Color
Blindness Effects
1 In 12 Web Site Visitors!
©
John Dow
Did you know that up to 1
in 12 web site visitors have some type of color blindness?
This is based on the general facts that up to 8 out of 100
men, and .05% of women have a color viewing issues.
According to the statistics I've seen, red and green seem to
be the two colors most people have trouble with.
Think about traffic lights,
or the Xmas season with green and red being a problem to
view properly. And consider your web site designs that may
use red and green, how much trouble is it for a visitor to
view your content?
People with these problems
tend to not see the difference between red and green. Many
times both colors may appear as shades of yellow. Contrast
disappears and these two colors tend to bleed into each
other. If the shades of red and green tend towards the
brighter side, this problem is reduced but not eliminated.
The last figures I read on
legibility on web sites rated dark blue type on a clean
white background as the best color combination. I think that
may be one of the reasons that you see hyperlinks in blue,
it's the most legible color combination and designers want
people to see the hyperlinks.
I'm kind of partial to red,
green I can leave or take. Part of it is that we are taught
from a young age to recognize red as a possible danger (stop
lights, stop signs, danger signs, etc.). So if your eye
detects anything red in color, you stop and actually look at
it to see if there is some nearby threat or warning.
In my web site designs,
I've often used red to draw attention to a piece of
information that I want visitors to see. In fact one of my
standard methods is to use dark blue for headlines, then
throw in a red headline that is most important. That has
always seemed to work well for drawing immediate attention
to that information.
People with color viewing issues may see this red headline
as a shade of yellow, which may not have the same impact.
although I do think that it still may draw their attention.
But I will stay to a much brighter red in the future since
it may help some what for people with color issues.
Colors do seem to have a
big impact on mood and attention. I've tested many
combinations and found that the blue type on a white
background, and dark blue headlines do increase conversions.
I can't tell you a scientific reason but I can state that
there is a positive factor involved due to my results.
So it's always a good idea
to consider the colors on any web design. Stay to the safe
viewing colors recommended due to the limited abilities of
video cards, and consider that all people don't view all
colors the same way.
There is also a
"standard" of sorts that is called Browser
Friendly or Browser Safe colors. Netscape originally
established this standard years ago and many still rely on
it today. All of the major browsers have adopted this color
set to help web site designers with choosing colors that
display the same across all video devices.
Without getting too technical, these colors are limited to
the basic 256 available on any computer equipment including
our friends with Macs. These browser safe colors will
display the same across all makes and models of equipment.
You can see the colors and Hex values here:
Web
Site Safe Color Chart
Your best bet in using colors is to stick to both a pleasing
combination and consider the legibility. You want people to
be able to view your information, the Internet is a very
visual medium. Consider the fact that some people may have a
color blindness or problem viewing some colors.
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