3,361 views

Sparklette Decoloured

Did you know that colour blindness affects approximately 8 percent of all men in America? That means 1 out of every 12 American men is colourblind! On the other hand, only 0.4 percent of women in America are colour-blind, which is significantly less.

I am not sure if the same statistics apply for Singapore. For a population in which more than 70 percent of all adults are myopic, we already have our fair share of vision problems. I personally do not know anyone who’s colour-blind.

Since a third of all visitors to Sparklette are Americans, I figured some of them may actually be colourblind. As a designer, I am curious as to how this website looks to a colour-blind person. So I downloaded this Photoshop filter to find out.

To a person who’s not colourblind, this is what Sparklette looks like:

sparklette.net as seen by a person not affected by colour blindness

(Okay, I get that the screenshot isn’t entirely necessary, but it’s here for easy comparison.)

There are different kinds and levels of colour blindness. This is how the site looks to a protanope (I swear, I am not calling anyone names!):

sparklette.net as seen by a person affected by red-green colour blindness (protanopia)

A person with protanopia can’t differentiate between red and green hues. Another form of red-green colour blindness is deuteranopia:

sparklette.net as seen by a person affected by red-green colour blindness (deuteranopia)

Those two look rather similar since they are both forms of red-green colour blindness. I can’t really tell any difference except that in deuteranopia, the red hues seem closer to the actual colours.

For blue-yellow colour blindness, or tritanopia, this is how this website appears:

sparklette.net as seen by a person affected by blue-yellow colour blindness (tritanopia)

Then, there is the most extreme form of colour blindness known as achromatopsia. That’s total colour-blindness. The person sees only grey tones:

sparklette.net as seen by a person affected by total colour blindness (achromatopsia)

How terrible to not see the world in colour!

Subscribe to new posts

About the Editor

Veron Ang is the Founder and Chief Editor of Sparklette, a Singapore restaurants guide, lifestyle and travel blog. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and runs a web design firm at Sparklette Studio. To get in touch, head on over to the contact page or follow @Sparklette and @VeronSG on Twitter.

Featured on Smashing Magazine!

Basil Alcove – No Frills Fine-Dining

Comment using Facebook

Responses Leave a comment

pkchukiss
82 comments

Actually, your site still looks kind of cool with the first, but for those who have trouble seeing the colour blue, they miss out on quite a lot of the stuff that makes colours great.
I guess this has got to do with how blue is a relatively major composition in colours or something, but I haven’t read up on this, so I don’t really know much. It really is a pity to be unable to see the brilliant display for what they are!
Reply
Posted March 10, 2007 at 9:04 pm
ZK
5 comments

Think many guys in Singapore are suffering from red-green colour blindness. ( I am one of them ) That explains why I cant really tell the difference between the 1st two images. At least I am still blessed with the ability to see the world in colour.
Reply
Posted March 10, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Joyz
43 comments

How interesting that you pointed this out. Yes, its really the saddest thing to not be able to see or be colour blind when the world is so full of vivid colours. I did a colour blind test way back and apparently I can’t tell from red and green when they are mixed together. Luckily I can still see them individually and am not affected by it. Otherwise, I’ll not call shopping my hobby!
Reply
Posted March 10, 2007 at 11:34 pm
sweska
1 comment

wow! interesting …i know all the names now. And the differences!
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 5:40 am
Huimei
11 comments

Interesting. I’m going to try that for myself too, always wonder how the world looks like when some colours are excluded. I guess the fortunate thing for those who are colourblind is that they still can see. I hope they felt that way too.
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 10:09 am
[::eM::]
2 comments

The worst thing that can happend to one is being totally blind and living in a world of darkness. :o(
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 10:34 am
DK
36 comments

Actually, your blog looks nice in total grey tone. :D
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 10:53 am
Veron
3439 comments

pkchukiss: Yeah! Seeing this site from the eyes of a colourblind person is a new experience. It also made me realise that my design is more blue than any other colour.
ZK: It does affect more men than women. I have a question about how someone with red-green colour blindness would view the world. Do things look bluish and yellowish?
Joyz: Did you have to do those tests with the dots and hidden numbers? It takes me a little while to spot those numbers too.
sweska: We learn something new everyday!
Huimei: I don’t know if they would feel they are missing out on anything since they haven’t actually seen the “real” colours before.
[::eM::]: Perhaps not the worst, but it is pretty close!
DK: Good to have options!
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 11:50 am
Princess
6 comments

Interesting entry, I’m going to try it out myself too.
Like DK said, it’s nices in grey tone as well. In fact, it’s nice in all the following tones that you have screenshot. But of cause the one with full colour is the best of all ;x
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Joyz
43 comments

Yes, its those numbers made up of dotted colours which always get my mind swirling! The usual first two/three will be the simplest and then it gets harder as it goes down the pages. I always end up doing “tikkam” at the back!
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 5:42 pm
ZK
5 comments

I guess I face the same problems as Joyz, totally hopeless when red and green are mixed together, but no problem when they are not. Things dont look particularly bluish or yellowish, but I remember I had to be certified that I am colour blind when taking my chemistry practical exam =>
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Keropok Man
12 comments

I think during my days in Uni, (long long ago), we were told that certain colours are not to be used for screen designs.
Some people would not be able to see anything! haha…
There are also certain colour combinations that’s a no no. They did simulations that users become violent and might go mad if they have to work on those screens. LOL…
p/s did u get your laptop in the end at the IT show? haha.. It’s been a long time since you wanted to get one right?
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 8:41 pm
mervkwok
38 comments

I pity the man who has achromatopsia and reads this post hehe. He won’t know the diff
Reply
Posted March 11, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Veron
3439 comments

Princess: You should try it! With a pink blog like yours I bet it would look very different to a person with red-green colour blindness.
Joyz: Other than for certain jobs, when do people have to take colour blindness tests? Personally I don’t recall ever having had to take one before.
ZK: Ooh! Now I remember! My classmates and I used to say how unfair it was that colourblind people had the colours told to them during chemical reactions!
Keropok Man: You learned screen designs in university? That’s pretty cool! The violent reactions to certain colour combinations reminds me of the Pokemon seizures back in 1997, but it’s probably not the same thing. And no, I didn’t get anything from the IT Show. Apple didn’t have any fantastic deal that I was hoping for.
mervkwok: You are right. It would just look like 5 exactly identical images on a similar-looking website.
Reply
Posted March 12, 2007 at 12:48 am
Joyz
43 comments

You have to take such a test for certain courses in Tertiary education. I remembered I wanted to do Quality Assurance (QA) in Poly and as I failed this test, I was rejected for the course! I still remembered begging the doc to pass me. Of course, he said “no”! He cited that there were so many wires that I had to deal with in QA and most of them were red and green…so imagine if I couldn’t differentiate them and ended up causing an explosion! Haha…thinking back, it was quite funny! I ended up in Logistics anyway!
Reply
Posted March 12, 2007 at 3:05 pm