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If you are reading this, Jerard, please please please consider the accessibility impact of colour, specifically on colour blind people. You should test your app

If you are reading this, Jerard, please please please consider the accessibility impact of colour, specifically on colour blind people. You should test your app's proposed colour with an accessibility-checking tool. You should also avoid using certain colours to distinguish between different things.

je42 6y ago
yep. indeed. For example, color contrast should be considered when developing a color palette. it sucks to readjust the app if you discover late in the development that the palette is not having enough contrast for some parts of the ui.
- coldcode 6y ago
  Don't be like Apple did in Big Sur, and reduce all colors to medium gray on light gray backgrounds (arguments I have had with UI designers for years who seem to favorite this combo). Also consider the size of elements when working with color contrast, larger elements are more forgiving than smaller ones, bolder fonts are more forgiving than thin ones. People's ability to see comes in many variations, its not binary (20/10 vision vs sightless).
Jerard_Victor 6y ago
hey, I do reading all the comments here. Frankly speaking, I didn't think about accessibility impact when I was playing with color palettes, but it turned out that Google does such assessment automatically when an app is being reviewed. Thankfully in my case, I didn't have any accessibility-related issues, but this is a valid point and probably it's better to do it during the mocking stage.
- EricE 6y ago
  I mentioned it elsewhere but I think it's worth mentioning again - for a great discussion of color and accessibility check this: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overview/ https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie...
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  Good luck with this. I do think that aesthetics could be improved in the tech field (I wuz an artist, way back, when). But accessibility is critical. There are tools to do things like desaturate pages and apps, and measure contrast. I write Apple apps, and I make sure that I provide (sometimes, quite verbose) accessibility labels to all my UI elements. There's actually a ton more that can be done, but acc. labels, and respect for dark mode, reduced transparency, and increased contrast, as well as haptics, is usually sufficient. One thing about providing accessibility strings: They should be translated, as well, if you are localizing. Here's a really cool tool, that I use: https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/ https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/
  - KineticLensman 6y ago
    > But accessibility is critical. Totally agree. I once did some mandatory training at work (on avoiding discrimination, ironically) where some of the facts needed for a good score were only presented in the audio track and were thus inaccessible to deaf people. I'm partially deaf without my hearing aids so am sensitive to this issue. Another place where I worked had the bays in its car park marked with a colour of brick that was the same as the main colour if you had a certain type of colour blindness. It's actually how most of us found out that one of our colleagues was colour blind, when he got a complaint about his apparently inconsiderate parking (usually taking two spaces because he couldn't see the markings).
preommr 6y ago
These metric help for writing a report for the boss. But really, these tools should not be a factor for UI design. They're much better for things like data visualization where you're working wit a lot more colors in a tight space. If somebody is relying on slight variations in hue to differentiate between background and font color, they've already fucked up. FWIW, I recommend using the squint test as a really rough metric, try and see if you can use something through your eyelashes as you're squinting.

je42 6y ago

yep. indeed. For example, color contrast should be considered when developing a color palette. it sucks to readjust the app if you discover late in the development that the palette is not having enough contrast for some parts of the ui.

coldcode 6y ago
Don't be like Apple did in Big Sur, and reduce all colors to medium gray on light gray backgrounds (arguments I have had with UI designers for years who seem to favorite this combo). Also consider the size of elements when working with color contrast, larger elements are more forgiving than smaller ones, bolder fonts are more forgiving than thin ones. People's ability to see comes in many variations, its not binary (20/10 vision vs sightless).

Jerard_Victor 6y ago

hey, I do reading all the comments here. Frankly speaking, I didn't think about accessibility impact when I was playing with color palettes, but it turned out that Google does such assessment automatically when an app is being reviewed. Thankfully in my case, I didn't have any accessibility-related issues, but this is a valid point and probably it's better to do it during the mocking stage.

EricE 6y ago
I mentioned it elsewhere but I think it's worth mentioning again - for a great discussion of color and accessibility check this: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overview/ https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie...
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
Good luck with this. I do think that aesthetics could be improved in the tech field (I wuz an artist, way back, when). But accessibility is critical. There are tools to do things like desaturate pages and apps, and measure contrast. I write Apple apps, and I make sure that I provide (sometimes, quite verbose) accessibility labels to all my UI elements. There's actually a ton more that can be done, but acc. labels, and respect for dark mode, reduced transparency, and increased contrast, as well as haptics, is usually sufficient. One thing about providing accessibility strings: They should be translated, as well, if you are localizing. Here's a really cool tool, that I use: https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/ https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/
- KineticLensman 6y ago
  > But accessibility is critical. Totally agree. I once did some mandatory training at work (on avoiding discrimination, ironically) where some of the facts needed for a good score were only presented in the audio track and were thus inaccessible to deaf people. I'm partially deaf without my hearing aids so am sensitive to this issue. Another place where I worked had the bays in its car park marked with a colour of brick that was the same as the main colour if you had a certain type of colour blindness. It's actually how most of us found out that one of our colleagues was colour blind, when he got a complaint about his apparently inconsiderate parking (usually taking two spaces because he couldn't see the markings).

preommr 6y ago

These metric help for writing a report for the boss. But really, these tools should not be a factor for UI design. They're much better for things like data visualization where you're working wit a lot more colors in a tight space. If somebody is relying on slight variations in hue to differentiate between background and font color, they've already fucked up. FWIW, I recommend using the squint test as a really rough metric, try and see if you can use something through your eyelashes as you're squinting.