By ColorUI Team6 min read
Designing for Color Blindness: A Practical Checklist
About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of color vision deficiency. Here is how to design for them without making your interface ugly.
The three common types
- Deuteranopia - green-weak (most common, ~6% of men).
- Protanopia - red-weak.
- Tritanopia - blue-weak (rare).
Five rules
- Never rely on color alone. Use icons, text labels, and patterns alongside color.
- Test contrast. 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and graphics.
- Avoid red/green pairings for critical info like errors and success states.
- Use lightness, not just hue, to differentiate categories in charts.
- Simulate your designs with our Colorblind Simulator before shipping.
Inclusive color design is not a constraint - it is a forcing function for clarity.