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> color is in no way an "extra". It is functional, and treating it merely as ornament instead will lead to a more limited, more likely worse design

Completely agree. It's a bizarre suggestion, to just arbitrarily drop one of the most important tools. What if traffic lights were designed this way?

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What if traffic lights were designed this way?

They are; reason being: color-blind drivers are out there.

Traffic lights have consistencies which allow drivers not to rely on color. The consistencies aren't global, but hold within major geo-political regions.

For instance, where traffic lights are vertical, it's usually red on top, then yellow, then green. The order isn't perturbed. Moreover, the red light may be larger and brighter.

Yes thank you, I'm aware of how traffic lights work. They don't rely exclusively on color—clearly a different design philosophy from the advice of this article, which is to not use color at all for functional purposes.

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