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Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

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Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#341

Post by mthoms »

sgift wrote: post #332
etage3 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science is faith based for the non-scientific. As you put it yourself, it is about trusting studies and the institutions that produced it (including whatever in them creates the incentives for p-hacking).

No scientist expects anyone to trust studies or the institutions producing them. So, that's wrong from the beginning. The expectation of refuting something is just a bit higher than "I don't believe it!", e.g. read the study and show flaws in it - or make a counter study which shows different results. Maybe combine both. Comparing this to faith where from the start you cannot check anything doesn't make any sense (if…

I agree with what you're saying. However, I think the parent's point is that people without education or a good understanding of the scientific process feel like they are accepting it (or not) based on faith.

I think this total lack of understanding of how the scientific process works is one of the biggest problems facing America today.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#342

Post by pb7 »

dlkinney wrote: post #296
yiyus wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science is not a faith based system. If you doubt about the rigor of some study, by all means point the errors you find. In the meantime, I will trust those scientific studies more than subjective opinions in hackernews comments.

The study referenced by his reference is not very good.[1] They use full white and full black for all modes. As we know, dark theme is typically white on dark gray (or equivalent), not pure white on pure black. I can't think of any dark mode that uses pure black. (AOSP, IOS, macOS, etc.) This alone invalidates the study, because it doesn't reflect the real world. Science is only as good as it is rigorous, and if it f…

iOS is pure black in dark mode.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#343

Post by bananamerica »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #241

Wait. So. "Multiple studies show that light mode is better" trumps my actual experience, with my eyeballs, in my office environment? No. No it doesn't. 1. I don't have that much faith in scientists. Someone trying to p-hack their way to a publishable result that's sensational enough to advance their career is not going to produce good advice for me. 2. Even if they were perfect scientists, they're not using my eyebal…

> I don't have that much faith in scientists

Suppose your mechanic mess up your car. Suppose this happen again with a second mechanic, and maybe even a third. Is that enough to justify the conclusion that “mechanics are bad”? I don’t think so. Science is the same.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#344

Post by [deleted] »

taneq wrote: post #322
onli wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to be wrong even about your own perception. You might think you like the dark mode because it strains your eyes less, but in reality you just like how it looks and you strain your eyes more, being more fatigued at the end of the day without even noticing. Or the other direction. This whole "those studies are studies of how other people experienced X" is a typical argumentation scheme of esoteric fields like…

So you're telling me I'm wrong and I actually like bright mode more than dark mode? We are literally discussing my subjective experiences here . And you're telling me I'm wrong. About my subjective experiences. Ohhh-kay.

[deleted]

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#345

Post by ceronman »

Anecdotally, I've always preferred light mode. Specially for coding. First thing I do on a fresh OS install is to change the terminal to white background with black text. I definitely feel more eye strain on dark UIs.

I don't understand those who prefer Dark mode, but hey, if that's what you like, and it works for you, I'm all for having that choice on every program. Not all eyes are equal.

Although I read somewhere that weather Dark or Light background is better depends a lot on your environment. If you are in a very bright environment, next to big windows or intense artificial light, then Light is better. If you are in a darker environment then Dark is better. This matches my experience.

What I think it's definitely bad is constantly switching between Dark and Light. If I do that I get a headache very quickly. This makes Dark specially bad for me because even if I code in a Dark IDE, if I switch to the browser, the majority of websites use Light mode. And this switch causes me pain.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#346

Post by limomium »

Here's an aspect of this I never see mentioned: DARK MODE SAVES BATTERY on mobile devices.

The screen uses energy to emit light. The less light it has to emit, the less energy it needs. The longer your battery lasts.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#347

Post by mitjak »

pb7 wrote: post #342
dlkinney wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study referenced by his reference is not very good.[1] They use full white and full black for all modes. As we know, dark theme is typically white on dark gray (or equivalent), not pure white on pure black. I can't think of any dark mode that uses pure black. (AOSP, IOS, macOS, etc.) This alone invalidates the study, because it doesn't reflect the real world. Science is only as good as it is rigorous, and if it f…

iOS is pure black in dark mode.

it is absolutely not. 90% of visible UI is dark grey painted over a black background. a lot of apps also use dark tones too, like dark blue or green.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#348

Post by scott_s »

taneq wrote: post #322
onli wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to be wrong even about your own perception. You might think you like the dark mode because it strains your eyes less, but in reality you just like how it looks and you strain your eyes more, being more fatigued at the end of the day without even noticing. Or the other direction. This whole "those studies are studies of how other people experienced X" is a typical argumentation scheme of esoteric fields like…

So you're telling me I'm wrong and I actually like bright mode more than dark mode? We are literally discussing my subjective experiences here . And you're telling me I'm wrong. About my subjective experiences. Ohhh-kay.

No. They were pointing out it's possible that you prefer dark mode, even though it may not have the benefits you believe it does. Your preference may be more about aesthetic taste than a physiological response - and that's okay.

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#349

Post by ketzu »

limomium wrote: post #346

Here's an aspect of this I never see mentioned: DARK MODE SAVES BATTERY on mobile devices. The screen uses energy to emit light. The less light it has to emit, the less energy it needs. The longer your battery lasts.

It's not only mentioned quite often, it is especially in the article. They argue that dark mode only saves battery if:

* Dark mode is truly black (not dark grey) and

* You use OLED or AMOLED screens.

But when that's the case it can save up to 41% of energy. They then argue, that if dark mode were to be a health detriment, that would be more important than battery charge.

(Note: That's what they argue. There are results that show that power consumtion scales mostly linearly with output brightness. Which would contradict the results in the article.)

Re: Is Dark Mode Such a Good Idea?

#350

Post by ballenf »

taneq wrote: post #329
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they were discussing the subject of, how our conscious estimation of our subjective experience can be way off. Which is a legitimate point?

Is it? I mean, serious question - aren't they they same thing? What IS our subjective experience if not our conscious estimation of how we experienced the thing? Is it possible to think you're enjoying something when really you're not, and if so then what the heck does that even mean?

To me that sounds like an orthogonal statement from the article. The article is talking about objective performance and efficiency of the two and you're talking about how they make you feel.

Feeling efficient and being efficient are both valid bases for choosing, but the point of the article is that they don't have high correlation.

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