Make brand-green AA compliant

[amosie]

Brand green was failing colour contrast checks. As referenced in github/github#40219.

The new green is now AA complaint and AAA complaint over 18pt.

@aaronshekey what do you think with your buttons? #92

[mdo]

Wowzers, that's a pretty huge departure.

[amosie]

@mdo I know, but you won't find a green which isn't 'foresty' or really dark green and AA compliant.

[jasonlong]

This and especially the orange (#112) feel really heavy. I definitely prefer the current green, but I understand the AA needs and don't have any better ideas.

[rsanheim]

Not sure how this would work with Primer and how it is integrated into github/github, but maybe we could try shipping these colors via a feature flag for staff members to try out for real on the site. I think it would be good to see how they 'feel' on the actual site for awhile in day to day use.

[aaronshekey]

These are only changes to the brand color variables. If I'm not mistaken, .btn-primary (and possibly others) aren't based on those variables. To actually implement these brand color changes (if we decide they're right, aesthetically) we'll need to refactor some of our styling to rely entirely on these variables. Right now they don't. For example, have a look at the changes to .btn-primary https://github.com/primer/primer/pull/92/files

[amosie]

@aaronshekey yes! I didn't want to get in the way of your changes when I mentioned you in the comment above ^ 😄

I think (although I maybe mistaken), the button's are the only thing that will need to be refactored.

[aaronshekey]

@amosie, since everything in that tiny pull request is based off the brand-green, we should be able to swap at any time and changes will propogate through the rest of the SASS files. Word.

I should probably refactor all the buttons...

[aaronshekey]

#114 is ready for your consideration.

[amosie]

To help with context!

[nickmccurdy]

👍 I like the new colors.

[mdo]

I know AA is great, but this is still a huge departure for us and what we can identify as parts of our brand. That means the merge button, the our Open badges, and more. We lose a lot of the feel of GitHub with this. While it's for a good cause, I can't help but feel it's in the wrong direction for us in that respect.

[Jastrzebowski]

@mdo would it be possible to try new colors on a bunch of users?

[mdo]

We won't be A/B testing colors, if that's what you mean @Jastrzebowski. We also probably wouldn't even staff ship color changes.

[djch]

At this risk of being some random person with an unsolicited, unqualified opinion:

The AA-compliant green really seems to lack that "fresh", "new" sort of feeling that the current green has (and, I think, should have). It makes it more legible but strips its desired emotion.

[amosie]

@mdo I understand your concerns, and I know it's a huge departure. But keeping a colour which isn't AA compliant means we are failing our users.

10% of the worlds population have disabilities that affect their vision, we have 10 million user accounts so we are potentially failing 1 million of them. We should be designing for everyone - not just those who are fortunate enough to have good vision.

Maybe we don't go with this green, but I feel like we should look for a solution.

[amosie]

Closing pull request, till we come up with a better solution.