Pro tip: My weather app palette trick failed me at the bus stop yesterday

I design transit maps on the side, and for 6 months I thought my color choices were solid. Yesterday morning I was waiting for the 42 bus in downtown Austin and realized the digital board showed the same green for both 'delayed' and 'on time'. That's when it hit me: I had been checking my work on my phone with a colorblind filter, but the actual kiosk screens are older and render colors way differently. The people who rely on this have deuteranopia or protanopia, and my subtle green vs teal choice was basically invisible to them. I went back and swapped to using icons plus text labels next to every color, not just relying on the hue. Has anyone else had a moment where the real world environment showed them their design was broken, not just a simulated test? What did you change first?

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vera_roberts19d ago

Wait, are we sure the problem is the colors and not the outdated screens themselves? You spent six months picking palette combos that passed every sim test, but the real issue is the kiosk hardware is old and garbage. No amount of icons is going to fix that the board itself is stuck in 2012. If the city won't upgrade the displays, you're just adding more clutter to a broken system. Honestly, adding text labels next to every color sounds like a band-aid, not a fix. You still have to look at the board and parse it, and now there's more text competing for attention. The real change should be pushing for better screens or a simple "DELAYED" flashing alert, not redesigning the legend. That said, most people just glance at the board and wait. If the bus is late, they check their phone anyway. So the green/teal thing might have only bothered a handful of people, and now you've made it busier for everyone else to satisfy one edge case.