Theme Selection in Alloy web

Hi Andy,

I know we caught up recently and discussed a dark mode; however, I have to agree with many of the comments made here.

Branding colour schemes are for logos and advertising, not the appearance and feel of a tool or service. Usability, as others have noted, should be the primary consideration. It is frustrating, as we are told time and time again that you work with organisations that have many of the services. Yet, the customer journey and use are continually failing, and Causeway end up producing half-baked products lately.

I raised a call on day one regarding the menu items mixing with data on DE and was told to add my "idea" here. this isn't a preference or suggestion for change it is a requirement for a fault to be addressed as soon as possible. The new colour scheme is causing some of our users reluctance to use ALLOY at all. Some report headaches after prolonged use.

This is an ISSUE not an IDEA.

In response to the admins reply, finally, it's not clear what, when or even if you plan to do anything about the whole colour scheme in general. Fixing "bugs" within the design is not going to resolve the overall use of the system and explaining the change of the colour scheme does not exonerate you from having a poor design affecting it's users. Branding should not come before users comfort.

You claim to have met accessibility guidelines during the design process, can you share these guidelines and your results? From all of these comments I find it hard to believe either the guidelines or your results are fair. Even people without medical conditions are being affected.

We at Plymouth City Council agree with everything - it was the first thing that was mentioned the day that the rebrand launched! The new scheme is unsightly and not at all user-friendly compared to the old one. The use of bright white everywhere is really hard on the eyes and makes a lot of the text hard to read. Just colour shifting the dark blues to equally dark shades of purple would work perfectly, as it is it looks far less professional now.

The title bar when hovering over to filter becomes transparent showing the text from the list below, making everything unclear. Please rectify this.

As the previous blue design worked so well, could you not just have converted the blues to the same shades but in a purple hue so that it still fits with your other App colour schemes? Maybe with a little silver grey instead of lots of white?

The cards do not stand out any more so would like this back to the blue colour.

The data explorer Causeway home button is not there any more please bring this back as it was easier to get back to the home screen

Alex CameronEdit | 22 Oct, 2025

Leicester City Council are in agreement with the comments made below. Our experience with the colour scheme on the new UI for Alloy (Asset Management) is as follows:

Colour scheme is glaring and doesn't offer contrast between menus on the side and the data explorer. This can make it difficult to read both at the same time. It will potentially lead to DSE risks over time.

We have also tried to apply Dark Mode or High Contract mode but these do not get applied to the Causeway One UI, which means we cannot address problem within Edge (or other browsers).

It appears that there is no way to make accessibility based colour changes to the new UI to address these issues, or to accommodate for staff with colour blindness.

These will need to be added to address digital accessibility concerns.

a message forwarded to me by one of our users:

"I’ve heard you may already be on the case with other complaints, but thought it may benefit to put forward why it’s not just a “preference” issue and people not liking change. I suffer with migraines and have snow vision which makes certain colours/contrast difficult to see. I did try working with it yesterday but I could feel the strain on my eyes. There were many people saying how bright it was, and someone also mentioning it affecting their dyslexia.

"I think Causeway really need to be made aware and [our company] stand up for its users considering it’s our daily use software and we choose to use this system. I know Outlook have the toggle switch to set to the classic interface, so whether that’s something they could consider if not wanting to roll back to blue? "

Agreed with the comments here, especially the excellent breakdown from Charlotte. The overall look is now too bright, and the tone of purple is not as easy on the eyes as the blue was. Also want to add another vote for the alternating colours for the rows - removing that was not a good decision. I hope the people responsible for the look of the Causeway apps see this and make necessary changes.

I've had numerous complaints from users in Warwickshire today, the change has not gone down well and the increase in screen glare. I do not think it meets national guidance on accessibility either.

I would agree with all of the comments, especially the lack of alternating contrast on data explorer rows. So far, I would also add that having the archive/delete button as orange/red (whatever it used to be) helps.

From an end user point of view (who used to do graphic design) and one who spends a lot of time looking at the Alloy maps, data and back office info, especially when dealing with claims, these are my findings on the new colour scheme/design:

The historic data screen being almost all white is burning on the eyes.

The pale purple heading is not very distinguishable from all the data which also adds to the eye strain.

The full white bars of data merge together where before, having the two shades of blue/turquoise broke up the lines for easier following of details.

Panels displaying details of assets/jobs/inspections used to be instantly recognisable due to their colour band at the top of the panel, now we actively have to check.

The data within the panel previously had lighter blue smaller font titles and black larger font information, with the darker general surround. The darker surround made the outer border recede, and the pop up panel and important information stand out. The titles, although a smaller font, were still distinguished as they were in blue, the larger black font of the important information was prominent. Now it all blends, is harsh on the eyes and the pale purple divider bars do nothing to make the information stand out. If anything it spreads the info out causing in some cases having to scroll down for the Tasks.

The fact that fields, info and background information, e.g. the side info bars and borders containing icons, all blend together not only increases time to find the desired info, but also adds eye strain due to searching and recognising the required data while the peripheral visual impact of the white screen is almost painful.

Turning the brightness down or using screen covers or sunglasses is not the answer, nor one a client should have to endure, a user friendly design is the answer. The previous colour scheme worked really well.