Learned that most websites fail basic color contrast checks

Ran my latest design through a free contrast checker and found out over 80% of the pages had text users couldn't read easily. Has anyone else run into this after thinking your colors looked fine on your own screen?

2 comments

2 Comments

theabennett11d ago

The contrast ratio checker can actually be a little misleading sometimes if you're not using it right. You need to check the specific color values against each other, not just the overall page contrast. Also, make sure you're testing against the WCAG AA standard at minimum, not just any random pass/fail metric. I had a site that showed 70% failure until I realized I was testing text against a background that had a gradient, which throws off the results completely.

cole_mitchell5711d ago

Yeah I actually read something similar from a UX designer who said people forget to check for adjacent colors too, not just text on background. She mentioned how borders or icons right next to text can totally mess with the perceived contrast even if the numbers look fine. Makes you wonder how many sites pass a checker but still feel hard to read.