UI/UX
12 issues tagged with this topic.
Color in motion: how animation changes what palettes need to do
Static color palettes are designed for still compositions. But most digital products include motion — transitions, hover states, micro-interactions, loading states, scroll effects. Animation changes the perceptual requirements of a palette in ways that are rarely documented.
Color contrast for accessibility: what WCAG actually requires and why it matters
WCAG contrast ratios are often treated as a compliance checkbox. Understanding what the numbers actually measure — and where they fall short — makes you a better designer, not just a more compliant one.
Dark mode is not just inverted light mode: the design decisions that make it work
Most dark mode implementations are design accidents — light mode with the lightness flipped. Real dark mode design requires different color relationships, different contrast strategies, and different handling of shadows and elevation.
Designing color systems for mobile apps: constraints that change the rules
Mobile app color design operates under constraints that do not apply on desktop or web: smaller touch targets, varied ambient lighting, OLED displays that make pure black meaningful, and OS-level dark mode that must be handled systematically.
Working with pastel palettes: softness without weakness
Pastel colors are among the most misused in design. Used without intention, they produce interfaces that feel faded, low-contrast, and childish. Used well, they create something rare: warmth, approachability, and calm without sacrificing usability.
Designing with gradients: when they help and when they hurt
Gradients are back — not as skeuomorphic shadows but as a contemporary design tool for backgrounds, UI surfaces, and brand systems. But the same properties that make gradients expressive also make them easy to misuse. Understanding the mechanics helps you use them intentionally.
Color for presentations: slides, decks, and pitch materials
Presentations have a specific set of color requirements that differ from web and brand work. The surface is projected or screen-rendered at variable quality, the audience reads text at low resolution from a distance, and the design must support rapid comprehension rather than exploration.
Color in typography: how typeface color and palette work together
Typography color is often treated as an afterthought — text is black, links are blue. But the color decisions in a type system have a larger effect on how a palette reads than almost any other choice. A palette that looks elegant in a color swatch can look chaotic or flat when applied to text at scale.
Color naming for design systems: tokens that communicate intent
Naming is the invisible architecture of a color system. The names designers give to colors determine how the system scales, how it documents itself, and whether the team that inherits it can use it without reading a manual. Most color naming problems are not aesthetic — they are structural.
Color and wayfinding: spatial color for navigation and signage systems
In physical and digital space, color is often the fastest navigation signal — faster than text, faster than icons, faster than spatial layout. Wayfinding color is not about aesthetics: it is about legibility, memorability, and the speed at which a user can map a color signal to a destination or category.
Color in motion: animation, transitions, and temporal color design
When color changes — in a hover state, a loading animation, a page transition — the change itself communicates. Speed, direction, and easing of a color transition create meaning independently of the start and end colors. Motion design treats color as an event, not just a state.
Color psychology in UX: what color actually affects in digital products
Color psychology in design is one of the most confidently stated and least rigorously studied areas of practice. Much of what designers believe about color effects on users is derived from advertising studies conducted in physical spaces in the 1960s and 1970s — before personal computing existed. The evidence for specific color-emotion mappings is weaker than commonly claimed, but there are reliable effects that hold up across cultures and contexts.