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The crosswalk timer in Portland made me rethink my button design

I was waiting to cross the street downtown last Tuesday and noticed the countdown numbers are way bigger than they used to be. They also have a bright flash when the walk signal starts, which I never paid attention to before. My dad has low vision and he mentioned last month that he can finally see when to go without squinting. That got me thinking about how we add states to buttons on websites. Do you usually make the active state obvious enough for someone with poor eyesight, or do you rely on color alone?
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taylor_barnes59
My last project we tested the hover state with a 4:1 contrast ratio against the background, not just a slight shade change. We also added a thick border on focus, like 3 pixels, and a little pulse animation that runs for a second. That border is the thing that finally helped my mom who has cataracts, she kept missing the old dotted outline. Also try testing your active state on a phone in direct sunlight, that will humble you real quick.
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