Light
Shadows
Shadows provide cues about depth, direction of movement, and surface edges. A surface’s shadow is determined by its elevation and relationship to other surfaces.
Research
Material Design conducted 36 interviews with fifteen low-vision participants to better understand how shadows and outlines impact an individual’s ability to identify and interact with a component.
Research findings included:
- Shadows and outlines are just one of many attributes of an element that impacts a user’s ability to identify it. Other attributes that affect the ability to identify an element include font characteristics, elevation, color, layout among surrounding elements, and context of use.
- Using shadows and outlines increases the ease and speed of finding a component when scanning pages.
- Using a shadow or stroke outline around a component improves one’s ability to determine whether or not it can be interacted with.