Accessibility: Low contrast
Contrast between foreground (#09f
) and background (#fff
) ⪅ 3 : 1. (Accessibility verified through https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/)
This should ideally be ≈ 7 : 1.
Potential solutions:
- Change foreground colour (this could be seen as a branding change and may be difficult to execute effectively given current stylistic effects).
- Change background colour (
#000
provides a 7:1 contrast)- Blanket change - black could counteract the lightening effects of white, but at the same time appeals more to the depressed mindset?
- Toggle - solves above mood dampening issue, but requires users to explicit act to enable accessibility (not ideal - access needs should not be treated as second-class)
Potential advantages of black:
- More battery-friendly on AMOLED screens.
- Natural appeal to depressed mindset (Oberascher, L. and Gallmetzer, M., 2003. Colour and emotion. Proceedings of AIC 2003 Bangkok: Color Communication Management, p.373)
- Considered less 'glaring' - more approachable and accessible (Knez, I., 2001. Effects of colour of light on nonvisual psychological processes. Journal of environmental psychology, 21(2), pp.201-208.)
Potential drawbacks:
- Often, black is associated with depression so could lower mood, in theory.
Proposed solution:
- Default to blue foreground on black background.
- Allow customisation to 'light theme' - white background. (This is a UI issue limited to the user-facing app, so just store this as a cookie -- perhaps deal with this when we eventually implement persistent user sessions and offline app support?)