Shoutout to the person who called my chart 'sunlight washed out'

I made a line graph for a local group's yearly report, using light blue on a white background. I thought it looked clean. Someone at the meeting, who I later found out has some vision trouble, said it just looked like 'faded lines in sunlight' and they couldn't follow the data at all. That hit me hard. I ran it through a checker tool and sure enough, the contrast ratio was way too low. I changed the blue to a much darker navy, almost a black-blue, and kept the white background. The difference was huge. The chart went from looking pretty to actually being useful for everyone. It made me realize I was designing for my own eyes, not for all the people who need to read it. Has anyone else had a simple piece of feedback totally shift how you pick colors?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_dixon9612h ago

Ever think high contrast was just for bold designs? I used to avoid dark colors on charts, worried they'd look too heavy. After a friend with color blindness pointed out my "subtle" green and gray combo was a muddy mess to him, I switched to black lines on white with pattern fills. The clarity for everyone was worth dropping my muted palette.

terry_hayes1811h ago

My last client fired me for charts that looked too harsh.