[thelist] Colour survey

>A significant group of people (usually men) uffer from red-green
>colorblindness to one extent or another.

i am one of these people.  i have a red-brown-green deficency.  i
originally wanted to be a designer... period.  but with my colour blindness
it obviously hampered me.

i still design and think i do a good job.  it's amazing what little tricks
you can pick up to avoid people actually knowing your 'problem'.   how's
this one:  'hey, which colour do you think suits this best?'
LOL

i always thought of my colour blindness as a problem, but a few months back
a different point of view was brought to me by some work colleagues.  i was
showing a design i'd done at home for a site i've been working on.  they
were like 'wow, i'd never use THOSE colours together... but it works!'.

so i know look at my colour blindness as a bizarre advantage.  i design
sites which are very easy for all users to use as they always contrast
nicely. and the big advantage is that i'll use colours others may fear to
use, or not even think of.  sure, it's not fool proof, but that's what
friends are for - always getting opinions - and at least 9 times out of 10
i'm right on the money.

since i'm colour blind i can possibly help clue some of you 'normal' people
in on problems we can have. obviously it can be hard for me to describe
what i see as what i see is normal to me...  now for my first tip :)
whether it's good or not :p

<tip type="catering for red,green, brown colour deficiency">
here's some problems i've encountered with my colour deficiency which may
be handy for designers to bare in mind. generally problems for myself have
only come from viewing budget geocities type sites with zero design skills
and may be common sense design problems which evolters would already be
avoiding:
- try and avoid using red, green or brown text on any of these background
colours.  if they are highly contrasting you may be fine, but generally
they can be hard or impossible to read or even see.
- i personally can have trouble with blue's and purples together because of
purple containing red.
- although
- primary colours are usually easily visible, problems occur with shades of
these colours.
- red text on blue can be REALLY glaring and even cause headaches.
</tip>

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Chris Silwedel
Multimedia Programmer
CALS  -  IMU / ODU

Ph: +61 8 8207 8521
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