contrast Articles & Videos

  • 5 Design Principles in Context: Stripe

    Every design has 5 key visual design principles. Here’s how they appear in the real website, Stripe.

  • Visual Design Principles in Action

    Use the 5 key visual design principles—scale, hierarchy, balance, contrast, and Gestalt principles—to objectively critique and improve designs.

  • Accessibility and Inclusivity: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn more about accessible and inclusive design.

  • Dark Mode: How Users Think About It and Issues to Avoid

    Dark mode is popular, but not always a critical feature. Users behave similarly without it. They think about it at the system level, not the application level.

  • Contrast in Charts

    Use color, titles, and callouts to draw your viewers' attention to the main finding in your quantitative-data visualization.

  • Visual Treatments that Improve Accessibility

    To design accessible visuals, account for color contrast, don’t rely on color alone, and make interactive elements easy to identify.

  • 5 Visual Treatments that Improve Accessibility

    To design accessible visuals, account for color contrast, don’t rely on color alone, make interactive elements easy to identify, provide useful alternative text for images, and test your visuals with real users.

  • Breaking out of the Content Silo

    Coming from a traditional content/writing background, Michelle Blake presents her case study of broadening her remit to a fuller range of user-experience issues and improving the design of her organization's website.

  • The Visual Principle of Contrast in UI Design

    When visual design elements appear clearly different (for example, have contrasting colors) users easily deduce that the contrasting item is different or special in some way. So if it actually is different, this enhances usability.

  • Alternatives to Low-Contrast Text

    If the foreground color (the actual words) is too similar to the background color, legibility suffers, and users can't read your copy. Simple tweaks make websites much easier to read.

  • 4 Things to Do When Designing for Older Users

    The number of older adults who use computers and the Internet grows every year. This user population does have special needs, driven by the human aging process, and modest design changes can vastly increase the business you get from seniors.

  • Ensure High Contrast for Text Over Images

    If you place text over a background image, make sure it’s readable by providing adequate contrast. Subtle tweaks can increase the contrast without affecting the overall aesthetic of the site.

  • Low-Contrast Text Is Not the Answer

    Low-contrast text may be trendy, but it is also illegible, undiscoverable, and inaccessible. Instead, consider more usable alternatives.