Week 5 Studio: Simulating colour-blindness on a real cluster

Running a photographed instrument cluster through a colour-blindness simulator to find out which telltales collapse into each other

22 March 2027

Before the studio#

Bring a clear photo of an instrument cluster with at least three telltales lit at once — your own car, a manual, or a manufacturer press shot is fine, as long as you can see genuine red, amber, and green or blue in the same frame. A cluttered warning-lights reference sheet from an owner’s manual works well too.

In the studio#

Idris supplies a colour-blindness simulation tool (deuteranopia, protanopia and tritanopia filters) running on a shared screen. Each student runs their photo through all three filters and records what happens to their telltales: which pairs that were clearly different colours become the same washed-out shade, and whether the icon shape or position rescues the distinction once colour can’t. Work in pairs — one person nominates a telltale, the other predicts what will happen to it under each filter before you actually run it.

Afterwards#

Write up the one pair that broke worst under simulation and the one telltale on your cluster that survived every filter intact — then say, in a sentence each, what design choice made the survivor survive. This becomes your worked example for the mini knowledge check in the week 5 deck if you’re asked to present it.