We want to thank you, our customers, for your feedback and questions through the 6.7 launch. We appreciate your enthusiasm and participation in the efforts to simplify and modernize RSA Archer and would like to address some of your early comments.
When it comes to appearance settings, we’ve heard everything from “let us control every element as an admin” to “just hand us the CSS and we’ll make it look the way we want.” As people, we tend to communicate our problems through solutions. When we asked our customers why they wanted to control every element of the appearance, the answer was simple: Because what came out-of-the-box was unappealing and didn’t meet accessibility requirements.
Our approach to that problem was two-fold.
First, we updated the out-of-the-box color scheme. In versions prior to 6.7, the default color scheme did not meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) compliance for color contrast. In order to meet those Accessibility guidelines, we defined a default color palette that is modern, neutral, and WCAG-compliant. These colors pass the color contrast accessibility guidelines, which have been a focus of our customers. The Record Page will still maintain the shading to distinguish the different sections, but that shading will be system-defined to be WCAG-compliant.
Second, we removed the Primary and Secondary color options in the Appearance Settings. The reason for removing them was simple – no one understood what the Primary and Secondary colors did. Ultimately, selecting these would employ an algorithm to decide what colors to use throughout the application. How the algorithm did that was a mystery to the folks selecting colors, so it was a game of trying something and crossing your fingers on how it would turn out. Most customers thought the primary color changed the background color of the Mega Menu, now referred to as the Nav Bar in 6.7. After that, it was a guessing game. One of the more unfortunate side effects of the Primary color was on a Record Page. The algorithm used a light shade of that primary color to distinguish between different sections. For example, if an Admin chose red as the primary color, the Record page would have pink boxes around the different sections – something the Admin certainly did not expect. This system behavior led to more confusion. The Secondary colors only changed the color of buttons on certain pages. So in 6.7, rather than selecting a primary and secondary color, you can directly manipulate the colors of common components such as the nav bar, footer, etc.
See attachment below. Note the absence of the Primary and Secondary buttons plus the neutral gray (WCAG compliant) colors that will appear throughout RSA Archer.
In addition to removing the confusing Primary and Secondary color options and addressing the Accessibility concerns with a new, out-of-the-box neutral color scheme, we have added one more feature – the Environment Bar. We’ve spoken to many of you to learn your reasons for customizing the color of the Nav Bar (formerly known as the Mega Menu). The overwhelming response was to distinguish between different RSA Archer environments (Prod, Dev, QE, Stating, etc.). Introduction of the Environment Bar in version 6.7 allows admins to name their environment, as well as distinguish environments by color. This is a way of identifying environments that’s accessible to visually impaired or color-blind users. When enabled, the Environment Bar will be displayed above the global header and will be visible from all RSA Archer pages. See attachment below.
FAQs
Q: What happens if I made changes to the Primary and Secondary colors in 6.6 and I upgrade to 6.7?
A: Those changes will not remain when you upgrade to 6.7, but as stated above, the most noticeable change was to the background color of the Nav Bar. Most customers will not notice a difference.
Q: Will the color customizations that I made prior to 6.7 be saved when I upgrade to 6.7?
A: Yes. All customizations except the Section Header text color will remain the same through the upgrade to 6.7. Five different color customizations were introduced in version 6.3 for additional flexibility. The customizations included were Field Border, Main Menu (Nav Bar), Footer, Admin (left panel) Menu, and Section Header. These customizations were identified through extensive customer interactions after the launch of version 6.1. Version 6.7 has retained all of these customization options, except Section Header.
Q: Is the Environment Bar ON or OFF by default when I upgrade to 6.7?
A: The Environment Bar is OFF by default. The Admin can choose whether to enable it or not.
Q: How can I get more involved to provide feedback about UI components that are meaningful to me?
A: Please send an email to this email address and we will get back to you: archeruxfeedback@rsa.com
In summary, the changes made in Version 6.7 were to improve the out of the box color scheme, address confusion around the color options (primary and secondary) and accessibility concerns. As always, your feedback is both appreciated and crucial to our continued journey to modernize and simplify the experience around RSA Archer. If there are common components that you would like to alter the appearance of, please let us know by commenting. We’re truly grateful for your feedback! Thank you!
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