Always provide alternatives in the form of text, icons, or other indicators. Second, never use color alone to convey information or indicate action. The more contrast, the better the colorblind can see the difference between the two items. Two simple rules about contrast and colorįirst, good contrast helps a lot. There are a couple of simple principles you can use to make your design much more accessible. Thankfully, designing for the colorblind doesn’t have to be difficult. The difference is design, someone designed the interface to rely on color alone.Īs designers, we should take into account that there are many people that don’t see the way most people do. There’s a big difference between not being able to distinguish between two colors and not being able to use an interface because you can’t distinguish between two colors. You can also read more about the details of color blindness in the quick introduction to color blindness article I wrote. You can find examples of these challenges on /examples. Green is still green and red stays red, but not as vibrant or bright as someone who’s not color blind would see it.įor the colorblind, colors lie closer to each other and tend to blend together more.īecause of their reduced color perception, the colorblind face challenges with a lot of online products like websites, apps, games, and webshops.

What do the colorblind see?įirst of all, the colorblind do see color.

The three types of cones translate into three main types of color blindness: Deuteran (green), Protan (red), and Tritan (blue). This changes your color perception, resulting in what we call color blindness. When one type of cones malfunctions, the color this cone would normally absorb is altered. Mixing together the information of those three different types of cones makes up our color vision. The rods are sensitive to light while the cones pick up color.Įach of the cones is carrying one out of three different photopigments-red, green, and blue-and reacts differently to colored light. The retina is made up of photoreceptors: rods and cones. To see, we need light to hit the retina at the back of our eyes. And best of all, designing with the colorblind in mind will also improve your design for everyone. As designers, we owe it to our users to take their challenges into account.

Color oracle simulator