I had intended to write about my monochromatic musings more regularly, but recent events (the COVID-19 outbreak, for anyone reading this retrospectively) somewhat overtook me, so apologies if this descends into a long rambling post!

It’s been a month since I removed all colour from my phone and there have been several events I have experienced in that time which has given me pause for thought about this experiment.

New Phones

Just over a week after I started all this, my wife and I made the rather rapid decision to upgrade our phones to iPhone 11s, passing our iPhone SEs to our kids. The transition between the two devices was painless (for me, at least), so much so that the greyscale filter was already in place automatically for me when I started using the new device. That was the biggest challenge in many ways – new shiny phone, and I’m only ever seeing the interface in shades of grey. I was sorely tempted to turn it back on! I guess knowing that it must look so much nicer in colour (and, I guess, seeing my wife’s to prove it!) did rather take some of the sheen off of getting the new phone.

That said, it hasn’t massively dissuaded me from using it since – I just find there are some things that I can’t do well, or at all, under these limitations. I haven’t found anything in iOS that I have to work around (those Apple designers clearly know their job!), but some apps and content continue to pose challenges. For example, a friend posted the below image as a challenge to work out who is represented in each diagram. Viewing it in monochrome makes this entirely impossible.

My daughters were really excited about getting their own phones. They’ve been exploring all the different ways they can use them. My younger daughter picked my phone up at one point, looked at the greyness of it and exclaimed “Your phone is so boring” and put it down again. My older daughter decided she’d like to try out the greyscale and see how long she could last.

Approximately 94 seconds.

I’ll remember this if they start to get too addicted to their phones…

This does at least provide some anecdotal evidence to support the idea that greyscale could support the reduction of people’s addiction to their phones. But it does also highlight that where people are not interacting with their devices in the “optimum” fashion that they were designed for, it can impact their usage. Devices not designed for those with differing perceptions may not be as effective for those people. Design is key.

Attending Digifest

The Jisc Digifest conference took place in early March, just as the Coronavirus outbreak was kicking off globally, but not quite yet hitting the UK. I really enjoy this conference, not least because there’s always a good focus on digital capabilities and accessibility.

There were some great presentations, particularly Emily Armstrong and Tom Tomlinson from University of Hull who demonstrated their use of Lego Serious Play to encourage academics to engage with accessibility. We were asked to build something that symbolises what accessibility means to us, so my build was some very crude greyscale steps, symbolising how good accessibility can improve people’s lives while also showing how the simple loss of colour can be an example of an accessibility barrier.

Overall though, the only barrier I faced during the conference due to the experiment was the lack of colour when I was taking photos of things I wanted to record for review later (slides, tech etc). Not seeing the same thing I was looking at directly made me unsure if the photos were entirely clear. Reading back over the notes and slides later was also definitely harder without the colour helping to differentiate between things.

Photography

I’m not a professional photographer. I’m not even a very good photographer (ask my wife!), but the lack of colour on photos and other pictures has been really difficult. It’s harder to tell if the photos are good, making me want to take more in the hope of that one good shot.

More critically though it’s not the lack of colour that’s the issue, it’s the lack of detail. When you take colour out, moving everything into shades of grey you just don’t get the same level of detail in images and videos. I’ve found myself missing out on things that friends and family are discussing online due to not being able to see a detail, or because the focus of an image changes substantially without the colour to draw your eye. We rely on colour so heavily as an indicator, as a separator, and as an identifier, that the lack of it causes an entire change of perception and understanding in many cases.

It’s also causing me to doubt. Not in big ways but, for example, choosing images for these posts has been a tricky job. Are they coloured? Are they the right colours? Do they represent what I want to say? Is the photo that I took actually how I remember it? But the doubt also creeps into using my phone – I KNOW that it’s just my display, that the camera is still taking colour photos. But when a kind naval officer offered to take a photo of me and the girls at HMS Kent recently, and then asked if I was sure I wanted it in black and white, I hesitated as to whether it would actually be in monochrome or not.

It’s affecting me in a variety of ways, but I’m also becoming very used to it. I’m adapting to the lack of colour. I have only one week left, and I cannot wait to stop adapting and bring colour back to my life!