Why does nobody talk about how pattern icons beat colors every time
I used to think adding little symbols next to color coded stuff was overkill, honestly. Like who needs a tiny triangle next to the blue label when the blue is right there, you know? But last month my wife and I were organizing our garage shelves with those colored storage bins from Target, and she grabbed the wrong box three times for her craft stuff because the red and green lids look identical to her. I was like wait, you cannot tell those apart? And she said no, and I realized I had been designing our whole system around colors only. So I spent a Sunday afternoon printing out little icons for each bin, a ball of yarn for fabric, a wrench for tools, that sort of thing. Now she finds things in seconds, no squinting or asking me which one. It made me wonder how many apps or websites I have used that just rely on color for buttons or status indicators. Have any of you switched to shapes or text labels after seeing a colorblind friend struggle, or do you think colors are still fine if the shades are different enough?