Category Archives: opinions/rants

SimCity for the Colour Blind

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A while ago I posted about whether colour blindness was something that designers should take more seriously. After all, about 8% of all the men in the world are colour blind. Of course, this does not mean that they cannot see colour (the term, colour blindness is a bit of a misnomer) but it does mean that they have difficulty discriminating between colours that the rest of us can easily tell apart. In my original post I was referring to the computer game, Call of Duty, and whether the gameplay could be reduced for colour blind players who may have difficulty telling the various colour tags apart that appear on the screen.

Sim_City_1

So it was quite interesting that I just came across news that the developers of SimCity have added three special colour filters that make adjustments to the colours on screen so that colour blind players can better discriminate. A great idea – but about time!!

Colour blind Chelsea fans

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Rafael Benitez has not exactly been the most popular appointment as Chelsea Manager. I can understand the Chelsea fans’ disappointment. I would be distraught if Benitez was brought in to head up the club I support. However, fair’s fair. This week Benitez was criticised by Chelsea fans for wearing a red tie rather than a blue one; red being the colour of Liverpool football club where Benitez used to manage and is perhaps suspected of still having loyal ties. However, as you can see from the photograph, he was clearing wearing an orange tie not a red one. What does this mean? Are Chelsea fans colour blind? All of them? Have a we discovered a new phenomenon? If anyone would like to fund research into colour vision of football fans please get in touch.
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race for colour

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Over the summer I was asked to take part in a BBC documentary about the recent discovery of the first colour movie film that was fond at the National Media Museum (Bradford). I met the presenter Antonia Quirke (who was very nice) and we filmed for half a day. In the end only a few minutes of our footage made the final cut. Still it was nice to be on TV and BBC1 at that!! For further details see here.

on-line test for colour blindness

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Quite a lot of people are colour blind and have poor colour discrimination. There are tests that can be carried out and these include the Ishihara test (which is a screening test that I certainly remember from School) and the Munsell 100-hue test (where people have to arrange a number of coloured discs in order). These tests need to be performed whilst being viewed in daylight. There are online tests but these are less reliable – partly because the viewing conditions vary such a lot. I recently came across a new online test provide by X-rite. It seems to be based on the 100-hue test (or, at least, something similar) and I can see how it could work, despite being an on-line test). I just had a go. It gave me a score of 34 and suggested that for my age group (and gender) the best score was 0 (perfect colour acuity) and the worst was 99 (low colour acuity). Hmmmmmmmmm. I have a version of the 100-hue test and I can perform it perfectly. My real score should be 0. I have perfect colour discrimination. So, much as I like the X-rite test, I have not changed my opinion that on-line tests like these should be used for fun and should be understood to not provide an accurate assessment of your colour vision. On the other hand, it could just be bitter because I only scored 34. 🙁

1950s graphics

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When I was younger I was a big fan of Marvel comics. I loved The Fantastic Four and Spiderman in particular. I remember that US-based comics (Marvel and others) around the 1960s included the most outrageous adverts that offered fantastic products at very low prices. I always remember wanting some of the sea monkeys and also some of the x-rays specs. Though they were inexpensive, USA seemed a million miles away to me at the time and the notion of buying something from the USA and having it delivered to the UK seemed too fantastic. So I never placed an order. Probably a good thing – check out this interesting review of the 10 most outrageous comic-book advertisements. See also here for more about the monkeys!!

I was reminded of all of this when I came across an article today in the Daily Mail about the work of Peter Stults, an American artist who has taken modern movies and imagined how they would have been advertised in the 50s and 60s. Really interesting and evocative.


ps. If you like Marvel you may like to read what I found out about the colour of the Hulk.

chemical additives

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A few weeks ago I posted about the safety of food colours. My argument was that the issue is not whether food additives are natural or man-made (let’s even say chemical because that really sounds nasty – even though water is a chemical and we are made of chemicals). Rather, the issue is whether any additives are safe or not, since plenty of natural products are highly dangerous (even fatal) and the vast majority of man-made additives are perfectly safe. My good friend, Mark Bishop (Professor at Goldsmiths) commented that maybe people feel safer with natural additives because they have been around for longer and so we are more certain about whether they are safe or not. He may have a point – today it was revealed that 4-methylimidazole (which is added to Pepsi and Coca-Cola) is carcinogenic. Presumably this chemical was once thought to be safe.

natural colours

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The Guardian has reported that Nestlé has removed artificial ingredients from their entire confectionary range. However, I am not sure that this is worth making too much of a song and dance about. The public have a natural aversion to artificial colorants. Surely natural is better? Well, not necessarily.

The foliage and berries of the Deadly Nightshade plant are extremely toxic. Apple seeds can be fatal if eaten in large enough quantities (they contain a small amount of amygdalin). The kidney bean is poisonous if not correctly cooked. The puffafish – known in Japan as Fugu – can be lethally poisonous due to its tetrodotoxin; therefore, it must be carefully prepared to remove toxic parts and to avoid contaminating the meat. All of these things are natural.

Lots of natural products are not harmful. But there are many many artificial chemicals that are completely identical (chemically) to their naturally occurring and harmless equivalents. It’s strange that we are so keen to believe that natural is good and man-made is bad. Sometimes it is true, but sometimes it is not.