New! Updated customizable color palette for better accessibility

I just got the new colors today and was dreading it, after reading all the comments. I don’t understand why we cannot still have RED, as such an important color for so many of us…several different pinks just don’t have the same impact. PLEASE please consider adding back in the color options that were available before, as well as allowing for these color choices for anyone that needs them. Thank you.

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@Emily_Roman
Looks like the tags are no longer in bold. :heart_eyes:
Just wanted to say thank you and please help me pass on the “thank you” to your team as well! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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So disappointed that Asana has read all these comments and said ‘thanks for your feedback but we’re rolling out the change anyway.’ It’s clear the overwhelming majority of people find the new colours jarring and it would be a shame to lose users just because of some colours. Surely you can give update the option that’s already in settings to use accessible colours rather than making them standard? I have no visual issues but these colours are giving me one!

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Thanks for posting a response Emily, it is nice for Asana to say… something.

I know I’ve posted several times on this thread. I would agree with the 98% of the people on this thread that really do not like the color change that Asana has forced, even if the intentions were deemed good. I see that ‘Designing for Web Accessibility’ is touted as the reasoning, but I am not aware of anywhere in those guidelines where it states “do whatever possible to make the majority of user’s experience horrible so that the small minority could enjoy some benefit”. That seems contrary to the spirit of ‘accessibility’. That would be kind of like saying that in the interest of helping people in wheelchairs we will destroy ALL stairs, everywhere, and force every situation to only use ramps. Who would do that? Nobody, because you can actually use ramps WITH stairs to the benefit of everyone.

One of the things I’m curious about is why? I did some searching in the forum, I could not find a single post of any people that were ASKING for this? Are Asana designers so bored that they are just looking for things to do? I doubt that, but then why? Why force a situation that upsets the vast majority of users, with the intent of helping a small minority of users who didn’t say they needed help in the first place?

The simple solution is to just provide us an option. I think several people have mentioned it in this post. Asana already had the ‘Enable color blind friendly mode’, WHY in the world couldn’t this color change just be another Display setting called ‘Enable better color accessibility’ and let the very few people who like that enable it and leave the vast majority of us with original, visually pleasing color palette that nobody complained about. WHY?

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Note that I’m not defending the specific color choices Asana made (there are definitely elements of it I’m not crazy about), and I agree that the solution is to offer users the ability to select their colors as @Emily_Roman suggested is under consideration. But the answer to your question is easy: they’re acting to be in compliance with web standards for accessibility and, probably more importantly, it’s the law. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) includes standards for websites, which include standards for color contrast.

Also don’t forget that participants in the forum represent (by my rough calculation) about .6% of the Asana user population, meaning there can be A LOT of input they’re receiving that we never see here.

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Thank you - yes please give us the option to use the option for visually impaired if we are/need it, but keep the standard version if we don’t.

Like many of the comments above, we use Asana every day and really cannot look at it like this; it’s very messy and the colours are painful - it was so beautful before. This is very disapointing as we’ve spent two years building out colours and systems within Asana, choosing it over the rest, largely based on aesthetic, now all of this is different - surely that’s not fair on a paying user who doesn’t need a visually impaired verion?

I completey support the creation of a verion for those who need it, however, I’m sure it’s not logical to apply this to everyone.

This opinion is echo’d throughout our teams and by our clients who use it with us.

Thank you for listening.

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These new colors are a step in the wrong direction. I understand the need for improving accessibility for those with vision impairment, but for the rest of the users this is quite a jarring look that is anything but visually appealing. I agree with the other commenters that there is no longer a red option, as the new red blends in with the existing pink colors. Part of the reason for using colors is to be able to quickly distinguish elements without needing to read the text, and the similar red and pinks now make that hard to do. Additionally, the alternating foreground color makes some labels seem more important or less important than they used to. The dark foreground text on a dark background, like the mint green, seems to be less readable with the low contrast than before.

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Please give us the option to switch between accessible vs natural/non-accessible colors or full-color customization. These color changes are really impacting our workflow and very vibrant and difficult to look at.

I would also suggest to really test out changes in a smaller user group before rolling them out to all of us users. I consider the other 50% of users that do not have these new colors to be lucky.

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I have to agree with other commenters - this is a mess. I applaud you for looking at accessibility, but accessibility doesn’t have to be so ugly. We design websites that are accessible and have a pleasing to the eye palette - these are not mutually exclusive. The worst thing about this is changing the text color from light to dark within the same element - some projects / tags / people have light text on a color background and others have dark text on a color background. Ugh, it’s depressing to look at my schedule now.

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I’m not a fan of these new colors. It looks like we have 4 different pinks (because the red isn’t red anymore), so it’s REALY hard to tell them apart unless they are RIGHT next to each other. My red tags used to be eye-catching and signify importance and now they don’t stand out at all. Can you please provide some better options? Maybe provide a few different palettes for us to choose from? Those who are visually impaired and need the new color scheme can choose it. Or let us customize the colors?

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Hi, I really liked the color of my different projects and now the colors are fluorescent and I don’t like it. I hope you could change it back thanks.

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Yes me too I would like the old one please, I don’t like the new one such a shame

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Welcome to Asana world :slight_smile: Truly some really strange decisions lately, but I think it will be the first of many to come unfortunately.

I understand there are legal requirements, but there was already an option for colorblind mode…why would you not have “low visibility” mode or something? This is not a situation where either/or was the acceptable or responsible choice. Color theory exists for a reason, and many people attribute colors to specific statuses, emotions, etc. This is an absolute horrid execution and the response from Asana is equally as terrible. Visibility and usability is the #1 reason people have preferences when it comes to platforms like this. I already have issues with onboarding my team, and this will no doubt make it harder since our color palettes are well established over 30+ years as a company.

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:thinking:

image

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What does that mean? Does that mean Asana is closing this topic with no resolution and no real response from Asana?

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Here, here! What Sara said! Asana was not ‘forced’ to do this in the way they did. No lawsuit or police officer was waiting at the door. To be a good web dev citizen means taking measures to accommodate accessibility, but NOT at the expense of everyone else. I know I’m ‘preaching to the choir’ for the vast majority of this post, the question is whether Asana is listening or cares?

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I don’t really know, but that’s what it looks like…

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I’m new to this forum; only joined because the new color palette has ruined the Asana experience for us.

I posted my original concerns in a “Product Feedback” thread, but my thread was closed and transferred to here, which is a “Announcements” thread. Unlike my original post, in this thread there appears to be no voting system and we will be locked out in a couple days from adding more feedback… Yet every post on here seems to be product feedback.

Could a moderator please make this a Product Feedback thread please? So we can vote and get it into the development roadmap. The single Asana response so far has been deeply discouraging.

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Are the colors being put back yet as an “option”?

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