Signal vs Noise: Yellow fade technique

The Signal vs Noise guys have invented the Yellow Fade Technique (YFT), a technique which highlights an updated screen area with a yellow background which then slowly fades to white.

I like this idea a lot, I think it's an ingenious way to draw a persons attention to a specific area of the screen but I can't imagine a site like BBCi using it. Also, what would happen if the updated area was a screen down the page? Surely there is a chance that YFT is missed all together!

Where it would work well is on an content authoring system or blog where you could instantly show an updated paragraph or sentence in a mass of text, an example similar to that shown in project management screen shots on the site.

Let hope when this technique is put into practice it doesn't become the blinking text of its time!

Comments

Jason Fried

"Also, what would happen if the updated area was a screen down the page? Surely there is a chance that YFT is missed all together!"

We always anchor down to the FYT point so you never miss it.