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UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

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Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#31

Post by EricE »

Jerard_Victor wrote: post #11
KineticLensman wrote: post #3

If you are reading this, Jerard, please please please consider the accessibility impact of colour, specifically on colour blind people. You should test your app's proposed colour with an accessibility-checking tool. You should also avoid using certain colours to distinguish between different things.

hey, I do reading all the comments here. Frankly speaking, I didn't think about accessibility impact when I was playing with color palettes, but it turned out that Google does such assessment automatically when an app is being reviewed. Thankfully in my case, I didn't have any accessibility-related issues, but this is a valid point and probably it's better to do it during the mocking stage.

I mentioned it elsewhere but I think it's worth mentioning again - for a great discussion of color and accessibility check this: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie...

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#32

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

Jerard_Victor wrote: post #11
KineticLensman wrote: post #3

If you are reading this, Jerard, please please please consider the accessibility impact of colour, specifically on colour blind people. You should test your app's proposed colour with an accessibility-checking tool. You should also avoid using certain colours to distinguish between different things.

hey, I do reading all the comments here. Frankly speaking, I didn't think about accessibility impact when I was playing with color palettes, but it turned out that Google does such assessment automatically when an app is being reviewed. Thankfully in my case, I didn't have any accessibility-related issues, but this is a valid point and probably it's better to do it during the mocking stage.

Good luck with this. I do think that aesthetics could be improved in the tech field (I wuz an artist, way back, when).

But accessibility is critical. There are tools to do things like desaturate pages and apps, and measure contrast.

I write Apple apps, and I make sure that I provide (sometimes, quite verbose) accessibility labels to all my UI elements. There's actually a ton more that can be done, but acc. labels, and respect for dark mode, reduced transparency, and increased contrast, as well as haptics, is usually sufficient.

One thing about providing accessibility strings: They should be translated, as well, if you are localizing.

Here's a really cool tool, that I use: https://michelf.ca/projects/sim-daltonism/

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#33

Post by coldcode »

je42 wrote: post #7
KineticLensman wrote: post #3

If you are reading this, Jerard, please please please consider the accessibility impact of colour, specifically on colour blind people. You should test your app's proposed colour with an accessibility-checking tool. You should also avoid using certain colours to distinguish between different things.

yep. indeed. For example, color contrast should be considered when developing a color palette. it sucks to readjust the app if you discover late in the development that the palette is not having enough contrast for some parts of the ui.

Don't be like Apple did in Big Sur, and reduce all colors to medium gray on light gray backgrounds (arguments I have had with UI designers for years who seem to favorite this combo). Also consider the size of elements when working with color contrast, larger elements are more forgiving than smaller ones, bolder fonts are more forgiving than thin ones. People's ability to see comes in many variations, its not binary (20/10 vision vs sightless).

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#35

Post by coldpie »

EricE wrote: post #29

One of the best discussions of color - especially from an accessibility standpoint is from the US Digital Web Design System: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie... It has one of the best discussions of contrast I have seen; very timely given the trends for low contrast design that seem prevalent combined with my now over 40 eyes (darn those kids!)

> very timely given the trends for low contrast design that seem prevalent combined with my now over 40 eyes

I'm a decade younger than you and I still bristle every time I see someone disparage black-on-white. #000 on #FFF looks fine, guys, and it looks way, way better than the #BBB on #CCC that you're about to publish. You're overthinking it.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#36

Post by coldpie »

inquirerofsorts wrote: post #2

UX advice for UI designers giving advice to software developers: Get a free cert from https://letsencrypt.org/ so my basic half-assed digital defenses don't block your site. I'm not clicking through until you do sorry. Good luck with the multipart series.

I'm not trying to be snarky, just trying to understand. What are you defending against by refusing to visit a read-only, plain HTTP site?

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#37

Post by brainbag »

kevsim wrote: post #16
baxtr wrote: post #13

The best resource I have found for devs who want to improve their design skills is (1). The article below is even about coloring schemes of apps. Very insightful. (1) https://refactoringui.com/previews/building-your-color-palet...

I've had going through RefactoringUI on my todo list for a very long time. I'm working at a small startup [0] on a fairly complex product and design resources is always a challenge. Being able to make some of the simple decisions myself feels like it could be a super power. 0: https://kitemaker.co , super fast, highly collaborative issue tracker

FYI this link on mobile iOS goes into an endless redirect loop of data:urls for some reason.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#39

Post by austincheney »

EricE wrote: post #29

One of the best discussions of color - especially from an accessibility standpoint is from the US Digital Web Design System: https://designsystem.digital.gov/design-tokens/color/overvie... It has one of the best discussions of contrast I have seen; very timely given the trends for low contrast design that seem prevalent combined with my now over 40 eyes (darn those kids!)

The greatest challenge when considering colors and accessibility is dealing with more than 2 colors. I wrote a tool to solve for all comparisons in a color scheme: https://github.com/prettydiff/colorContrast

In every real world scenario there will be a multitude of colors present that impact accessibility. It is almost never so simple as a single text color on a single background color.

Re: UI design for software developers. Part 1, Colors

#40

Post by dmitshur »

coldpie wrote: post #36
inquirerofsorts wrote: post #2

UX advice for UI designers giving advice to software developers: Get a free cert from https://letsencrypt.org/ so my basic half-assed digital defenses don't block your site. I'm not clicking through until you do sorry. Good luck with the multipart series.

I'm not trying to be snarky, just trying to understand. What are you defending against by refusing to visit a read-only, plain HTTP site?

I’m not the parent poster, but one reason I can suggest is:

When you know about the security properties of using the HTTP protocol over internet, and proceed to visit a read-only plain-HTTP website, your attention and time are used up unnecessary on thoughts like “did the author really include this bit of content, or is it being MITM’ed?” with no inexpensive way to find out.

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