I already know the contrast blocks in the upcoming scratch update will be optional, but what about the new purple theme? (I personally prefere the blue so thats why im asking)

I also prefer blue, but I don't think so. Ceebee didn't mention it in the video.

Yeah, purple is kind of too constrasting for a chill user interface. Blue is the right amount of calmness that doesn't get in your way when you're trying to code. Purple sticks out like a sore thumb.

The specific color of purple was chosen as a practical one, as the Scratch Team determined that it is the color which is the most helpful for those with vision impairments. So the color change is all for the sake of improved accessibility. This means that more people will be able to use Scratch!

There is a long-standing suggestion here about customizing the color of the header. It's something that the Scratch Team is interested in, but such an option will not be immediately available on June 28th in order to roll out the accessibility changes as soon as possible.

Why though?
Can’t you just keep it like this

when green flag clicked
move (200) steps

Instead of high contrast

The bar was blue? I always thought it was green, but I am colorblind.

-TheCyber- wrote:

The bar was blue? I always thought it was green, but I am colorblind.

Yeah, it’s dark blue on 2.0 pages and light blue on 3.0. In the editor, it was grey until 3.0, when it was made the light blue.

Riditekh001 wrote:

Why though?
Can’t you just keep it like this

when green flag clicked
move (200) steps

you can change it between high contrast or normal

Since this thread was bumped and is relevant, I'll post a helpful response I recently got from Contact Us regarding the upcoming changes. It's really informative, so I figured I'd share it for others to learn.

For context: I reached out to Contact Us about a week ago to ask for additional resources and reasoning explaining the color changes. The resources I was given are the same as posted in the initial forum announcement, but the accompanying explanation was pretty detailed. It seems like the Scratch Team will eventually make this explanation “public” via a forum/blog post.

Contact Us wrote:

Hey there!

Thank you for reaching out! In the next week we’ll be releasing a blog post that describes the process a bit, but I’m happy to share some details now.
I’m the Design Director at Scratch, and our designers began working on the high contrast blocks last year. The process for the blocks began with them checking each original block color combination against the WCAG AA guidelines. Very few blocks met the contrast ratio so they began exploring alternative combinations that kept the same hue as the original blocks, but lightened the background and used black text — giving a higher contrast ratio and consistent look.

We launched the High Contrast blocks in Scratch Lab where ~800 users tested it and provided feedback. Many users with self-reported visual impairments or disabilities preferred the new high-contrast blocks, but many users without those impairments found the blocks to be less aesthetically pleasing. Most users asked for an option to toggle between the modes, which wasn’t functionality we had at the time. So, our engineers and designers worked to create the drop-down settings menu that allows users to choose whether or not to use the high contrast mode.

As for the colors in the nav bar and elements on the Scratch site itself, we explored a similar approach of lightening our original blue and using black text. However, that visual change felt off-brand and was quite jarring as a change. So, we decided to keep white text and use an existing brand color (the purple) which would allow us to meet the contrast guidelines and keep a common Scratch color. We actually use a purple editor in the Scratch Lab environment, so this was not a huge shift.

We’ve seen a few users ask to make this part optional as well, but unfortunately we need to ensure that the site is usable for as many people as possible (including use in schools) and that means we need a consistent design. We can certainly explore personalization features in the future, but for now, we want to make sure we have a site that is inclusive for folks with visual impairments, and we will be considering additional color modes in the future for the blocks — so stay tuned.

Thank you for asking about our process. The three links in the forum post (included below) are probably most help to point for more information about contrast standards in general.

Sincerely,
[Redacted by @Za-Chary]

https://kids.kiddle.co/Accessibility#:%7E:text=Accessibility%20is%20equal%20access%20for%2Ca%20person%20without%20a%20disability
https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Content_Accessibility_Guidelines

I think scratch should improve its sprite's too.

nice