This chart from theunderstatement.com on Android and iPhone update histories is wonderful, but hard-to-read for many color-blind users because:

1. The colors are too similar. To me, On current major version and 3+ major versions behind are indistinguishable from each other, and both are confusingly similar to 2 major features behind.
2. The colors aren’t arranged logically. The range from newest to oldest isn’t supported by a corresponding range of brightness.

Better: use colors with different values (brightness) and, where appropriate, order the colors from lightest value to darkest as an additional aid to color-blind users. The latter will actually improve the chart for all users, not just the color-blind ones.

Thursday, November 17th, 2011, 12:27 am    Both comments and pings are currently closed.