 Replies
For anyone else frustrated by Microsoft's changes to the Edge Workspace color picker, I want to call attention to the fact that this represents a change beyond just the aesthetic and affects user accessibility.
Previously, Edge allowed users to customize workspace colors by adjusting hue, saturation, and brightness/lightness. The ability to assign highly distinguishable colors to different Workspaces was an important accessibility accommodation that helped users visually identify working environments, stay organized, and work effectively.
If this change has affected your accessibility needs, please consider reporting it to Microsoft's Disability Answer Desk.
Enterprise Disability Answer Desk (eDAD):
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/edad/Microsoft has a dedicated process for reporting accessibility barriers. Explain how you relied on customizable workspace colors, how the change affects you, and why the current options don't provide an equivalent accommodation.
The request ought to be rather simple: Restore the previous color picker, or provide equivalent controls over hue, saturation, and brightness/lightness so users can choose workspace colors that meet their individual accessibility needs.
This functionality already existed. Its removal has created an unnecessary barrier for disabled users who depended on it.
110% agreed, I'm really disappointed with this change. Please add some more distinct colours.
I use colour to help focus on the task at hand.
I lost a whole morning when the first updates happened to workspace and the perfect blue was removed to me trying to choose it.
These bland pastel colours are horrible for productivity. I look forward to choice being returned back to the user.
Agreed. If I wanted boring pastels for my workspace colors, I would've chosen pastels. Even when I chose something more vibrant, the color gets washed out by default.
I want bright, distinct colors so I can tell the difference between my workspaces. It's a weird, unnecessary change.
Do brighter colors cost Microsoft money or something?
