With most contrast checkers, you find out a colour combination fails... aaand then you’re on your own.

This Hue Shall Pass works out the smallest change that would make it pass. Use the luminance sliders or click the wand, preview the before and after, and apply it. You can test your whole palette at once and adjust lightness until every pairing you need works.

Here’s a one-minute look at how it works👇

It’s free, it's still in beta and we're keen to hear what you think http://thishueshallpass.clearleft.com/?utm_source=CL_%20Mastodon%20video&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_HSP

Back in 2019, our research found that design made the biggest difference in organisations where teams were trusted, collaboration came easily, and research was part of everyday work.

Then Covid sent everyone home, and AI arrived.

So does that still hold true? That’s what our 2026 Design Effectiveness survey sets out to discover.

Read the 2019 report👉 https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/clearleft.com/uploads/Design-Effectiveness-2019.pdf
Add your voice to 2026 👉 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RTTG77C

We're in London today kicking off an exciting new project with Responsible Ai UK

Together with their team we'll be redesigning and building a website that better serves their audiences and tells the story of their work and academic research.

UX London will be back on 6, 7 & 8 July 2027.

Brought to you by @Clearleft and now in its 19th year, we bring the UX community together for three days covering discovery, design and delivery. Each day combines insightful morning talks with hands-on afternoon workshops, making it the only UX event offering both at this scale.

Expect practical takeaways you can apply immediately, time to think more deeply about your craft, and space to connect with peers.

Most organisations want accessible websites, but their colour palettes weren't built with accessibility in mind.

Plenty of contrast checkers flag the problems, but we couldn't find one that also helps you fix them.

So we made one ourselves. Introducing ✨This hue shall pass✨ https://thishueshallpass.clearleft.com/?utm_source=CL_HSP%20Mastodon&utm_medium=CL_MD&utm_campaign=CL_HSP

We're pretty darn proud of this one, go give it a go and share it around your teams. It's in beta so tell us what you'd change in the comments, along with a little commotion for the name pun 👌

A lovely evening for Chris and Alex at Imperial Business School last night, celebrating the collective success behind the 2026 intake 🎉

As part of our ongoing partnership with the team, we've been redesigning Imperial's website in line with their new brand, researching with students to improve the application journey, and introducing stronger digital governance across the board.

This week we played back our work with the team at the University of Manchester to mark the end of a design system foundations phase. Building on our earlier discovery phase, this project laid the groundwork: a recommended governance model and technical strategy, a prioritised list of components to build first, and guidance to get teams started – all built to flex as things evolve.

We talk more about how we approach design systems in Episode 1 of the Clearleft Podcast👉 https://podcast.clearleft.com/season01/episode01/

Back in 2019 we surveyed over 400 designers across the world to find out what makes design effective for organisations.

It's now 2026. Covid affected us all hugely, and AI is changing many aspects of how we work, so it's time to see what's changed.

If you're a designer (or design-adjacent) with 7 minutes to spare, we'd love your help filling out the 2026 Design Effectiveness survey. The questions are straightforward, and your answers are anonymous.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RTTG77C?utm_campaign=510801105-Clearleft%20marketing&utm_content=602256597&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-113718

We are excited (as you can see) to be up in London today at this year’s Society for Social Medicine & Population Health conference.

We'll be joining researchers from the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences in delivering a workshop on digital inclusion and working in partnership with digital consultancies.

Auditing content on a large site, or several large sites, can feel like a huge task.

Luckily for you Sophie Count breaks down how to make it manageable. From co-creating your criteria with stakeholders, to sampling effectively, to turning auditor findings into real decisions 👉https://clearleft.com/thinking/content-auditing-at-scale

☕ Service Design Breakfast is back next Thursday 3rd September ☕️

Same deal as always: doors open 8:45am at the Clearleft studio until somewhere around 10:30 (ish). Somewhere in between, we chat, we caffeinate, and we talk about service design with a room full of people who get it.

Got something on your mind? A talk, a half-formed idea, a rant you've been saving up — we're all ears. No polish required, just bring the thought and we'll figure out the rest together 👉 https://ti.to/clearleft/service-design-breakfast-september-2026

It's university clearing week...

