Why does everyone keep pairing dark blue text on black backgrounds?

I was browsing portfolio sites last night and spotted like 4 designers using navy blue body text on near-black backgrounds. My eyes started watering after 30 seconds of reading. The contrast ratio there is usually around 2:1 which is way below the 4.5:1 minimum for normal text. I actually pulled out my color contrast analyzer and checked one site that had a 1.8:1 ratio. Are people just not checking their designs against WCAG standards? How do you all handle telling a client their brand colors fail accessibility tests?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahw536d ago

Tried showing them a grayscale version of their site. Changed their mind quick.

robinmason6d agoTop Commenter

Whoa, that's a great trick but I wonder if it only works because it catches them off guard! The grayscale approach strips away all the visual fluff and forces them to actually look at layout and navigation instead of just color. Would be interesting to test if the effect wears off once they know what's coming.