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Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

getpolarized.io

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Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#3
post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

And OLEDs in particular, where black stops transmitting light at all. (And saves power, too.)

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#4
post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

I definitely agree. I was thinking this the other day when thinking about how 'white' must have felt like 'paper' back in the day. Also, the issue WRT dark not really being dark.

You're right that without LCDs , especially OLED, dark mode wouldn't really be a thing.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#5
post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

And OLEDs in particular, where black stops transmitting light at all. (And saves power, too.)

Heck yeah. Totally agree. For my app I'm working on dark true dark modes and then try to do true dark/true black on mobile.

Black looks much better on mobile IMO ...

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#7
post #2

I think the rise of dark mode is mostly related to really good displays. Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

I used to dislike dark backgrounds, but now I have several apps set to dark mode. But going way back to the 80s, terminals were mostly dark mode. CRTs mostly looked terrible with bright backgrounds until the Mac.

I don't know if my own change in preference is due to underlying change in screen technology, or something else. Screen time might affect it too -- maybe people prefer light mode when they're only on-screen a few hours a day, but dark mode is better when using it all day?

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#8
post #6

95% of what people? I know people of both persuasions in about equal numbers, which makes me question the 95% number. Personally I hate dark mode except late at night as staring at a dark screen and then walking away from my desk makes me dizzy.

I talk about it in the post but it was Discord users but also the users of Polar. They prefer dark mode and it is one of our top requested features.

I'd love to see more data though.

Re: Dark Mode by Default – 95% of People Prefer Dark over Light Mode

#10
It seems that their data is mostly coming from their own user base (the discord data is biased as they admitted), which is mostly comprised of programmers and other techies. I don't know how far this generalizes to the rest of society.

I personally like dark mode during night time, but almost always prefer light mode by default. There's just something about dark mode that is... gloomy and depressing. It feels like an overcast day, whereas light mode feels like a bright sunny day. I've noticed that most techies do prefer dark mode, and I also recall reading that techies are disproportionately night owls - I wonder if there's a correlation there. I suspect though that this preference is reversed for the general population.

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