Got roasted by a colorblind friend over my dashboard icons

I was designing a data dashboard last month for a local nonprofit in Seattle. My friend who is red-green colorblind took one look at it and said 'why does everything look the same shade of grey to me?' I had been using red and green highlights to show good vs bad metrics... completely missed the mark. Now I add icons like arrows and checkmarks next to the colors so the meaning is clear without relying on hue. Also switched to a blue-orange palette instead of red-green which tested way better with 3 other colorblind coworkers at our meetup. Has anyone else had to redo an entire color scheme after one comment from a friend?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery36611d ago

Blue-orange is definitely better for colorblind accessibility but idk if that's the only fix. Red-green is the most common type but there's also blue-yellow colorblindness and total colorblindness too. I've got a buddy who can't tell blue from purple at all so swapping to blue-orange might still leave some people out. Icons are the real MVP though, arrows and checkmarks work for everyone no matter how their eyes work. Maybe test with a simulator next time even if a colorblind friend isn't around, there's free ones online that show you how it looks through different types.

emmar7511d ago

I had the same thing happen to me about two years ago at a small arts nonprofit here in Portland. @avery366 is right that icons are the real fix since one of our volunteers has blue-yellow colorblindness and even a blue-orange scheme wouldn't help them much. Those free simulators online are a lifesaver I ran everything through three different types before we launched our donor dashboard last spring and caught problems I never would have spotted on my own.