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Dark Mode Sucks

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Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#41

Post by datavirtue »

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.

Build an interface with selectable color themes in both light and dark mode. Not trivial. You have to come up with generalized keys and a style guideline that's followed by everyone everywhere or the user changes theme and suddenly can't see a panel on that one screen buried somewhere.

Themeing is hard. And he is rightly bitching about all the apps that slap on dark mode at the end and leave all kinds of visual bugs in place.

Nothing about UI/UX work, no matter what platform or framework, is trivial. It takes a gruelling amount of work and time, that's why most modern UIs suck hard. People don't have the time, money or skills to do it.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#42

Post by cosmotic »

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 think the point is that, after everything is said and done, there's no evidence that supports dark mode. Personal anecdote goes both ways.

Dark mode usually has lower contrast ratio (gray-on-gray text instead of black-on-white), and that's definitely proven to be harder to read.

The beyond-frustrating thing for me is that Windows 3.1 supported dark mode via system color palettes along with any other color customization anyone wanted to make to their entire system in a single place. Now every single application is custom-drawn and custom-themed, so these sorts of customizations are impossible.

This all worked better literally 30 years ago.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#43

Post by ChrisArchitect »

Not a huge proponent of dark mode, but aside: resent the use of Hackers pic on this post. Dade Murphy was wearing sunglasses in the opening scenes while hacking!! Wasn't just for an elite look!

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#44

Post by ddingus »

tivert wrote: post #24
ddingus wrote: post #19

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. Perh…

> Perhaps usability has peaked, and now posts like this are the rule of the day? Probably, but the change can't stop. Must keep on innovating with useless side-grades or even downgrades.

You will prove right over the next handful of years, maybe as much as a decade.

Wish it were different.

I miss supremely crafted interfaces. Pro users can move as if thought itself is action. Sure glad I got to experience a handful of them, each a mini career piece of software.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#46

Post by zzo38computer »

I think that in many cases a program should not need to specify its own colours, and can use the user's colours settings in the operating system. Having "light mode" and "dark mode" is mostly unnecessary (this should also be true for web pages that do not have CSS; the user's default colours can be used), if you can just customize the colours fully, instead (although presets may be available for users who do not wish to customize the colours).

However, one case where it might help is that a program does need to specify some of its own colours, in addition to the standard ones (unless the program already allows customizing its colours; some programs will already do this, which might be helpful anyways, in case of e.g. colour blindness, or a monochrome display, etc). In this case, dark mode might be helpful for the program to know which colours it should use for its additional colours.

If you want to be able to automatically set the colours by time of day or by other criteria (e.g. which display it is connected to, or whether or not the output will be diverted to a printer), then a separate program could be used, to configure the system by such things.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#47

Post by kjcharles »

ddingus wrote: post #19

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. Perh…

I agree with you about the importance of great user experiences and there should be no limit on how much work is put into that. My post was more about dark mode being seen as a necessity for a great user experience. There's little evidence for its benefits and the time spent implementing and maintaining it could be spent on improving all the other issues you mention.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#48

Post by kjcharles »

pedalpete wrote: post #28

I think the problem isn't dark mode itself, but as the author states "native dark mode support". If your app is designed in white-mode, it's important to know how it is going to look in dark mode, and native support somewhat limits your control over that. This is particularly egregious in email. This is less of a problem in apps and the web, but in email it is absolutely horrendous. But then again, the entire email s…

Yes exactly! And native support creates an expectation that every website and app will in turn support dark mode, when some don't or there are glitches it negatively impacts the overall experience.

And you're completely right about email. Seems like many email clients force email content into dark mode, even images and it's such a pain to handle.

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#49

Post by kjcharles »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #43

Not a huge proponent of dark mode, but aside: resent the use of Hackers pic on this post. Dade Murphy was wearing sunglasses in the opening scenes while hacking!! Wasn't just for an elite look!

Haha you're right it was a necessity back in the day. The look was pretty cool though!

Re: Dark Mode Sucks

#50

Post by ddingus »

kjcharles wrote: post #47
ddingus wrote: post #19

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. Perh…

I agree with you about the importance of great user experiences and there should be no limit on how much work is put into that. My post was more about dark mode being seen as a necessity for a great user experience. There's little evidence for its benefits and the time spent implementing and maintaining it could be spent on improving all the other issues you mention.

The evidence is clear in that very large numbers of users prefer it and can articulate why.

That you personally do not agree is a separate matter.

As you age, and I am guessing you are in your first few decades of life, remember this moment when you find yourself preferring dark mode and more able to articulate it yourself.

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