We've researched this process before with Anglia Ruskin University, so we know what it involves for both the students weighing up their options, and for the university staff supporting them through it. Neither job is easy this week 🫠

It's all in here for you to read 👉 https://clearleft.com/work/aru-clearing-research

Good luck out there!

We had the pleasure of designing and building the Cranstoun WiSE micro-site, creating a women-only online space. It sits alongside their offline WiSE Project, bringing harm reduction advice, real stories, and connection to women who need it.

The site is now live and we're proud to have helped bring it into the world. We've written up how the project came together with such a short turnaround 👉https://clearleft.com/work/building-at-speed-without-sacrificing-quality?token=eI1wO9Hn287gDknRaV5npbydDNwV1F8-&x-craft-preview=22a840b7fe7cbfc20b3fd7bcaf46736b4b4a121e8ff6da12b699ba7b6a34d59ddvtrckzomi&utm_source=CL_Cranstoun%20CS&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_CaseStudies

Most organisations with a website of any size have the same quiet problem: years of redesigns and quick fixes result in the same component getting rebuilt again and again, slightly differently each time.

Our Senior UX Strategist has written about a tool we built to help with this, using AI to get it working fast, then refining it through trial and error against real output.

AI did the finding. People did the deciding.

https://clearleft.com/thinking/how-ai-helped-us-make-sense-of-hundreds-of-components?token=uVR4q2kCLf0fYIPqVG1lOEEZ2A4R10KK&x-craft-preview=c2d9e920365f26c04bff2621563b60a1297e4841c21ddde5130b3d6ef5414de0hioxsxlouj&utm_source=CL_AI%20components&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_BlogPosts

This is the story of how we're helping The University of Manchester achieve its digital-first ambitions by working with them as their strategic design partner.

This story isn't a one-off. It's an ongoing partnership that keeps growing, and we're continuing that work beyond this stage looking at the rest of the website, a design system, and the whole student experience. We're proud to be part of it, and excited for what's next.

https://clearleft.com/work/university-of-manchester-design-partnership?utm_source=CL_UoM%20case%20study&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_CaseStudies

We’re delighted to be working with social justice charity Cranstoun to design and build a website providing women-only services and information.

The site centres around the WiSE project, which provides safe spaces for women who use drugs and alcohol, offering support without shame or stigma.

Watch this space for updates 👀

This Thursday's Service Design Breakfast will focus on Lou Downe's recent UX London 2026 talk – Bad services: How to fix services that don't work.

If you're signed up to our mailing list then you will have been given free access to watch the talk ahead of time. If you missed out and want to join, register your interest so we can get you up to speed 👉 https://ti.to/clearleft/service-design-breakfast-july-2026

This session: Thursday 2 July, 8:45–10:30am(ish)

Be sure to register so we know how many to expect

Big congratulations to Imperial College London on being ranked #2 in the QS World University Rankings 2027 👏 a very well-deserved result indeed.

We had the pleasure of working with the Imperial team on the relaunch of their website, and it's great to see the institution recognised on the world stage.

Take a look at our work together 👉 https://clearleft.com/work/imperial?utm_source=CL_%20Imperial%20case%20study_QS%20post&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_CaseStudies

Fresh from a content audit project with the University of Manchester, our UX designer Sophie Count has written up some practical approaches to getting your web estate under control, from involving the right stakeholders to using subdomain discovery tools.

The project is part of our long-standing design partnership with the university✨

https://clearleft.com/thinking/do-you-know-how-many-websites-you-have?utm_source=CL_how%20many%20websites%20blog&utm_medium=CL_Mastodon&utm_campaign=CL_BlogPosts

📣 Service designers of Brighton & beyond

Our Service Design Breakfast Club is back 2 July. You know the drill- there's no strict agenda beyond showing up, eating pastries and talking shop. Freelancers, in-house folks, agency lifers, and the curious are all equally welcome.

It's completely free, we just like to know in advance if you're planning on joining 👉 https://ti.to/clearleft/service-design-breakfast-july-2026