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Removing color is not arbitrary. It is based on the physical features of human color vision. The human eye has three types (“L”, “M”, “S”) of cone cell light d

Removing color is not arbitrary. It is based on the physical features of human color vision. The human eye has three types (“L”, “M”, “S”) of cone cell light detectors, but the raw data from these detectors never makes it to the visual cortex of the brain. The first level of processing inside the eye combines these into an L + M lightness signal and two color difference signals (L – M and L + M – S), which are then further combined into higher-level spatial patterns, etc. Lightness contrast is most of how the visual system distinguishes motion, shapes, textures, and fine details. Two bordering shapes without lightness contrast get visually smeared together, text without lightness contrast is illegible, design elements without lightness contrast are largely indistinguishable, etc., even if the colors are otherwise strongly contrasting. * * * > makes as much sense as designing without different font sizes, designing without borders, or designing without rounded corners so everything is rectangular Designing with rectangles only as a first step to iterate quickly seems like a reasonable idea. Your other two suggestions are not analogous. A better comparison might be getting the melody of a song right before figuring out the lyrics.

crazygringo 8y ago
A grayscale design with a light gray button somewhere among other light gray buttons has zero emphasis whatsoever. A grayscale design with a highly-saturated orange button that is technically the same lightness as the other light gray buttons will stand out immensely and the eye will be immediately drawn to it. Likewise, a light orange button against a dark blue contrast creates a far stronger separation than a light gray button against a dark gray background, even though the "lightnesses" are still the same. So I really don't understand how you're trying to argue that color doesn't matter.
- jacobolus 8y ago
  Nobody says color doesn’t matter, or that final designs should not use color. If your intense orange button has nearly the same lightness as its intense blue background, it’s going to look like a headache-inducing blob instead of like a button. > light orange button against a dark blue contrast creates a far stronger separation than a light gray button against a dark gray background It’s not that much stronger separation, in my experience. Light on dark is much more fundamentally important to the design than orange on blue. If you made it intense middle orange on intense middle blue, the result would be horrifically bad. But light gray on dark gray is just fine. If you get the lightness contrast right, you have broad latitude in color choices and you won’t be able to screw things up too badly. You can switch between light yellow on dark red, light blue on dark purple, light orange on dark blue, light gray on dark brown, etc. On the other hand, if you get the lightness contrast wrong, then there’s pretty much no way to fix it with color. Which is why it is helpful to design for lightness first. That doesn’t mean that you can’t e.g. keep in mind while you are doing your black and white setup work that a particular button is going to get a super zappy red color against a largely neutral slate colored design (or whatever), but even so, you want the lightness relationships to be right. Doing the lightness work separately up front can be helpful for many artists: it will preclude many of the worst design mistakes, and focus attention on making text legible, structurally important shapes stand out from their background, and so on.

crazygringo 8y ago

A grayscale design with a light gray button somewhere among other light gray buttons has zero emphasis whatsoever. A grayscale design with a highly-saturated orange button that is technically the same lightness as the other light gray buttons will stand out immensely and the eye will be immediately drawn to it. Likewise, a light orange button against a dark blue contrast creates a far stronger separation than a light gray button against a dark gray background, even though the "lightnesses" are still the same. So I really don't understand how you're trying to argue that color doesn't matter.

jacobolus 8y ago
Nobody says color doesn’t matter, or that final designs should not use color. If your intense orange button has nearly the same lightness as its intense blue background, it’s going to look like a headache-inducing blob instead of like a button. > light orange button against a dark blue contrast creates a far stronger separation than a light gray button against a dark gray background It’s not that much stronger separation, in my experience. Light on dark is much more fundamentally important to the design than orange on blue. If you made it intense middle orange on intense middle blue, the result would be horrifically bad. But light gray on dark gray is just fine. If you get the lightness contrast right, you have broad latitude in color choices and you won’t be able to screw things up too badly. You can switch between light yellow on dark red, light blue on dark purple, light orange on dark blue, light gray on dark brown, etc. On the other hand, if you get the lightness contrast wrong, then there’s pretty much no way to fix it with color. Which is why it is helpful to design for lightness first. That doesn’t mean that you can’t e.g. keep in mind while you are doing your black and white setup work that a particular button is going to get a super zappy red color against a largely neutral slate colored design (or whatever), but even so, you want the lightness relationships to be right. Doing the lightness work separately up front can be helpful for many artists: it will preclude many of the worst design mistakes, and focus attention on making text legible, structurally important shapes stand out from their background, and so on.