Challenge
While the new brand palette featured beautiful colors, many combinations failed WCAG accessibility standards and carried misleading UI associations (e.g., green for ‘success,’ orange for ‘warning’). As a designer, this made applying the palette in a web app especially challenging—I had to balance aesthetics with usability, avoid creating confusion, and find workarounds to ensure accessible contrast and clarity.
Solution
I expanded the palette into tints and shades, unlocking more usable combinations that made the new branding workable in digital products without sacrificing accessibility. This not only preserved contrast but also kept the system true to the brand. I also redefined color roles by elevating orange as the primary action and reframing green as a neutral secondary, avoiding built-in “success” associations. Clear hierarchy and thoughtful detailing ensured interactions stayed intuitive, inclusive, and distinctly on-brand.
Impact
The final design not only met ADA WCAG accessibility standards but also translated the new brand into a sophisticated, digital-first presence. By removing unintentional bias from the shopping experience and reinforcing clarity, the solution elevated the brand while ensuring it remained inclusive.
Reflection
This project showed that accessibility and brand expression go hand in hand. It also highlighted that meaning comes from context, and that a color palette doesn’t dictate how a UI functions or feels.
See also
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