I was redesigning my cleaning service flyer and kept using red text on green backgrounds for pricing. Looked fine to me but my buddy who is colorblind saw just two muddy blobs. He told me to try adding patterns or symbols next to the colors, so I put little dollar signs next to prices. Now I pair blue with orange instead and use icons for everything. Has anyone else found a color pair that works better than red-green for quick info?
I spent hours making a dashboard with green and red status indicators, thinking the patterns I added would be enough. But the client literally said 'I cant tell which ones are warnings.' Next time I'm just using text labels and icons from the start.
I dropped $70 on that color blind simulator app for my work designs, thinking it'd be a quick fix. Instead, I spent 3 hours just running my own living room photos through it and realizing my wife's favorite armchair looks totally different to me... Has anyone else gotten stuck just testing random stuff instead of actual work?
He painted his deck last summer with a dark brown stain that looked fine to me, but his colorblind buddy kept tripping on the edges where the stairs started. After a few beers we sat down and looked at the whole thing again under different lighting. Turns out the step edges blended into the deck surface because the brown shades were too close together. He went back and painted just the front edge of each step with a lighter tan stripe, and now his buddy can navigate the stairs fine even at dusk. Has anyone else run into this kind of thing with outdoor spaces or flooring patterns?
Had a logistics manager call me last Tuesday, couldn't tell which shipments were delayed. Cost me a $5k contract. You really need to add patterns or text labels next to colored status icons.
I bought the Chromatic Vision Simulator Pro app last month after struggling to get feedback from my colorblind coworker. It showed me how my dashboard designs actually look to someone with deuteranopia. The red and green outlines I was using just blended into nothing. I spent three days reworking a project based on what the app showed me. Has anyone else tried paid simulation tools over the free ones and found them worth the money?
I was checking out a new food ordering system at work last week. The manager was proud of the new interface. Every button was either red or green on a greenish background. I just stood there for a second and said I literally could not tell which was which. They looked at me like I had two heads. This happens at least once a year in my experience. Why do designers still do this? Has anyone else had to explain this to a dev team more than once?
I visited the Modern Art Museum last Saturday with my buddy who's not color blind. He pointed out these cool colored exit signs they had, but I just saw gray blobs on the wall. Turns out they used red and green text on a dark background, which apparently looks identical to me. I asked the front desk if they had any backup signs with symbols or patterns, and the guy just shrugged at me. Has anyone else run into this kind of thing at public buildings where the designer went for looks over practicality?
Ran into a situation last week where a small business owner I do delivery work for asked me to give feedback on their new website, and I noticed right away that their red and green sale buttons looked identical to me, so I checked in a simulator and sure enough about 8% of their visitors probably couldn't tell the difference between the two options - has anyone else caught a major design flaw this way by accident?
Last month I was showing off this data dashboard I'd built for work to my buddy Mark at a coffee shop in Sacramento. He's red-green colorblind and I knew that, but I used red and green bars to show profit vs loss. He just stared at it for like 10 seconds and said "uh, which ones are the bad ones?" lol. I felt like an idiot. The green and red looked almost identical to him. I immediately pulled out my laptop and added little icons next to the bars - a checkmark for positive and an X for negative. Also changed the shapes to be slightly different thicknesses. He could read it fine after that. Has anyone else had a moment where your color choices completely failed on someone?
Went to park at the Lamar Union garage last weekend and noticed all the floor signs used thick yellow text on black backgrounds. Even in dim light I could read which level I was on without squinting. Anyone else notice garages getting better with this?
Last Thursday I finished a dashboard for a small client in Austin and decided to run it through a colorblind simulator on a whim. Every single data point I had color coded just blended into a brownish gray blob. Turns out I used red and green bars next to each other, classic rookie mistake. I had to go back and add patterns to each bar plus change one of the colors to blue. The client actually thanked me for making it readable for their team lead who has deuteranopia. Has anyone else had a similar wake up call with a tool like Coblis or something similar?
I was designing a data dashboard last month for a local nonprofit in Seattle. My friend who is red-green colorblind took one look at it and said 'why does everything look the same shade of grey to me?' I had been using red and green highlights to show good vs bad metrics... completely missed the mark. Now I add icons like arrows and checkmarks next to the colors so the meaning is clear without relying on hue. Also switched to a blue-orange palette instead of red-green which tested way better with 3 other colorblind coworkers at our meetup. Has anyone else had to redo an entire color scheme after one comment from a friend?
