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Dark Mode Sucks

keenen.xyz

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Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#11

Post by chungy »

BananasFritas69 wrote: post #5

>For very little rewards, we've doubled the work required for interfaces. What, how is it doubling required work? There is so much to do when it comes to interface design than just colors. With a proper logic behind coloring, and a token system, its not that big of a deal. Many people prefer dark mode. Also, changing brightness on an external screen twice a day would be quite tedious... imagine with multiple screens.

GNOME's had a software-controlled brightness that can change automatically based on time of day, for years now.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#12

Post by xhrpost »

> Is your screen too bright at night? Just turn your brightness down

It just doesn't work like that, even the lowest setting can be a blast to the eyes if the background is pure white. I have grown especially fond of dark mode due to getting woken up in the middle of the night due to on-call for work. A low brightness setting either makes things too hard to read or is still overly bright.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#13

Post by AStonesThrow »

didip wrote: post #2

I disagree. Dark mode is necessary at night. Having the app detects sunlight/sundown and adjust appropriately is the best. All it takes is for someone to be forced to work at night one time to appreciate dark mode (e.g. being on-call).

My devices have "night light" which changes the color temperature according to sunlight, rather than inverting colors.

I believe Dark Mode is beneficial in certain situations. For a privacy enhancement or to reduce distractions. To evoke a retro or gaming aesthetic.

A long time ago, I fell in love with "paper white" type color schemes, as they were known, and it just felt like a more pleasant experience than the CRT amber/green terminals. Now I'm more adaptable; I don't mind when Battery Saver mode kicks in.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#14

Post by wonger_ »

BananasFritas69 wrote: post #5

>For very little rewards, we've doubled the work required for interfaces. What, how is it doubling required work? There is so much to do when it comes to interface design than just colors. With a proper logic behind coloring, and a token system, its not that big of a deal. Many people prefer dark mode. Also, changing brightness on an external screen twice a day would be quite tedious... imagine with multiple screens.

Small nit, some fonts need to be thicker in dark mode, and some images may not play well (eg. SVGs of black lines on transparent backgrounds).

But agreed, it's nowhere near double the work.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#15

Post by avazhi »

I know the author says the article is tongue in cheek but honestly, what's he smoking?

Forget about physiologically measurable eyestrain for a second. NOT staring at a super bright white light is more comfortable and less jarring in many (arguably nearly all) use cases. Anecdotal for sure, but across friends and family that span dozens of demographics I've never shown dark mode to someone where they then had a bad reaction - all of them found it interesting, if not downright soothing compared to dark mode, and most of them continued using it in the future and even trying to find dark mode on other sites they use.

Less subjectively, it really isn't hard to make a dark mode interface and complaining about having to do so is wild. Skill issue.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#16

Post by CrendKing »

crackalamoo wrote: post #3

I disagree overall. I find it much less painful on the eyes to read in dark mode at night, even if there's no evidence for health benefits. I agree that dark mode as an additional UI shouldn't be an afterthought, and should be tested fully just like the main UI. Poorly-designed dark mode can be difficult to use because of things like bad contrast.

> I find it much less painful on the eyes to read in dark mode at night

I don't understand this. Do people not use lamp or light source in their house? Are people living like cavemen? Otherwise, how is it that much difference between day and night+lamp?

If it is sleep time, there is already blue light filter most OS supports nowadays. No need to ask each app to support a separate color scheme.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#17

Post by Sipu »

I think this troll post is designed to just draw traffic to his site.

If you have a HDR capable screen that even in 'normal' circumstances hovers at a base brigthness of about 500-600 nits, Dark Mode is an absolute necessity.

Besides, it makes actual content on screen just pop so much more when it's not fighting with the sun that is your white background.

Also it prolongs the life of fragile oled screens further as the subpixels don't require as much energy to shine.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#18

Post by CrendKing »

avazhi wrote: post #15

I know the author says the article is tongue in cheek but honestly, what's he smoking? Forget about physiologically measurable eyestrain for a second. NOT staring at a super bright white light is more comfortable and less jarring in many (arguably nearly all) use cases. Anecdotal for sure, but across friends and family that span dozens of demographics I've never shown dark mode to someone where they then had a bad re…

I completely disagree. I personally find dark mode harmful to my eyes. Try this: open a page full of white text on black background. Stare at it for 10 seconds. Now close your eyes. You can clearly see the afterimages of those bright text lingering for quite a while. Now try this with black on white page. No afterimage at all.

Like the author says, if the screen is too bright for you, lower the brightness, or use night light mode. You can change your environment. You can't change how your eyes/brain function.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#19

Post by ddingus »

I remember a time when usability people took pride in the high amount of work they put into what were often pretty damn great user experiences.

My takeaway from this post is very different. Minimum work, or even modest work, and the users should be so lucky they get to even use the thing.

The trend is already to dumb things down with flat design, tons of stuff not all that discoverable, and on and on I could go.

Perhaps usability has peaked, and now posts like this are the rule of the day?

Sure hope not, but I do harbor doubts.

Put the work in. It's the users who make your efforts go. Nobody else does.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#20

Post by ddingus »

avazhi wrote: post #15

I know the author says the article is tongue in cheek but honestly, what's he smoking? Forget about physiologically measurable eyestrain for a second. NOT staring at a super bright white light is more comfortable and less jarring in many (arguably nearly all) use cases. Anecdotal for sure, but across friends and family that span dozens of demographics I've never shown dark mode to someone where they then had a bad re…

Yeah, it's the long form of "just kidding"

And often followed by sorry, (not sorry)

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