No more grey interactive elements - My 2022 UX wishlist
Matthew Carroll
I design inclusive UX into heartless problems and make them come alive ;)
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that there just are very few reasons to make any interactive element grey, and it should be the last color choice (other than using the default text color) a designer or UXer uses, especially in the colorful world we live in.
Rainbow Brite and Murky comes to mind when I think about this.
Most (light UI) text is black or a similar dark color, and grey text links run a narrow path between being too identical to surrounding inactive elements and violating minimum contrast for accessibility.?And that’s if the interactive text is even underlined. ?
Icons and buttons should, like text links, scream their availability to the user - not be hidden.?I work in enterprise UX and many times we have to display conditional interactivity.?We manage that in a lot of ways, but one core, traditional solution is “greying out” an element and supplying short additional queues to explain how the user can activate an element. This continues the long standard that grey represents disabled content, and switching this paradigm conflicts with users’ mental model of interactivity.
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More and more, I see people whom I assume are aesthetic (self) vs. usability (user) minded, who use grey as a subtle differentiator to show something is interactive.?It seems as if they are begrudgingly making the smallest allowance possible to their decoration because they view it as a static artwork to be admired, not used.?As someone who cares about usability, comprehension, and accessibility, this is aggravating - what we do in UX is create experiences, not set pieces to hang on a gallery wall.
Why so reluctant to offer your users affordance??Or contrast? Why make users think and guess as to what they can and cannot interact with?
There are many arguments to be made about design choices generally, but with so many colors on the palette, why camouflage something you want users to find?and interact with??Dark pattern UX?
As with all things, context is king, but what are you thoughts?
UX Research and Strategy Leader | NNg Certified | UX Consultant | Product Research Mentor | Career Coach | Speaker | Expert at creating innovative user-centered solutions that drive business results
3 年When I saw Apple doing this a few years ago, I thought it was an awful idea and they would course correct. Instead what I've seen is a bunch of followers assuming if Apple does it it must be acceptable and cutting edge. Folks, just because a company is large and successful doesn't mean they have the best UX standards. Remember, your users spend most of their time on other sites/apps. Being the most difficult one to use is not a good look! Don't even get me started on Amazon's search algorithms! ??