Thought colorblind-friendly design was just a checkbox thing but I was wrong

I used to think adding textures and patterns to charts was overkill. Like just use different colors, right? My boss at a small agency in Austin made me redo a dashboard because I only relied on red and green for status indicators. I was annoyed at first but then I showed it to my buddy who is colorblind and he literally could not tell which metrics were bad. That hit me hard. Now I always use symbols or line styles alongside color for any data viz I make. It takes a little extra time but it actually makes the design clearer for everyone not just colorblind folks. Has anyone else had a project where a simple fix like that made a big difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt_fox6813d ago

Wait, your buddy literally could not tell which numbers were good or bad? That's wild to realize how much we take for granted with color. Never thought about how a simple status dashboard would be completely useless to someone.

tessawebb13d ago

@wyatt_fox68 honestly did he just stare at the screen confused?