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

getpolarized.io

21–30 of 234 posts

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

#21
Personally I can't stand dark mode. It literally hurts my eyes. Strain after a few moments and interlacing ghost lines that linger in my vision for a minute.

Does anyone else have this?

Is it brain cancer?!

edit: Thanks, I'm pretty sure it's not cancer.

Question: But why me? Age? Staring too long at monitors? Drugs? It doesn't seem to effect too many others.

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

#23
post #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…

Thanks. I tried to find more data but it's scarce. I would love to get more data for more apps as I think it's definitely biased around people who spend a LOT of time staring at text. I'm a programmer so spend a ton of time in my IDE. Polar is designed for people that read a LOT so dark mode really matters to them. When you're reading 100s of PDFs having a dark mode is kind of important! In retrospect I'm kicking mys…

I would say you have an interesting article here, and your user poll is interesting too. But like you said you don't really have the data to back up this claim, so it just comes off as really click-baity. It worked, as I've never heard of your product and am clicking around the site now, but it's disappointing none the less.

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

#24
post #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…

I'm not a night owl. I prefer dark mode. It matters when you're staring at a screen for more than 12 hours a day

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

#25
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.

> Dark mode looks like shit on CRTs and even older flat panels with poor contrast.

I think you got it backwards. I remember using black backgrounds and things like "mc -b" specifically because CRTs I used sucked at light colors, trinitron displays later were nicer though and using white backgrounds was pleasant. Nowadays led backlit displays suck again on light and bright colors and don't seem to improve, hence "dark mode" became a solution.

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

#26
I don't know many people my age who can still handle dark mode.

It was easy for me many years ago. I looked at command lines all day and no problem.

Now I see blurry lines for 10 minutes all around me if I have to spend any length of time in a command line interface, or look at an article in dark mode.

This is, unfortunately, an accessibility issue, not a design issue.

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

#27
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.

Yeah I was going to mention that. Devs usually have Mac Books, XPS, X1 Carbons, modern screens blasting 500 nits. Most real people have sh8tty TN panels or old small monitors.

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

#28

Personally I can't stand dark mode. It literally hurts my eyes. Strain after a few moments and interlacing ghost lines that linger in my vision for a minute. Does anyone else have this? Is it brain cancer?! edit: Thanks, I'm pretty sure it's not cancer. Question: But why me? Age? Staring too long at monitors? Drugs? It doesn't seem to effect too many others.

It's not brain cancer

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

#29

I wish HN would get a dark mode, and I don’t know why major apps like WhatsApp etc. are still dragging their asses over dark mode support while smaller apps with more complex UIs have already supported it for months.

Maybe because the small apps have a very targeted audience that enjoys dark mode. If you ask 10 random people on the street only 1 will probably know what “dark mode” is or would think about actively switching to it.
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