CSS Spec Annotations - Design Feedback Wanted

A short while back I added a feature to our test harness to automatically add annotations our specs with test data.

The working group has decided to adopt this feature and start publishing our specs with annotations enabled.

I put a copy of the CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 Color specs on our test site as a preview of the annotation system at:
http://test.csswg.org/annotations/

As you can see, a summary annotation is injected at the top of every page, as well an annotation at each section heading that has tests linked to it. All the test data is queried live from the test harness. The annotations in the preview are being generated from the development versions of the test suites.

Each annotation shows the number of tests for that section and a pass/fail status indicator for each rendering engine tested. The annotations also have links back to the test harness to run tests or see result details. It also detects when test results are missing for the current user agent and adds a call for testing.

The design of the annotations themselves is just a first pass, and that's where I can use some help. I know there are a lot of talented designers on this list so I thought I'd ask if anyone's interested in helping create a better design.

The goals for the annotations are:
1) encourage 100% testing coverage of user agents
2) encourage 100% test passing by user agents
3) quickly convey to spec readers when a feature is ready to be used
4) quickly convey the testing coverage for each section of the spec (as the test suite is in development)

And the design constraints are:
1) be distinctive enough so that the annotations are obviously not part of the spec text
2) not be obtrusive
3) be visually simple, clean, and easy to understand

If you have feedback, better design ideas for the annotations, or ideas for different data to see in the annotations, please let me know either directly or on the list. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Peter

Received on Saturday, 21 May 2011 23:02:11 UTC