Aesthetics

For players with low visual acuity or field-of-view, having good contrast and readability is key. Using clear visual design benefits all players.

Best practices for aesthetics

According to the WHO, at least 16% of people worldwide have some form of vision impairment, so it’s a smart idea to follow general visual design rules to make sure even players with low vision can differentiate NPCs, items, enemies, and other objects from the background and each other.

Contents
Contrast
Color

Contrast

Contrast & Readability

Make sure all interactible objects and characters stand out from the background. Don’t rely on color alone -- use other principles of visual design, like line, shape, texture, and contrast. If you’re concerned about increased contrast harming the aesthetics of your game, simply add an assist mode that adds outlines or increases the contrast.

Assistive Modes

Adding assistive modes helps players who have issues with vision as well as new players who don't recognize interactable objects as easily.

The Puzzle Difficulty mode in *Shadow of the Tomb Raider* can be changed to display outlines on interactable objects, creating better contrast for players with low vision.

Color

Customizable Color Palettes

In an ideal game, players would be able to customize the colors of objects to suit their preferences. Colorblind players often struggle with multiplayer games that differentiate teams using color alone, especially when those colors are red and green (which is surprisingly common).

Alternate Color Palettes

When custom color palettes are too complex, provide alternate color schemes so players with colorblindness can tell friendly entities and harmful entities apart.

Even though *Destiny* doesn't feature fully customizable label colors, players can choose between several palettes to suit their specific type of colorblindness.

Alternatives to Color

If score is important to your game, make sure to double down and feedback and use audio to let the player know how they're doing, like ascending musical notes or louder sound effects when the player scores big combos, or using a voiceover to cheer them on.