Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Transparent Layers (29 Oct 2004) Icons are used frequently in tool palettes. They're very simple images, and emphasizing the edges is the most important for recognition. The process is similar to embossing. Multiblending also eliminates background 'noise' and excess icons or information that aren't needed, such as frequently used areas that are well-known to the user. The resulting palette is easy to read. One possible version of the resulting top layer is a palette that looks like a glass overlay, though this is just one example. "On small screen devices you want to be able to use your entire screen for the document you're looking at. You don't want to have a trade off between the tools you need and your document," concludes Baudisch. Article URL: http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=1038 Read 136 more articles from Microsoft sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Use Amazon Web Services in ASP.NET     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy