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Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

material.io

41–50 of 163 posts

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#41

> The higher a surface’s elevation (raising it closer to an implied light source), the lighter that surface becomes. That lightness is expressed through the application of a semi-transparent white overlay. This is a strange choice, considering that the guide has a very strong discouragement against emulating shadows…

What do you mean by discouragement against emulating shadows? As I read it the shadows stay the same as on the light theme. Are you referring to what they call "glows"?

> In a dark theme, components retain the same default elevation levels and shadows as components in lighter themes

It looks pretty good in the examples they give IMO. Considering that the default makes such heavy use of elevation it makes sense to keep that concept in the UI.

> Default themes use shadows to express elevation, while a dark theme also expresses elevation by adjusting the surface

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#42

The author suggests using dark gray instead of black, but then also says that when pixels are completely deactivated on OLED, it saves energy. These seem to be contradictory pieces of advice. What am I missing?

I think they say this specifically, grey is better to distinguish shadows but if you want to conserve energy you can go with true black.

> UIs that require efficient battery usage can use true black. In these cases, some devices (such as wearables with OLED screens) can turn off any pixels that display black to conserve battery power.

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#43

I have a deep rooted issue with design and designers. In 90’s, skeuomorphic trend was picking up steam reaching a climax in mid-2000’s. Web 2.0 design elements were springing up, taking advantage of css; while UI elements sought transparency and blur (Windows Vista). That trend passed and then we had the whole Material design boom in 2012-2015, the entire web was sabotaged by Bootstrap. Color themes and palettes were…

They need to keep things moving to keep their employment; there really is not much more to it. As to why Google can not find more pressing things for them to work on, I don't know.

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#44
post #18

I have a deep rooted issue with design and designers. In 90’s, skeuomorphic trend was picking up steam reaching a climax in mid-2000’s. Web 2.0 design elements were springing up, taking advantage of css; while UI elements sought transparency and blur (Windows Vista). That trend passed and then we had the whole Material design boom in 2012-2015, the entire web was sabotaged by Bootstrap. Color themes and palettes were…

It seems like you know a lot about design, so what's wrong with Stripe-styled websites? I'm a big fan of their design. Also, what does "Bumla-lizing" mean? When I Google it, I get this comment.

He thinks homogenization is bad. You're a big fan of a design that's now copied over and over again, at digital agencies, it's a default client ask. They see x and assume x is expensive and wants x, then thousands of Indian devs and designers spend their man hours to replicate it, therefore we further pollute the internet with the same regurgitation of perceived good taste.

It's like saying you like a pop song that broke through, it's okay to like a pop song. But then you have to live through a dearth of similar pop songs over and over again for awhile.

He also made a typo, he meant Bulma CSS.

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#45
post #41

> The higher a surface’s elevation (raising it closer to an implied light source), the lighter that surface becomes. That lightness is expressed through the application of a semi-transparent white overlay. This is a strange choice, considering that the guide has a very strong discouragement against emulating shadows…

What do you mean by discouragement against emulating shadows? As I read it the shadows stay the same as on the light theme. Are you referring to what they call "glows"? > In a dark theme, components retain the same default elevation levels and shadows as components in lighter themes It looks pretty good in the examples they give IMO. Considering that the default makes such heavy use of elevation it makes sense to kee…

I can't find it anymore, but the Material Design Guidelines had a thing at some point which warned against emulating shadows in place of actually changing elevation.

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {} Mixed with root variables

Safari Release 81 renamed “supported-color-schemes” to “color-scheme” [1]. But it seems that “prefers-color-scheme” is still, well, preferred [2]. [1] https://developer.apple.com/safari/technology-preview/releas... [2] https://caniuse.com/#search=color-scheme

supported-color-schemes is a HTML tag indicating if the website supports dark mode (useful for auto-darkening support) and the media query is for actually implementing it.

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#49

I have a deep rooted issue with design and designers. In 90’s, skeuomorphic trend was picking up steam reaching a climax in mid-2000’s. Web 2.0 design elements were springing up, taking advantage of css; while UI elements sought transparency and blur (Windows Vista). That trend passed and then we had the whole Material design boom in 2012-2015, the entire web was sabotaged by Bootstrap. Color themes and palettes were…

Traditional graphic design cannot be "solved" and will always be ruled by more or less cyclical trends because graphic design is used (among other things) as a differentiating branding element for marketing and communication. And you can't differentiate a product when everyone has the same branding. Someone starts standing out. People start copying them. And then a new trend emerges, ad infinitum. Industrial design i…

I totally agree with you. Unfortunately this triggers my rant mode:

When branding hits hammers, I think I might quit the human race. Designers fundamentally do not understand that software is a tool that people use to get things done. Constant reorganization and redesign for trends literally robs people of their skills in learning to use software to accomplish their goals.

I've been using computers since the early 90s. Essentially none of the things I learned early on apply anymore. Fuck, we don't even have menus that explain to us in native language what actions are available to us.

I hate UIs and I hate UI designers. Openly. I need zero innovation in the design of the menus for a word processor or image manipulation tool. I am sick to death of learning this iteration of a file manager or settings menu, dock, or toolbar. And god damn all the icons, they are freaking Greek to me, and if they don't come with a tooltip I am loathe to click on anything that will just go boom. UIs are in a death spiral.

But emacs works pretty much the same. I think I might stick with that another 20 years.

/rant

Re: Material Design Guidelines for Dark Mode

#50
post #42

The author suggests using dark gray instead of black, but then also says that when pixels are completely deactivated on OLED, it saves energy. These seem to be contradictory pieces of advice. What am I missing?

I think they say this specifically, grey is better to distinguish shadows but if you want to conserve energy you can go with true black. > UIs that require efficient battery usage can use true black. In these cases, some devices (such as wearables with OLED screens) can turn off any pixels that display black to conserve battery power.

...I feel like all UIs should require efficient battery usage, and UIs that don't are an anti-pattern.
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