Designing with Color in Mind
Color is an expressive way to convey emotion, but one shouldn’t rely on it to convey information. Many people see and interact with colors differently. Take the illustration below, for example, depicting a typical color experience and a simulated Protanopia-type and Deuteranopia-type color blindness.
This can cause problems for some people, from things like sideways stoplights to online submission forms, pictured below in black and white and then in color.
Can you tell if the light is red or green? Normally red is on top and green on bottom, but when placed horizontally, one can't rely on this.
Which fields in this form have an error in them? Without an icon in each field, it's hard to tell.
We can see now that the lights were green.
Now it is evident that all the fields in this form had errors.
To design inclusively, test your palette choices, either with a special tool or by viewing it in black and white, before and during your project. There are also useful tools like Color Safe that will help you find an accessible color palette, or WebAIM's Color Contrast Checker, which will test colors you've already chosen. Doing this will help prevent any major fixes having to be made at the end. By carefully considering the color choices made, you also ensure that everyone can enjoy your piece. Considering the values more carefully can also make a piece more dynamic.
Design softwares often have a tool to test color palettes with common types of color blindness or to view the entire file in black and white, as done here.
Published 2018
Content written by EmilyG Design