Articles by Daryl Koopersmith
Designing accessible color systemsStripe updated the colors in their user interfaces to improve accessibility. They found existing tools were limited, so they built their own tool using a perceptually uniform color model to provide real-time feedback. This enabled them to create a color palette that was accessible, had clear vibrant hues, and maintained visual weight. By translating their colors into the CIELAB color space, they could adjust colors based on perceptual contrast. Their new default text and icon colors now meet accessibility contrast guidelines, and any two colors are guaranteed to have sufficient contrast for different text sizes. Building their own tool helped them rapidly iterate on a color palette that was both accessible and vibrant.