Had to redo a whole infographic because my green-red comparison was invisible to 1 in 12 guys on the team

I used to just pick colors that looked good to me until last month when I sent a dashboard to my crew in Omaha and three of them said they couldn't tell the difference between the 'on' and 'off' status bars. Now I run every palette through a colorblind simulator first and switch to patterns or text labels alongside color for anything critical, has anyone else had a client or coworker miss key info because of bad color choices?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_butler719d ago

Isn't that just basic design 101 though?

shah.evan19d ago

Man 1 in 12 is basically a whole outfield plus a bench player if you think about it. I swear the people who say "design 101" have never actually had to pick colors for something real with actual humans staring at it. Last year I had this whole project approval thing fall apart because my green meant "go" for me but looked brownish to the VP of operations. Ran the palette through one of those simulators later and realized I'd basically made a traffic light where all three lights are the same dim yellow. Now I just add little icons or text labels to everything important, saved my butt more times than I can count.