Just when you believe Linden Lab the creators of Second Life do not actively listen to the paying residents they never cease to amaze you. Whilst facing one of the biggest PR Disasters of recent times, Linden Lab have taken a miraculously large step back and have reassessed their desire to enforce Dazzle, with no alternative option, upon the residents of Second Life.

As I documented in April, Dazzle caused major concern across the Second Life network. Its bright user interface could be held accountable for eye strain and migraines, also not ergonomically suitable for those users with varying degrees of colour blindness. The complaint was not specifically against Dazzle it was against the inability to easily revert to the old style, or for a user friendly option to skin the client, if Dazzle affected you with the health issues mentioned above. With a massive amount of votes and comments on the two Dazzle specific JIRA entries (VWR-5059 & VWR-5080) it now seems that Linden Lab have actually listened to the worried residents.


In the latest Second Life Blog post Ramzi Linden has announced the release of RC11 with 39 crash fixes and the news that Linden Lab will not ship the Release Candidate until it has working skin-ability.


"To start, we are now developing a solution to VWR-5059 - “Ability to switch between the new/old theme” - and will ship that before finalizing the official Second Life Viewer 1.20.

Therefore, in the coming weeks please look for a couple other iterations of this Release Candidate, but perhaps not as frequently. We will deliver an RC12 and RC13 before finishing this 1.20 Release Candidate cycle."

Linden Lab may have taken their time but I am sure I and the hundreds of non Dazzle supporters are both in favour and in shock at this latest development. Potential PR disaster almost averted.

“We’re pleased to announce First Look: Dazzle, a “refresh” for the Second Life viewer’s appearance which makes the UI (User Interface) more accessible and pleasing.” – Second Life Blog

Hailed by some as the new friendly user experience that Second Life desperately needs, Dazzle is a new brighter User Interface. It uses new buttons and symbols and has many ‘under the hood’ changes to ease customisation in the future. With a barrage of complaints however, is Dazzle all it’s cracked up to be?




Dazzle UI










Old UI






The original blog entry, posted by Torley Linden set out the following questions and relative answers:

"What if I don't like Dazzle?
This is understandable, particularly because Second Life's UI has basically been the same for several years. Change can be hard if you're accustomed to the way things currently look and have been with us for awhile…. we’ll pay attention to your constructive criticism and use it to refine Dazzle further

Will I be able to revert to the older UI?
When Dazzle is in the main viewer, then no, you won't be able to revert easily. On the surface many people like Dazzle however, with more and more posts, comments and worries being voiced at Benjamin Linden’s (Director of User Experience) office hour and on the JIRA, in answer to Torleys previous question – What if I don’t like Dazzle? Simply we don’t know the answer; no one appears to be listening to the very ‘real’ health issues it brings to the fore."

Dazzle was mentioned originally in February and has been in development since then. I spent a few hours researching the effects a bright user-interface can have on its user, ie you! I was quite shocked at the results I achieved in a matter of hours; a company like Linden Lab SHOULD have access to this information as freely as I do, especially considering there is a department qualified in User Experience.

“Whether characters are legible or not depends on contrast, that is, the difference in brightness between the text and the background.” - Ergonomics for Beginners: A Quick Reference Guide by Jan Dul.

“Dark colors maintain the focus on the images - bright colors can distract the eye and take the focus away from the images. Adjusting to the varying degree and the frequency of light changes can cause eye fatigue, headaches and mood swings. “ – Agfa Healthcare - The Benefits of Color and Style

“In short, to avoid dazzling and prevent eyestrain (your own or your users), try to keep all surfaces at the same brightness by matching the overall brightness or dimness of your screens to the office environment. If users typically use your software in brightly lit offices or if they type from bright source documents, use light or off-white backgrounds. If your software is used in dim or dark areas (air traffic control towers, for example), use dark backgrounds. If you can't find out what the background will be, you might want to include two backgrounds, one light and one dark, with your program.” – Fast Consulting

There is no template in place for the average Second Life user, many people are in-world at night, in a darker environment, with less or no natural lighting. However corporate companies and some residents play during the day time in areas of high natural lighting. As shown from research in this model ONE UI is not sufficient and two should be provided.

Another consideration you should bear in mind when looking at Dazzle is the blue on blue colour scheme. As stated in the Fast Consulting reference work “Your eyes cannot focus clearly on blue”.

"Since yellow and green wavelengths come into focus at the retina, they require the least accommodation from the eye (this is the reason for so many yellow and green monochrome monitors a few years ago). Red wavelengths, on the other hand, come into focus a little behind the retina and therefore seem to "pop out" of the background. Since blue wavelengths come into focus in front of the retina, blues seem to fade into the background." – Fast Consulting

There are far better colour combinations for the use of blue; “On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange” – Wiki

Second Life will be made skinnable in the future, ie users can include their own colour combinations to suit themselves. A wonderful step forward but surely Skinability should happen before people have no option but to use Dazzle? According to the Viewer Roadmap the answer is no, Dazzle takes priority over everything else.

Linden Lab is placing great strain on their customers. With over 6 million user accounts the global cross-section MUST include people with colour blindness and migraine sufferers to name but a few.

“Some history behind this: over the years, we’ve heard a lot about how difficult SL can be to use, notably how scary the “old-style” UI looks. Cryptic icons, low contrast, and “things you click on that don’t do what you expect them to do” are all frustrating to newcomers, and at last — Dazzle’s here, because we want to make it easier for you.” – Second Life Blog

I am sure many agree with the sentiment above, however ‘scary’ and ‘frustrating’ are not in any medical journals I can source. Migraines, colour blindness and fatigue associated with bright User Interfaces are however.