Can we talk about those 'urgent' red alerts in software that are just a red dot?

I was at my desk yesterday trying to finish a report for a client in Chicago, and our project management tool flagged a task as 'critical' with a tiny red circle. My coworker, who's red-green colorblind, asked me if his task was late because he couldn't tell the difference between the 'on track' green dot and the 'overdue' one. I had to lean over and check his screen for him, which felt pretty awkward (and slowed us both down). The whole system relies on that tiny color cue with no text label or different icon shape. It made me realize how many dashboards do this, expecting everyone to see the color difference. I ended up sending a note to our IT guy asking if we could add a simple text status next to the dot. Has anyone else had to fix something like this at their job? What did you ask for?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret41717h ago

Good call asking IT to add text labels for accessibility.

knight.anna16h ago

We had the same issue with our sales dashboard last year. I pushed for adding "Overdue" or "On Track" text labels next to the dots. It took about two weeks for the dev team to update it, but the support tickets about missed deadlines dropped almost immediately.