[thelist] color blindness

[Andrew Jones]

> For those of you who do design work, would this sway
> you to try a different color scheme?

  Yes. If the site you're referring to is defencelaw.com, yes.

  Your web site has a general audience (e.g., there's no 
reason to think your users will be less prone to color 
blindness). You have an immediate, significant group of users 
you can cater to (better than your competitors) simply by 
making adjustments to your color scheme. 

  *If* color-blind people are used to being dumped on with 
buckets of ugly every waking moment of their public life, 
wouldn't it be a pleasure to encounter a few web sites that 
look nice? I don't mean just functional, but actually a pleasure 
to view because the colors were carefully chosen. Wouldn't 
that give you a 10 percent advantage (all other things being 
equal) over your competition?

  Ten percent IMHO is everything. Would you like to increase 
your income 10 percent over last year? Have 10 percent more 
customers?  I don't understand the mentality web designers 
have in writing off users as expendable. It seems lazy.

  Nielsen Netratings says there are 149 million people online 
in the U.S. as of this July. Even if you argue those figures, 
those numbers will be true soon. And if the 10 percent figure 
is correct, that means 14,900,000 people that U.S. sites 
ignore. I realize your site is in Canada, but the same principle 
applies.

  I suggest talking to some color-blind people to find out what 
they really think, and go from there.