Summary
- Accessibility. Contrast ratio of foreground and background is atleast 1:4.5. (recommended lower limit of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
- Signal colors. Red and green are signal colors and are also used as such by us. In order for the user to recognize warnings for example, a color like red should only be used for warnings, destructive actions etc.
Primary
.$color-primary
rgb 110|90|191
On almost every page, the primary action is triggered by a button. This allows us to guide the user through the system and support her in completing tasks as quickly and easily as possible. Accordingly, all buttons that trigger a primary or secondary action have the color $color-primary
. Due to our concept of user guidance, this color is reserved for buttons in most cases. (see: Buttons)
Active
.$color-active
rgb 45|119|201
The active color is used in every element which has a state that can change. The user recognizes at a glance which UI element is active or which element can be activated. It does not matter whether the element was activated by a user or by the system.
Highlight
.$color-highlight
rgb 7|131|144
In reality, there is often a thin line between highlight and active color. A good indicator for the use of $color-highlight
is that the element is neither clickable nor changes its state.
Additional colors
These colors are only partially customizable. For one thing because of their semantics and for another because they are quite opinionated. Adjustments should be discussed in any case, because there is a lot to consider with these variables in contrast to the ones above.
- Status colors. According to the status of a process you should use these colors. If there is an action which is marked as succeeded by an icon like a checkmark, the checkmark should be in the success-color as well.
- Gray shades. To keep the visual noise to a minimum, the all in all appearance of the wescale interface is based on subtle shades of gray.
- Fruit colors. If the default colors are not enough, you can use the fruit colors to highlight an element. For example, for labels that display variety of different statuses.
- wescale colors. The colors of the wescale logo are not part of the platform. But anyways - they are worth being listed here ;)
Status colors
$color-success
rgb 37|163|66
This is written in $font-color-success
$color-warning
rgb 255|180|0
This is written in $font-color-warning
$color-danger
rgb 220|53|69
This is written in $font-color-danger
To ensure the best possible legibility, we always try to stick to the contrast recommended by the WCAG. However, this is not fully possible with the status colors, since these colors are also assigned a semantic meaning. A little excursion into color theory: The contrast of yellow to white, for example, can never be 4.5 to 1. If you darken yellow until the desired contrast is achieved, it is no longer yellow but rather an ochre brown - at best a dirty orange. The semantic meaning - yellow as a warning color - is more important in this case than the contrast ratio. Our compromise, which we make for the status colors, is that there is a difference between background colors and text colors. With background colors, we pay more attention to semantic correctness. With text colors, however, we pay more attention to good legibility and a sufficient contrast.
We distinguish between font-color and background-color for the best possible readability/visibility. Please also note that for longer texts on a yellow background, the color white should not be used, but
.wui-color--warning-dark
Gray shades
$color-gray-20
rgb 51|51|51
$color-gray-33
rgb 85|85|85
$color-gray-46
rgb 118|118|118
$color-gray-60
rgb 153|153|153
$color-gray-80
rgb 204|204|204
$color-gray-87
rgb 222|222|222
$color-gray-95
rgb 241|241|241
The number of the variable reflects the respective brightness-value from the HSB color model (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) (0 = black, 100 = white). Each variable is mapped to two classes. The class name is always composed according to the same schema:.wui-color--
or .wui-bg-color--
gray- number of brightness
(eg. .wui-bg-color--gray-95
)
Some shades of gray can only be assigned to certain elements such as $default-border-color. With these semantic variables you should make sure that they are used exclusively for the intended purpose.
Fruit colors
Fruit colors
peach
#FBEBEE
#F7D6DC
#F2B8C2
#E15D75
#D93452
#982439
#6D1A29
yangmei
#FAEAF4
#F4D5E9
#ECB6D8
#D458A6
#C92E90
#8D2065
#651748
pitaya
#F7EDF8
#EFDBF0
#E3C0E5
#BF70C4
#AF4CB5
#7B357F
#58265B
fig
#F4EFFA
#E9DFF4
#D8C7EC
#A57FD4
#8F5FC9
#64438D
#483065
plum
#F0F0FB
#E1E1F6
#CBCBF0
#8888DD
#6A6AD4
#4A4A94
#35356A
blueberry
#EEEFF9
#DDE0F2
#C3C8E8
#7682CB
#5463BE
#3B4585
#2A325F
akebi
#ECF2F9
#D8E4F2
#BBD0E9
#6593CC
#3E78BF
#2B5486
#1F3C60
grapes
#EDF2F5
#DAE4EB
#BFD0DC
#6D94B0
#48799C
#32556D
#243D4E
feijoa
#E6F2F2
#CDE5E4
#A8D2D0
#379893
#057E78
#045854
#033F3C
apple
#E6F3EF
#CEE6DE
#A9D3C6
#399B7C
#08825B
#065B40
#04412E
olive
#E8F3EC
#D1E6D9
#AFD4BC
#479D65
#19843F
#125C2C
#0D4220
kiwano
#F7EFE6
#EFDFCC
#E2C7A6
#BD7F33
#AD5F00
#794300
#573000
papaya
#FBECE6
#F6D9CD
#F0BDA7
#DC6936
#D34304
#D34304
#6A2202
cherry
#FBE8E8
#F7D2D2
#F1B0B0
#DE4A4A
#D61D1D
#961414
#6B0F0F
Colors ain't easy
The fruit colors could be found on all pages and must also work in combination with a variety of components. Together with the other colors they have a great influence on the look and feel and contribute to the recognizability of wescale. We have dealt intensively with the various use cases so that the wescale-colors meet our very high requirements:
- The fruit colors come in different shades. All default values (e.g. $color-peach-50) are WCAG-2 compliant and have a contrast to white font of at least 1:4,5. ($color-akebi = $color-akebi-50)
- Among other things, color is used to describe the status and provide at-a-glance meaning. For "rejected", "failed" or other destructive actions we use red shades for example. Conversely, that means: If a variable needs to be adjusted, do not leave the given color space! Red shades remain red shades.
- The values 10 - 100 indicate how bright a color is (10 = light, 100 = dark). They are used exclusively for the assignment to the perceived contrast. Unlike the gray shades, it is not an exact indicator of the brighness value in the HSB color model.
- The perceived contrast of one color column is always the same. $color-blueberry-50 has the same perceived contrast as $color-grapes-50. However, the colors actually have different brightness values. The percentage change is therefore not based on a fixed system but on the perceived brightness.
Each variable is mapped to two classes. The class name is always composed according to the same schema: .wui-color-- or .wui-bg-color-- name of color- number of brightness for example: .wui-color--plum-40 or .wui-bg-color--grapes-60
wescale colors
$color-wescale-blue-light
rgb 78|168|226
$color-wescale-blue-dark
rgb 47|113|186