I design signs and wayfinding for a living, and last month a client asked me to check their new building's color scheme for accessibility. I spent $30 on a plugin that simulates deuteranopia and protanopia in real time. It showed me my green and red arrows were basically invisible together. Reworked the whole palette in about 2 hours based on what it showed me. Client never noticed the change, but I felt better knowing it actually works. Has anyone else used one of these simulators and found a specific color combo that always tricks them?
I was at a coffee shop in Portland last week and someone was talking about how their red-green colorblind coworker could still tell buttons apart if the brightness was different. So I tested a UI I'm working on by squinting at it and suddenly a bunch of labels I thought were fine just disappeared. Anyone else try the squint test before sending a design out?
I used to think adding textures and patterns to charts was overkill. Like just use different colors, right? My boss at a small agency in Austin made me redo a dashboard because I only relied on red and green for status indicators. I was annoyed at first but then I showed it to my buddy who is colorblind and he literally could not tell which metrics were bad. That hit me hard. Now I always use symbols or line styles alongside color for any data viz I make. It takes a little extra time but it actually makes the design clearer for everyone not just colorblind folks. Has anyone else had a project where a simple fix like that made a big difference?
I decided to skip color coding entirely for a dashboard I made for a logistics company in Tulsa. Everyone said I should use green for 'on time' and red for 'late' like every other app out there. I went with bold black icons plus text labels instead, figuring it's better to make sure nobody misses the info. Three weeks in, two guys on the team said they actually preferred it because they didn't have to second-guess what the colors meant. Still got a coworker who insists I'm overthinking it and that red and green are 'obvious.' Has anyone else tried stripping out color completely and found it works better than expected?
I work in data analytics and always used red and green together in my dashboards. Last month a coworker named Mike finally told me he couldn't tell which lines were which in my monthly report. He has deuteranopia, so red and green look identical to him. I switched to using blue and orange instead, plus different line styles like dashes and dots. Has anyone else had to redo a whole project because of a simple color choice?
I redesigned my neighborhood flyer for an open house last weekend. Swapped red and green status markers for plus and minus icons instead. Took maybe 10 minutes in Canva, but three visitors mentioned they could actually read it. Anyone else tried swapping symbols for colors?
Was at a coffee shop in Austin last Thursday and heard two designers talking about a new dashboard they made. One of them literally said 'I mean, how many colorblind people are even going to use this?' and the other laughed. It made my blood run cold honestly. That dashboard probably uses red/green indicators without any patterns or text labels. If you're building anything with status alerts or data charts, please add icons or patterns alongside the colors. Has anyone else run into this kind of dismissive attitude from colleagues?
I always thought using different colors for icons was enough. Then my teammate Jen showed me her accessibility test results last Tuesday. She had 8 people with different types of colorblindness try our dashboard. Turns out 3 of them could not tell the green circle apart from the red circle at all. Jen suggested adding distinct shapes like squares and triangles to match each color. After we added shapes, those same 3 people completed the task 40% faster. Anyone else have a moment where a simple shape change made a big difference for your users?
For years I thought the whole 'add patterns and icons' thing was overkill. Figured color blind folks could just ask someone or memorize the legend. Then last month I watched a guy on my crew spend 5 minutes trying to match a green line on a graph to the legend because it all looked brown to him. I redesigned one of our safety reports with circles for one data set and triangles for another, no color at all. Showed it to three different guys who have trouble with reds and greens and they all said it was way easier to read. Now I'm redoing all our job site charts. Anybody got a good set of free icons they use for this kind of thing?
Turns out using green and red together for status indicators made it impossible for like 8% of people to read. I switched to adding icons like checkmarks and X's alongside the colors and the feedback was way better. Has anyone else dealt with redesigning a whole interface after one round of testing?
I used green instead of red for error states on a dashboard. My colorblind beta tester caught it instantly. Has anyone else found a specific percentage of color reliance that changed how you design?
I've been keeping track since I started working at a small web agency in Austin. I run every layout through a colorblind simulator before sending it to the client. It's become a habit now. But 500 hours surprised me because I thought I was being careful before and I wasn't. Most of the issues I find are in data charts and form error states. Has anyone else noticed how many common UI patterns fall apart in the green weak spectrum?