It covers these key points:
- Colour/ Contrast
- Readability/ Recognition
- Non-Visual Recognition
- Post-analysis the overall remarks on the logo are detailed
Colour/ Contrast
The use of bold contrasting colours works very well. In general, these are some of the easiest colours to see when living with a wide range of conditions such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration and other macular/ retinal conditions.
The text colour is easy to see and contrasts very well with the white background.
Some may have some difficulty with the white outlines on the pathway depending on sensitivity to light, but this may be minimal.
The logo makes sense in a variety of colour combinations such as inversion and greyscale. This is useful as it is still easy to decipher for those using a range of colour and light combinations.
Readability/ Recognition
The typeface is easy to recognise and is also readable by screen readers. Research has shown that the use of block capitals is more challenging to read as we recognise the shape of words as opposed to each letter and most are used to seeing words in a lower case. Consider looking at whether ‘Forest Pathways’ would look as good but be more readable.
In terms of recognisability, the logo does not resemble any other commonly known logos and closely maps the business name. Research shows that visually impaired people find images easier to comprehend when they have context. In this case the logo works very well.
The logo does have a lot of elements to it which can make it somewhat complicated. As it will mostly be used online in an environment where visually impaired users can adapt how they see it. This may be more challenging if viewing the logo in print or in public.
One difficulty that observers may have with the logo is that it does not directly relate to the services that the business offers. Whilst there are strong connotations between the Forest Pathways business practises and finding one’s way through the forest, this may not be initially obvious to new observers.
The business will need to have a strong brand presence to make this obvious.
Non-Visual Recognition
Research shows that those with very low/ no vision still have an appreciation for visual branding and will often have knowledge of what a logo will look like in order to help others to locate it. They will [wo1] often try to apply logic to recognition, e.g. seeking relevance to the brand name or business type.
The Forest Pathways logo does this well as the logo is closely linked with the name of the business.
Apple Voiceover recognises the logo as ‘a picture of a curved yellow line’ or ‘an illustration of a black and yellow feather.’
These two descriptions are not useful to the user in recognising the logo. It is advisable to make sure the appropriate ALT text is included when displaying the logo. The ALT text on the Forest Pathways website is very good.
Be My AI responded with ‘The logo consists of stylized text and an image above it. The text reads "FOREST PATHWAYS" in bold, capital letters. The image above the text depicts a circular design with a silhouette of a forest or a group of trees at the top. The trees are black, and the circular design has shades of yellow and grey, possibly representing a sun or a landscape behind the trees. The background of the screen is white with a faint radial pattern emanating from the logo.
This description shows that the logo would be clearly recognisable to those who would not be able to clearly see it. They would also be able to understand the connotations of the image in relation to the business name from this description.
Overall Remarks
The Forest Pathways logo is clearly recognisable for people with some usable vision and to those without. It has strong connotations with the business name which helps it to be recognisable. It is advised that ALT text is always used alongside the logo to help the observer to recognise where possible and it would also be worth looking at decapitalising the text to make the words easier to read.