How to test GUI for color blind person?

Question

Is there a way to test if a GUI is usable for color blind person?

I know that it has many degrees and I guess that's why simply doing a screenshot in black & white is not the best way to test the usability of a GUI for a color blind person. What is the best way or best tool to do it?

Solution 1

Search for color blindness simulation tools on the net. You will find for example

• Sim Daltonism (Mac OS X): http://michelf.com/projects/sim-daltonism/
• Colorblind Web Page Filter (Web): http://colorfilter.wickline.org/
• 15 Tools If You Are (Not) Colorblind: http://www.colblindor.com/2008/12/23/15-tools-color-blindness/

Solution 2

you can change the color of your screenshots using this website: http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/

Solution 3

Remember that a colorblind person doesn't necessarily see the world in black and white but rather some colors change their appearance. There are several different kinds of color-blindness out there and each looks different. Here are some images illustrating the different variants. For the most part it's either reddish or greenish tones that are affected, while most of the time blue colors remain what they are.

You can try out how your UI looks to various color-blind persons with this tool for example.\

The Windows User Experience Guidelines also cover color with respect to color blindness.

Solution 4

I was told by one of my users that his sight disability requires him to use the High Contrast Black setting. So what I do to test that my program will appear fine to sight impaired people (including various types of color blindness), is to temporarily change to that setting.

Sample of High Contrast Black http://www.digitalexpedition.com/main/assets/images/HighContrastBlackTheme.jpg

To do so in Windows XP, go to Accessibility Options in the Control Panel. On the Display Page, click "Use High Contrast" and from the Settings button select: "High Contrast Black (large)".

The procedure is similar with Windows Vista.

I found a number of colors needed adjusting when I did this. When going back to normal viewing mode, the result was slightly higher contrast but not too noticeable changes for normal sighted viewers, but better contrast for color blind and other vision impaired users.

If this still doesn't help a person with a particular form of color blindness, I would then recommend they try using High Contrast Black as their normal option, since they're missing out on more than just my program.

Solution 5

To test a web page for colorblindness accessibility, you can try out:

http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

View more solutions

Comments

[Patrick Desjardins]

Exactly what I said in the question ;) This is why I am asking for a tool or method. See the second sentence in the question "I know that it has many degree..."

[dhara tcrails]

Nice, that is pretty slick. I was actually planning on creating something like that.

[Rich]

Note that this tries to produce images that a color-blind person can perceive in a similar way to one with normal eyesight. It doesn't simulate how a color-blind person perceives the original image. There is a different tool for that: vischeck.com/vischeck

[Rich]

Eep, sorry. Memo to self: Read questions more thoroughly.

[Patrick Desjardins]

From you 15 tools the program called "ViSolve" is very interesting because you can use it in all application and not only webpage. Very nice.

[Jon Seigel]

+1 Windows User Experience Guidelines: "While color is the most obvious attribute of many designs, it must always be redundant."

[Rich]

Jon: The whole guidelines are a good read, imho. It's just the sad fact that no-one reads them :-(