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I finally figured out why my app looked washed out on other people's phones
So I was building this little habit tracker for myself, nothing fancy, just dark teal background with white text. Looked perfect on my phone, really crisp and modern. Then my friend pulled out her old Galaxy S9 and the whole thing looked like muddy green soup with gray letters. I couldn't read a single number. That made me actually download one of those contrast ratio calculators and check my numbers. Turns out my dark teal against white was only a 3.2 to 1 ratio, which fails for small text. I swapped to a much deeper navy blue, almost black, and now the ratio is 9.5 to 1. Works way better now, but I wonder how many apps I've been using that are actually hard to read for someone with worse eyes than me. Has anyone else run into a color combo that looked fine on your own screen but totally failed a contrast test?
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ivancoleman5mo ago
Man I totally get this. I actually just read this thing from a UX designer who worked at a big bank, and she said most of their customers were over 60. She tested their app and found like half the color combos failed basic contrast checks. Made me think about how many apps are designed on fancy screens in perfect lighting and never tested on a beat up old phone in a bright room. That teal and white thing you mentioned, I bet tons of people make that mistake cause it looks so clean on a new iPhone. The navy swap is smart though, I did something similar with my project and it still looks good but now my dad can actually read it without squinting. Solid catch.
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rayc835mo ago
Had a buddy who designed his whole wedding website with this like mint green and soft pink combo. Looked super dreamy on his MacBook but his grandma literally couldn't read the date or venue address on her iPad. She almost showed up a week late. He never checked any contrast numbers until after the invites went out and people kept asking him to repeat the details. Ended up having to email everyone a plain black and white version.
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