Rant: my 2009 site was a mess and a bus stop sign tipped me off

Back in 2009 I built my first real website for a small bakery in Columbus. I used light gray text on a white background because I thought it looked clean and fancy. Then one rainy Tuesday I was waiting for the 5 bus and staring at the route sign. That sign had dark black letters on bright yellow, and I could read it from across the street. My site had the same font size but the contrast was maybe 2:1, and I just never thought about it until that moment. I went home, checked the numbers with a free tool, and nearly fell out of my chair. I changed the text to a dark charcoal and the difference was night and day for my own eyes too. Has anyone else had a random real world object make them question their whole color setup? What was it, a crosswalk sign, a menu board, something else?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamesblack1d ago

Honestly that bus stop story hit me hard. Back in like 2012 I had a portfolio site with pale pink text on cream, thought it looked super artsy. Then I saw a pharmacy sign with dark blue on white from like half a block away and realized my own site was basically unreadable from across the room. Changed everything to near black on white the next day, felt dumb but also relieved.

charles_henderson1d ago

Two million sites look like that and people still find what they need, idk if it's really worth losing sleep over.