09th Dec 2002

Homeland Security Threat Level: Indeterminate

How stupid is this?




I happened to want to check out the Department of Homeland Security for a client. Found it on a subdirectory of White House’s web domain. I thought they’d made it a full on federal department, i.e., on a cabinet level along with the Department of State, the Department of Education, etc. So they don’t even get their own domain?

Anyway, what’s stupid is the color scheme. Not the concept of the thing necessarily (tho that seems pretty stupid to me, too), but the actual execution of the design. First off, why are the color dots so small? They’re barely bigger than pin pricks. They couldn’t have doubled the size of those dots? But look at Yellow and Orange. Dont’ they look almost the same? They do to me, and I’m not colorblind.

Most importantly, however, look at the “Current Threat Level” box. That color doesn’t look at all like the Yellow in the color key above. It looks more like a pukey greenish-gold. Is that just me? Maybe it’s an optical illusion. It certainly isn’t a color that makes me feel any safer.


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