Effective web site design, color blindness explained by web hosting provider

A Horse Of A Different Color

Did you know that colorblindness affects 10 percent of the people who visit your site and that web designers who ignore this fact will lose or confuse millions of potential customers - web hosting provider explains. Half the human population is male, and 7-10% of all men are color blind to some degree, and .4% of women are color blind. Talk to your web host about how you can best accommodate this group of potential customers and you will see your profits grow.

Color blind shoppers experience problems in the marketplace in general. In brick and mortar stores, they simply ask for help. On the web, certain color combinations can totally destroy a color blind person’s ability to navigate your site which, of course, means that they are unable to make purchases. (Ouch.) According to research 50% plus of online sales are lost because visitors aren't able to navigate through a website and find what they are looking for. If a color blind visitor gets stumped by your site design, they will simply click to another site that is more “user-friendly.”

To get some insight into the problems that color blind surfers experience, check out what one color blind consumer posted on his blog: “Regardless of product quality, if I can't get support, and the company makes no effort to meet my needs, what choice do I have? Do not be deceived into thinking that because you have not heard from colorblind customers or users, you have no problems. Our experience is such that we reach a point in the site where we get stumped. Often we cannot discern the instructions but it is common that we do not even see them. If we complain it is unlikely to even touch on colorblindness because we can't see the problem! Unfortunately, you will probably wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to miss "obvious" instructional graphics.”

It is important to understand that color blind people are actually “color deficient,” meaning that there are certain colors they don’t see well such as red and green. Any colors composed of red and green, such as brown, purple or orange, don’t look the same as they would to someone who sees all colors.

Web developers are accustomed to having a vast array of colors available when designing a page. Designing a website for the colorblind doesn’t mean eliminating all colors and using only black and white. It does mean, however, that you need to understand which color combinations will best serve the needs of all of your web visitors.

Consider these tips from your web hostig provider:

1. Stay away from red and green combinations. People with certain types of colorblindness cannot tell these two colors apart.
2. Make sure navigational text (including image and button text, menus, headers and subheaders) are absolutely clear. Make these items black and white or at opposite ends of the color saturation pole.   
3. Be sure to use contrasting colors on your website so that the text is easily seen. Yellow text on white background, for instance, is difficult to read. The same goes for pale pink and yellow.
4. If you have a form with required fields, making the text red won’t be a significant enough distinction for a color blind person. Add another clue, such as an icon or another element to indicate that the field is required.
5. Ask a color blind friend or relative to look at your site. If you’re not color blind it’s often very difficult to understand the obstacles.
6. Use descriptive text near graphic images to explain the purpose of the image.
7. Desaturate your images to see if they still have impact. Desaturating removes all color from the image so you will be able to tell if the image has enough contrast to be seen without color.

Effective web site design accommodates all visitors, regardless of their abilities.  With just a little effort you can endear your site to millions of color blind surfers and add substantially more “green” into your bank account.

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