The new HUD was NOT colorblind optimized
Hello everyone,
It hurts me to talk about this because I did not think I would have to and thought these issues would not make it though but... I guess here we go:
Back when the 4.5.0 PTB released, i made this post, talking about many different issues, as well as improvements the PTB made. And I have also talked about the issues for colorblind people that the new HUD/UI poses, showing examples of what is causing issues.
I don't exactly remember who said it or where it was stated but it doesn't really matter. We're not here to play the blame game. However, it was said that for the release of the 4.5.0 update, the team would adress and fix the colorblind issues the new HUD and UI had during the PTB before releasing it. Yet, here I am, playing the game, and seeing that it's not much better. So let's take a closer look at it.
Quick disclaimer: I am not colorblind myself, so yes, for me, most of these things aren't a huge problem. However, I have been interested in colorblindness for a long time, been working with colorblind people and work on accessability issues myself. So if you are colorblind and disagree, please let me know.
What has been fixed:
Survivor Injured portraits:
- Injured Survivors are now displayed, not only with a red glow, but also a white slash on top of their icons.
- That is good and it helps colorblind people distunguish healthy from injured Survivors better.
- And... that's actually all I could find that the team adressed... which is... very poor.
What has not been fixed:
Debuff Status effects:
- The debuff status effect timers are still bright red on dark red. Very low contrast.
- This is not very easy to tell apart for most colorblind people.
- I've also noticed: This is with the timer on a dark background (the wooden floor), with a bright background like on Ormond for example, this could be even worse.
- The old UI used to have a white/grey-ish circle without a backdrop. Not perfect either, but probably better.
- I would suggest changing the dark red backdrop to a white/grey-ish color or even black and keeping the bright red circle to create more contrast.
Buff Status Effects:
- Same issue with the buff status effects. It's bright yellow on dark yellow. Very low contrast. Even less than the red ones, at least to my own eyes.
- Similar to the debuff timers, making the backdrop color either white, grey or black while keeping the bright yellow ring would help to create more contrast.
Perk timers:
- Perks that just started charging up or are about to run out, glow red with a very high opacity.
- The opacity of this effect was much lower with the old UI and looked visually more pleasing and less bold.
- For certain colorblind people it might even be impossible to tell which perk this is.
- At almost 100%/0% charge up, the opacity would be even higher and the effect even worse.
Item CHarges:
- This might be nitpicking but i wanted to show this just in case other players experienced the same.
- I was playing with a toolbox and was wondering why I couldn't use it on a generator. The reason: It was empty... but I didn't realise it, because the bar for a full toolbox and the bar for an empty one look so similar.
- Again, it's a white charge bar on a grey-ish backdrop. Not much contrast
- My suggestion: Increase contrast by making the gray backdrop even darker to distinguish the colors for full and empty.
Freddy and Demogorgon teleport markers:
- Freddy's and Demogorgon's teleport markers to generators/portals are now black which can make them harder to see with certain background.
- Sometimes the black isn't as bad as Freddy's Dreamworld is pretty bright anyways, but in pictures like the one I shared, you can see that it can create problems. With dark maps like The Game it might be even worse.
- Red was probably better to highlight them more from their surroundings. Especially if their color gets changed with the upcoming colorblind mode, keeping them red instead of black shoud be better to create more contrast. After all, there are no maps with a strong red tint, except Midwich maybe.
- Alternatively, giving the marker a contrasting contour or shadow effect could help too.
Hook timers:
- This is by far the worst offender, because even for me, a non-colorblind person, it's hard to tell apart.
- The time a Survivor has left when being on a hook is extremely hard to tell.
- Not only is it an extremely transparent red hue on a white/grey-ish backdrop with just as low of an opacity.
- The red blood effect behind the UI makes the timer even harder to read.
- I bet for most colorblind people, this is impossible to read.
In summary...
... I am disappointed with how the team has handled the colorblind accessability, even after they specifically told us, they'd work on it and improve the issues the new HUD had... and still has. I personally thought the update was postponed BECAUSE of the colorblind issues the new UI posed, yet barely anything was fixed or improved. This update feels pretty much exactly like the PTB we've played a month ago, with the exception of some Survivor locomotion issues, which is yet another topic to talk about. And it's even more disappointing, considering I am not the first one who talking about this. Back when the 4.5.0 PTB first launched, me and many other players have pointed these issues out in the forums.
Comments
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I've not realized survivors are dying on hooks too often to count, which is unhelpful.
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Yeah, the new bars are not only dimmer and less opaque but also longer and thinner. Makes them much harder to read than the old ones.
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Found another thing that might create issues with the color of Freddy's and Demogorgon's teleport markers. I've added it up at the main post as an edit. I'm gonna keep the post updated if I find any more things.
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