The moment I realized I'd been checking contrast on the wrong background layer for years

I was building a dashboard for a client in Austin last week and pulled up their style guide, only to find out the text I thought was WCAG compliant was sitting on a gradient that shifted underneath. Has anyone else caught themselves testing contrast on white when the real background is something completely different?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_lane17d ago

My friend spent three hours last week trying to figure out why their app looked terrible on their phone, and it turns out they'd been checking colors against a solid white background the whole time. It reminds me of how I'll test a recipe with generic ingredients, but then the actual dish uses a specific brand of cheese. Or like buying paint samples at the hardware store and holding them up against your wall, but forgetting the lighting in your kitchen is totally different. We're all just checking things against the wrong version of reality, I guess.

wrenh7917d ago

@margaret_lane at least your friend's app didn't explode. I'd call that a win.