Color Blindness and Design

What is Colorblindness?

Colorblindness is a decreased ability to see color, or a decreased ability to tell colours apart from one another.

The two most common types of color blindness, deuteranopia and protanopia, are sex-linked traits and are much more common in men than in women.

Deuteranopia, the most common, occurs in 7% of males, but only 0.5% of females. That’s nearly 8% of the population.

Tools that Help Designers Understand Color Blindness

● An Independent designer has created alternative color palettes that allow designers to preview Web pages as they would be seen by people with complete red or green color blindness.

● Insight, a photoshop plug-in made by Colorfield, allows designers to check the colorblind compatibility of their work by using standard pull-down menus. It can also simulate total blue color blindness.

● Both these tools help Designers understand what their webpage looks like to those with varying degrees/ types of color blindness

5 ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Design for Colorblind Users

Online shopping if often difficult for colorblind people. Web Designers should implement the following techniques:

1.Use clear color names2.Use effective Color Search Filters

3.Avoid Color Specific Instructions

4.Avoid Low Contrast Design

5.Test Your Work

Design Solutions for Color Blindness1.Use both colors and symbols.

2.Keep it minimal

3.Use patterns and textures to show contrast

4.Be careful with contrasting colors and hues

5.Avoid using bad color combinations

Overarching ThemeHow design can and should be implemented to help color blind consumers

Sources● Adjusting Web Colors for the Color Blind● 5 Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Design for Colourblind Users-● How to Design for Color Blindness-● Why Color Blindness is No Longer a Problem for Web Design