TIL how bad my chart contrast was for my coworker with deuteranopia

I used to build all my data dashboards in red and green until a guy on my team pointed out he couldn't tell the difference between the two lines last Tuesday... I spent an afternoon redoing 12 charts with patterns and blue instead. Has anyone found a quick way to test your own designs for colorblind issues without bugging a coworker every time?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_smith29d ago

My old boss made us color everything in red and green on the sales tracker, and I only realized it was a problem when Dave asked if the line was going up or down lmao. I started using this browser extension called Colorblindly that simulates different types of color vision, and it saved me from redoing a whole report last month. Patterns with dots and dashes have been my go-to ever since, way easier than guessing what works.

theabennett29d ago

Huh, I actually kind of disagree with relying on simulators too much. I tried Colorblindly for a week and it gave me a false sense of security-my test charts looked fine in the simulation but my coworker with protanopia still couldn't read them. Turns out the simulators don't always account for how different screen brightness and ambient light affect real-world viewing. I've had better luck just keeping a small physical printout of the most common colorblindness types taped to my monitor, then eyeballing my dashboards against it before I show anyone.