New tag/custom field and project tag color

I noticed a recent change to the tag highlight color. For example: at work, we use a tag of “!” highlighted in bright red to denote high urgency tasks. As of today, that highlight color has turned to a soft pink. I went and looked at the tag itself, only to find the selected color was still the original red we’d selected.

The issues I see here are:

  1. The color select for tags no longer matches the actual color of the tags on tasks
  2. Forcibly softening tag colors does not cover all use cases.

My recommendations:

  1. Provide a broader range of colors which include both the existing color options with their original matching in-task highlights retained
  2. Ensure that the color selection on tags matches the color that’s visible on the task view

Yes, +1 from me. Please bring the bright colors back.

In the meantime, I’m seriously considering turning “color blind friendly mode” on, which kind of solves the issue, but feels like a crude workaround…

4 Likes

Hi @Shawn_Golley and @Mark_Kirchner :wave:t3: Thank you so much for your feedback! Just wanted to give you some insights into what led us to make this decision!

We decided to change how colors are presented in Asana as part of our plan to improve the overall accessibility of the product. Our aim here is to ensure that people who are visually impaired can access the same information from Asana as everyone else, and also gain the same benefits.

The most common difficulty that people with visual impairments have is identifying particular hues of color. These new colors allow people to more easily use brightness contrast to differentiate elements in Asana.

@Shawn_Golley, thanks for your feedback regarding the fact our color palette hasn’t been updated yet, I’ll make sure to let our Product Team know about that to avoid any confusion in the future!

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Speaking as someone who is visually impaired myself, the thing that I find most disruptive is the loss of contrast. Tags that used to be quite visually distinct now fade into the background and are harder to differentiate between each other.

Providing a range of higher and lower saturation color options would accommodate both needs, I think.

1 Like

Hi @Marie

I’m a bit confused now. Are we actually talking about the same color palette? Because I really can’t image that this both low-saturation and low-contrast palette can make it easier “to differentiate elements in Asana” for anybody:

Kind regards
Mark

2 Likes

Thanks for the follow-up @Mark_Kirchner

Yes we’re definitely talking about the same thing, but let me give you a little more insights into what led us to make this decision. People with reduced vision often have difficulty reading text that does not contrast with its background. This latest update makes it so that tags, custom fields etc. now have more contrast than they did before - even if it doesn’t look like it! (White text on a bright background is actually pretty low-contrast.)

To put concrete numbers to it, our old contrast ratio for hot pink tags/custom fields was 3.46:1 ; now it’s 6.70:1 . The minimum standard is 4.5:1 .

If you want to learn more, I’d recommend checking out the Color Contrast Checker from the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University. WebAIM: Contrast Checker

This tool compares two colors, and tests whether they pass the official web standards for contrast. For example, we used to have #FFFFFF text on a #EA4E9D background, which fails. Now we have #852C47 text on a #FFDAE5 background, which passes!

Hope this helps!

Hi @Marie

thanks for the additional feedback. I can see that the new palette improves readability of the text inside the tags.

I guess what I (and maybe also @Shawn_Golley) are complaining about, is the reduced contrast of the the “tag element” itself: Using the link you provided, I checked the “contrast rating” of the two tags marked in my screenshot (using the light color against the white background):
For the green one it’s only 1.12:1 and for the turquoise one its 1.15:1.

So while reading the text might have become easier, it has become harder to identify the “tag element” itself.

And after reading some more in the documentation on the webaim.org page, I came across this:

If text and background colors are inverted, the contrast ratio remains the same.

So: Wouldn’t switching fore- and background color of the tags “make both camps happy”? The contrast ratio of the text against the surrounding tag element would stay the same. But at the same time, the ratio of the tag against the white background would drastically improve.

And finally - as always in such cases: Why not make the whole thing a user preference? I mean: Flying unicorns are a user preference, so … :slight_smile:

Kind regards,
Mark

3 Likes

Thanks for this feedback @Mark_Kirchner; really appreciate it! I’ll make sure to pass it on to the Team and to update this thread if I hear anything!

2 Likes

Agreed. Making this a user preference would work.

For me, often the tag element itself is more important than the text inside it. For example, when working at larger browser font settings where the size of the tag field becomes so small as to obscure meaningful text, therefore the tag color becomes more important.

4 Likes

I’m with Shawn. I don’t see any reason this shouldn’t be a toggle for the users. “One size fits all” rarely does.

4 Likes

I agree with what many are saying here: alternatively create accessibility options to change all colors for different users. Regardless, I agree with OP’s suggestion to create more colors overall… I’ve been frustrated with the lack of variety even before the switch.

I also recognize certain tags not by what they say, but by what color they are, and this has made it all kinds of difficult to do that.

Thanks for listening to us!

4 Likes

So in case my feedback now on two other threads on this topic does not get read, the new pastel colors for tags and custom fields makes it more difficult to differentiate between the colors–yellow and orange are a prime example. I’m having more difficulty tracking work now. Please provide the ability to maintain the original colors. Thanks for all you do!

5 Likes

I changed my display settings to: “Enable color blind friendly mode (protanopia and deuteranopia)” because I needed more color. The pastels not working for me.

3 Likes

Great tip, @Doris_Barber!

Please revert the changes you just implemented. The colour palette makes it very difficult to differentiate them.

2 Likes

Not sure what’s happening with the custom field colors, but, please roll back to the original, more solid, and brighter colors. The lighter pastel coloring makes it more difficult to differentiate them.

3 Likes

Hi @Devon_Nishimura and @Greg_Denmark. We already have a thread on this topic so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post to centralise all feedback. Please have a look at the post above to learn why we made that change.

2 Likes

I’m not sure if I accidentally switched something on but all of the colors on my desktop app have become faded which makes some of the text on my tasks almost unable to be read. Even my team member’s profile icons have been changed. Anyone experience this issue or know how to fix it?Here is part of my current calendar view

1 Like

Yes, I also now have pastel colors and it is more difficult to differentiate them at a glance–especially, for example, yellow and orange. I wish for the colors to be rolled back to the original more solid, brighter colors.

3 Likes

All other users in my organization don’t have these pastel colors that is why I’m thinking it was something I changed on my account but can’t seem to find anything about it in my profile settings or on the Asana community.

1 Like