Quick Wins
Whether it’s because of times constraints, development limitations, or budget concerns, sometimes an entire overhaul of an application isn’t possible. When that happens, you have to evaluate what you CAN do and find your quick wins and run with them.
Identify Issues
Some of the first things I evaluate when looking for quick wins are the overall color palette, fonts, spacing and sizing and how those things do or do not meet 508 compliance and web content and accessibility guidelines (WCAG). When evaluating this med tech solution, it’s very obvious that there are issues with the dark mode.
Issue
The application’s use of extremely high contrast colors and components defeated the purpose of having a dark mode meant for use in low light environments.
Usability guidelines define 7:1 as enhanced contrast, and on this screen alone there are multiple examples of extremely high contrast:
True black background with white font (21:1)
Aqua on dark gray/black (8.4:1)
White on dark gray (15:1)
Recommendations
Following 508 and WCAG guidance, I proposed several quick changes that the company could make that would minimally impact development timeline and would not require redesign of the application. These suggestions were as follows:
Mute the overall color palette to reduce low light glare from high contrast elements.
Utilize off-black and pale gray colors instead of black and white.
Modify dropdown and textbox background colors to reduce overall brightness.
Incorporate shades of the company’s secondary colors to indicate selections and calls to action.
Use consistent font sizes and styles.
Outcome
The majority of my recommendations were implemented. Due to some development constraints, not all recommendations made it into the final deliverable.
