I work in data analytics and always used red and green together in my dashboards. Last month a coworker named Mike finally told me he couldn't tell which lines were which in my monthly report. He has deuteranopia, so red and green look identical to him. I switched to using blue and orange instead, plus different line styles like dashes and dots. Has anyone else had to redo a whole project because of a simple color choice?
I redesigned my neighborhood flyer for an open house last weekend. Swapped red and green status markers for plus and minus icons instead. Took maybe 10 minutes in Canva, but three visitors mentioned they could actually read it. Anyone else tried swapping symbols for colors?
Was at a coffee shop in Austin last Thursday and heard two designers talking about a new dashboard they made. One of them literally said 'I mean, how many colorblind people are even going to use this?' and the other laughed. It made my blood run cold honestly. That dashboard probably uses red/green indicators without any patterns or text labels. If you're building anything with status alerts or data charts, please add icons or patterns alongside the colors. Has anyone else run into this kind of dismissive attitude from colleagues?
I always thought using different colors for icons was enough. Then my teammate Jen showed me her accessibility test results last Tuesday. She had 8 people with different types of colorblindness try our dashboard. Turns out 3 of them could not tell the green circle apart from the red circle at all. Jen suggested adding distinct shapes like squares and triangles to match each color. After we added shapes, those same 3 people completed the task 40% faster. Anyone else have a moment where a simple shape change made a big difference for your users?
For years I thought the whole 'add patterns and icons' thing was overkill. Figured color blind folks could just ask someone or memorize the legend. Then last month I watched a guy on my crew spend 5 minutes trying to match a green line on a graph to the legend because it all looked brown to him. I redesigned one of our safety reports with circles for one data set and triangles for another, no color at all. Showed it to three different guys who have trouble with reds and greens and they all said it was way easier to read. Now I'm redoing all our job site charts. Anybody got a good set of free icons they use for this kind of thing?
Turns out using green and red together for status indicators made it impossible for like 8% of people to read. I switched to adding icons like checkmarks and X's alongside the colors and the feedback was way better. Has anyone else dealt with redesigning a whole interface after one round of testing?
I used green instead of red for error states on a dashboard. My colorblind beta tester caught it instantly. Has anyone else found a specific percentage of color reliance that changed how you design?
I've been keeping track since I started working at a small web agency in Austin. I run every layout through a colorblind simulator before sending it to the client. It's become a habit now. But 500 hours surprised me because I thought I was being careful before and I wasn't. Most of the issues I find are in data charts and form error states. Has anyone else noticed how many common UI patterns fall apart in the green weak spectrum?
I was reading a design blog last night and saw this stat. It said 8% of men have some form of color blindness. That is way higher than I thought. For a client project with mostly male users, that means nearly 10 out of every 100 visitors might not see my color choices. Has anyone else been surprised by this number when explaining it to a client or boss?
Last week at the office, I watched a colleague with deuteranopia fail to tell which of 3 form fields had the warning state because I used green check marks and red X marks with no extra symbols, so I swapped them all for icons with text labels and now I ask anyone who walks by if they can see the difference before I ship anything.
I was building a project status dashboard at work about 3 months ago and had to pick two colors for the main chart. One was a bright blue and the other was a medium orange. I thought they looked fine, but after rolling it out I got complaints from 4 coworkers saying they looked almost identical. Turns out red-green is common but I didn't realize blue-orange also causes issues for some people with tritanopia. I swapped the orange to a dark purple instead and now it works for everyone. Has anyone else run into unexpected color combos that seemed fine until you heard from actual colorblind users?
I was in Boston last month trying to get from Park Street to Harvard and the MBTA map nearly made me miss my train. The red and orange lines look almost identical to me and I had to ask three people which one went north. Why do transit designers keep using red and green together when 8% of men can't tell them apart? Has anyone else given up on a map system because of this stuff?
I went to the Portland Art Museum last weekend. Saw their wayfinding signs with icons AND different line patterns for the galleries. No color labels needed. Made me realize how much I rely on just green and red for maps. Anyone else ditch pure color coding after seeing a specific example?
I work at a small software shop in Austin (about 12 of us) and last month our lead designer quit. I got stuck making a sales dashboard that used red and green bars for performance. My coworker Mike is red-green colorblind and kept misreading the chart. I tried bigger labels, different shades, nothing helped. Then I remembered a tip from a webinar (like 6 months ago) about adding diagonal line patterns to one of the colors. I put diagonal lines on the green bars and left the red bars solid. Mike said it was the first time he could tell them apart without squinting. Has anyone else found a pattern trick that actually works or is this just a lucky one-off?
So I had this client feedback session last month where a guy said my dashboard was completely unreadable for him. He pointed at my red/green status indicators and said 'which one is good and which is bad?' I'd never even thought about it before. Switched to using icons plus patterns and text labels instead. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you totally rethink a basic design choice you thought was fine?
I was reading through some research from the US National Library of Medicine last night and saw that roughly 1 in 12 men have color vision deficiency, but only 1 in 200 women. That stat surprised me because I always thought it was more balanced. It makes me wonder if we should design differently for male-dominated apps versus female ones, or if that's a bad idea. What do you all think - should we focus on accessibility for the majority of users or just design for everyone equally?
I spent 3 years making dashboards with red-green color schemes for a logistics company in Nashville. A warehouse manager finally told me he couldn't tell which trucks were delayed and which were on time - he's colorblind. Switched to blue-orange that same day and he actually laughed.
Had to build a sales dashboard for a colorblind client in Houston. First attempt used red for losses and green for gains. Looked fine to me. Client said it was just two shades of brown. Swapped to orange for losses and blue for gains. He could read it instantly. Anyone else found a specific palette that works better?
I thought adding diagonal stripes and dots to a bar chart would help my colorblind coworkers but they said the patterns made it look like a 90s screensaver and now I just use different shades of one color with labels instead, has anyone else found patterns more distracting than helpful?
I used to think adding texture patterns to graphs was overkill until I showed a dashboard to my colorblind coworker Dave. He couldn't tell the red line from the green one at all, but the dotted vs dashed lines worked perfectly for him. Now I'm wondering if we should prioritize patterns over color choices in every design. Has anyone else switched from color-only to pattern-based systems and seen better results?
They were showing their mockup to a friend and I noticed the form validation used pure red borders for errors and pure green for success, which probably locks out like 300 million people (you know, deuteranopia folks), so I'm wondering how many of you actually test your designs with a simulator before shipping them or do you just assume the color contrast is fine?
Met an older designer at a conference in Austin. He pulled me aside after my talk. Pointed at my green and red error states on a dashboard mockup. Said 'you just lost 8% of your users right there.' Then he showed me how he uses patterns and icons instead. Still think about that conversation every time I design a form.
My boss kept misreading the green and red status indicators on our sales tracker, and I realized she has red-green colorblindness. I added diagonal line patterns to the green boxes and dots to the red ones, and now she can tell them apart instantly. Only took about 20 minutes in Figma to set up the pattern library. Has anyone else used textures this way for charts or tables?
I ordered a pair of EnChroma glasses off Amazon last month thinking they'd finally let me see reds and greens properly. They just made everything look slightly orange and gave me a headache after 10 minutes. Has anyone else tried those and found a brand that actually helps with design work?
I thought paying for a premium app would give me better results than the free online ones. But all it did was apply a generic filter that made everything look muddy. My deuteranopia friend tested it and said it didn't match how he actually sees things at all. Are there any free tools out there that actually simulate colorblindness accurately, or is this whole thing just a gimmick?