OOB colours

[Norni]

I am a colour blind orienteerer. I can't tell the difference between thickets and knolls, sometimes I mistake 'forest walk' for 'rough open', and often I find it difficult to actually find the controls on the map. However, since i have no idea what the rest of you see when you look at a map, I just get on with it and am happy to do so.

Where I feel this becomes more of an issue is when I can't see what is out of bounds. I have 2 main issues here.

1. Pink crosses. Depending on the background colour, they can be as good as invisible. Saturday in Brighton was a good example. A couple of gaps between buildings in the NW corner of the afternoon map were marked with pink crosses. This was pointed out to me during post race analysis, and I realised I had nipped through one such passage twice. Perhaps I should disqualify myself, but I feel no guilt as even now I still can't see the crosses if I hold the map more than a few inches from my face.

What would really help in this situation would be if such outlawed routes were highlighted in the blank maps in the start lanes. If I had approached that area of the map in the knowledge that there were some pink crosses in the area, I would have had no excuse. As it was, I finished my run unaware that there had been any such crosses anywhere on the map.

2. Olive Green. Who in their right mind decided that yet another shade of green would be the best colour to denote OOB? Often it isn't really a problem because olive green areas tend to be fenced off. But where there is no fence, I just have to hope that its obvious on the ground. Where blank maps are available before the start, I will often be found pointing at green bits and asking people 'Is that out of bounds?'

I have once caused hassle for an organiser by unwittingly straying into an OOB area (on that occasion I mistook pink stripes for undergrowth). I would hate for this to happen again. But unless OOB areas are marked more clearly on the map or pointed out in start lanes, I fear its only a matter of time until it happens again.

[epocian]

1. Pink crosses. Depending on the background colour, they can be as good as invisible. Saturday in Brighton was a good example. A couple of gaps between buildings in the NW corner of the afternoon map were marked with pink crosses. This was pointed out to me during post race analysis, and I realised I had nipped through one such passage twice. Perhaps I should disqualify myself, but I feel no guilt as even now I still can't see the crosses if I hold the map more than a few inches from my face.

What would really help in this situation would be if such outlawed routes were highlighted in the blank maps in the start lanes. If I had approached that area of the map in the knowledge that there were some pink crosses in the area, I would have had no excuse. As it was, I finished my run unaware that there had been any such crosses anywhere on the map.
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But if you can't see the crosses now when you're under no pressure whatsoever how on earth will you see them on a map in the start lanes?

[ricardito]

But if you can't see the crosses now when you're under no pressure whatsoever how on earth will you see them on a map in the start lanes?

Presumably you'd have some big bold black arrows marked "Note out of bounds areas" or some such.

[graeme]

if you can't see the crosses now ... how on earth will you see them on a map in the start lanes?

...especially when there were no maps in the start lanes...

[seabird]

I'm sure there is a range of colour blindness, but the people I know with the condition manage ok if purple is set at 20-30% cyan 100% magenta.

Unfortunately the Ocad default for purple is 100% magenta, which produces the pinky red which is causing the problem.

[pete.owens]

I also completely failed to notice the crosses - and I have no problem with colour blindness. I don't think the issue is colour, but lack of contrast between the dark purple and dark grey (particularly as the overprint is transparent). This can sometimes be a problem with the normal overprint symbols, but you are actively looking for the rather bigger lines, circles and numbers so will tend to work out where they are. This maybe why the purple X is not included in the ISSOM symbol set.

[Gnitworp]

A significant number of people missed controls in the recent sprint championships due mainly, it would appear, to the lack of visibility of control numbers placed (with the laudable intention of not obscuring important detail) on the grey of buildings. The lack of visibility was compounded by the removal of circle segments for the same laudable purpose. Entirely the competitors' fault, but unfortunate nevertheless, and possibly not an outcome that made the Planner any happier. The best (worst) example of this, perhaps, was Control 7 on Course FA5 where, in addition to the above, there was no joining line between 6 and 7 because of their proximity, and the line between 7 and 8 was over a building for its entire length. Yes, you've guessed, I did miss it

[NeilC]

When we received proofs of the courses we were concerned about the lack of visibility of the control numbers (and circle lines) against the grey buildings. Consequently we reduced the greyness of the buildings to the minimum possible under ISSOM. Had this been a local club event I might have played more with the colours but being a Level A event using an accredited printer then I did not feel it appropriate to move away from the defaults. I will mention it in my report though.

The crosses on the building pass-throughs in the accomodation block were a matter of some debate between mapper, planner and controller. Those pass-throughs were narrow and you had to duck low to get under a stairwell. It probably though would have been marginally quicker to take that route rather than go round. However those buildings are part of the family accommodation blocks and those pass-throughs were regularly blocked by prams, bikes or toys. We felt it unfair to suggest on the map that they were a good shortcut, we didn't want to map them using an uncrossable barrier symbol since there was no such barrier, and any temporary barrier was likely to get removed. The purple crosses then were what we ended up with.

It would be completely impractical to highlight all areas of olive green on a map in the start lane since an area may have a great number of flower beds or similar. It is unfortunate that some people can not see them clearly but this is a matter for the IOF map group.

[Steve]

In OCAD it's possible to frame control numbers and connecting lines (and possibly other symbols) with a white border, if not the control circles themselves. This enhances readability against areas of detail or coloured blocks of a similar tone. You can position numbers and break connecting lines so as not to obscure important map detail. I was not at the Sprint Champs so can't comment on whether it would have improved readability there, but it sounds like it could have done. ISSOM doesn't specifically forbid framing.

[NeilC]

I did this for our all-control maps to make the control codes stand out more. It did though obscure a lot of underlying detail (which is fine when you know where the controls are).

[GML]

The crosses on the building pass-throughs in the accomodation block were a matter of some debate between mapper, planner and controller. Those pass-throughs were narrow and you had to duck low to get under a stairwell. It probably though would have been marginally quicker to take that route rather than go round. However those buildings are part of the family accommodation blocks and those pass-throughs were regularly blocked by prams, bikes or toys. We felt it unfair to suggest on the map that they were a good shortcut, we didn't want to map them using an uncrossable barrier symbol since there was no such barrier, and any temporary barrier was likely to get removed. The purple crosses then were what we ended up with.

I think it was more than just marginally quicker Neil. I saw at least one competitor run through one of these despite my shouting that it was an illegal route, and he was well away from me by the time I had run round.

Did you consider marking them as olive green (although I'm not sure how much clearer this would have been)?

[EddieH]

I am aware that a line of crosses along a line feature means that youmay not run along said feature. Does a single cross have the same meaning? - I certainly never saw any, but there again they did not impinge on my course.

[229]

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[andypat]

I am aware that a line of crosses along a line feature means that youmay not run along said feature. Does a single cross have the same meaning? - I certainly never saw any, but there again they did not impinge on my course.

I'm not sure it does Eddie. I've seen a short thick purple line used for this (St Andrews maybe?) before but not a cross.

For urban a purple diagnonal screen overprint seems to be the norm these days for something you cannot run along rather than a line of crosses (eg PWT in Perth)

[graeme]

In fact, I have can recall several instances when people thought that is what they symbol meant...

...and I got DQed once for not crossing at an x, because the planner and controller thought it meant crossing point.