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Severity icons

Zhenpeng Chen avatar

Author: Zhenpeng Chen | Last edit: July 24, 2023 | Design type: Badges | Product area: ACS

About severity icons

 ACS has updated to use the severity icons in the Vulnerability Management section and has modified some of the UI to work with its own use cases. The term “severity” is specific to Vulnerability Management and it is not related to policies.

4 types of behaviors
  1. Default severity icons
  2. Expanded severity icons
  3. Condensed count groups
  4. Hidden severity pattern
  5. Zero count severity
     

Default severity icons

To better accommodate users with color blindness, and better differentiate between severity types, we wish to adopt the following icons:


Expanded severity icons

This is an expanded view, with the severity written out next to it. It can have just the severity name or the count + name.


Condensed group counts

In ACS we sometimes show the distribution of severity across a resource. In this scenario, we would use a condensed count style to display severity.


Hidden severity pattern

There are some cases, such as when a default filter is applied across Vulnerability Management in ACS, where a severity will be hidden from the display. In these scenarios, we would display severity as shown below. (Note: Clicking the eye does not reveal the count… in ACS revealing the count would require ACS to clear the filter hiding it.)


Zero counts severity

If there are no found instances of a severity we will show zero counts like the example below.


Q & A

Q1. Why do we use a label around the severity icons in this view? 

We believe it improves the readability of the icons when shown together next to each other as shown in the example below.

Q2. Why don’t we use a label around expanded severity icons? 

Since the expanded view is most likely used in a widget or a table row we propose it allows the reader to view the table more seamlessly with other icon+name types.


Q3. What is the reasoning behind the “hidden” severity pattern? 

We want to allow users to focus on only the severities they care about and have designed a feature around default filters which would add this ‘hidden’ icon into the list.

The reason we don’t want to filter out the severity altogether and not show it is because there may be value in letting a user know that ‘there is still information here, but you have elected to not see it.

A default filter can persist on the user's browser (via a cookie for example) so there is a chance a user will come back to the page, and not realize that some of their data is actually being filtered out. So this would hide the count but still let someone know that information exists.

Q4. Is there a better way to show that a “severity” is ‘hidden’ instead of the Not-seen icon (ACS Specific)? 

We’re going to test the ellipsis but another option would be to use an info icon with a tooltip hover to let a user know a filter was applied that is hiding the value.


Q5. What is the difference between a zero count and a hidden count? 

A hidden count means that there are items with that severity detected, but a user filter that has been applied is hiding that value. We opt to show this state so a user is always aware that more information exists but that it is hidden behind a filter. A zero count on the other hand means that there are no items with that severity detected.

Q6. White background or colored background for severities?

We may want to use a colored background since some colors may not be easy to read if they are small. Adding a colored background would help users see exactly what it is.

 

Related documents to severity icons