how dark mode killed good design
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
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Is dark mode really better than light mode? In this video, Sabrina dives into the long-standing internet debate and explores the claims that dark mode is better for your eye strain, sleep health, battery life, and visual clarity. Along the way, she discovers why dark mode was really invented and how its evolution may be destroying good design.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Sabrina
Twitter: / nerdyandquirky
Instagram: / nerdyandquirky
Melissa
Twitter: / mehlizfern
Instagram: / mehlizfern
Taha
Twitter: / khanstopme
Instagram: / khanstopme
CREDITS
Produced by Sabrina Cruz
Video Editing by Joe Trickey
Motion Design by Sabrina Cruz
Sound Design by Joe Trickey
Featuring Video Assets from Apple and @kazumanyaa
MUSIC
Epidemic Sound. Get started today using our affiliate link. share.epidemicsound.com/answer...
RECOMMENDED FOLLOW UPS
• Rise of the Dark Mode
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 if discord light mode has no haters, i am no longer of this Earth
00:30 sabrina discovers she is in an echo chamber
01:08 sabrina is determined to stay in her echo chamber
01:26 why people think dark mode is better than light mode
02:00 is dark mode better for your health?
02:50 is dark mode better for battery life?
03:03 is dark mode better for readability?
03:17 a long winded excuse to code the hardest game on Brain Age for the Nintendo DS
05:32 graphs! graphs! graphs!
06:15 how light mode helps you see more clearly
06:26 is dark mode actually better than light mode?
06:50 a nihilistic twist
08:37 why does dark mode exist?
09:10 the origins of the dark mode and light mode divide
10:10 dark mode and light mode lovers to enemies lore
11:10 the real dark mode was the friends we made along the way
11:26 SIKE!
11:33 old man yells at clouds
12:39 ngl the clouds kinda deserve it
13:06 woman afraid of having strong opinions on the internet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the joke under the fold! Here's a classic dark mode joke:
Why do developers like dark mode? Because light attracts bugs.
Leave a comment with the word BUG to let me know you were here ;-)
Bro got me thinking about my blinking for the rest of the video
Not me observing people on their phone and shouting at them, "blink, you fool!" in my best Gandalf voice.
ME
@@lonestarr1490 lol thats actually funny
I started blinking until my eyes teared up
you just made me realize I havent blinked since she said that
I have sensitive eyes, so the sudden pop ups of light really hurt
And to all the people trying to say to me ways that will ‘fix’ this, dark mode already does that, so just stfu, I couldn’t care less
Whereas my sensitive eyes cause the exact opposite.
@Nerdy&Quirky please address this comment
@@TheInfintyithGoofball address what? It’s simply because the eyes need to constrict, due to the sudden burst of light. The sudden burst of light means it all goes through the more relaxed iris, because my eyelids are not faster than light
I'm sure that's pretty annoying... :(
When it's nighttime I have to use a special app to make the brightness of my screen darker than my device usually allows you to make it with setting
But I use light mode for everything anyway
Same
I adore the vibes of this video. The clarity of thought to ask questions of your questions, the human stakes of proving your friends wrong, the tight script presenting the results of tons of research and academic results without dragging. I found this channel while working on weekend projects like a year ago and those projects have been completely shelved for more than 6 months, but this has got me feeling motivated to dust them back off
I'm a programmer, so I have to read a lot of digital text during the day in daylight. When I started, I was a dark mode user, but at some point I noticed how my eyes were always very strained and I had to take breaks for my eyes, and that's when I switched. It's just so much more comfortable.
"when we use our phones, we blink shockingly less than usual" great, now i'll be blinking manually for the rest of the video
You mean rest of the day. That might just be me.
I saw an article that says because of the way our eyes move it affects how we read on a computer versus reading a book. It is easier to read a book.
Fun fact: you're always blinking manually. Blinking is a learned behaviour, not a reflex or instinctive behaviour. That's why babies barely blink.
@@foolishlyfoolhardy6004is that why you blink when the wind is blowing to?
@@Tongokai you learn how, yes.
There's a hidden unsupported feature in Wikipedia to enable Dark Mode, but it mostly just inverts the colors of everything on the page and attempts to invert-invert any images that were messed up. I use it all the time and love it!
Ohh, please share your secrets! How do you access that?
There’s also wikiwand
Yeah, I _definitely_ need that. I go down way too many rabbit-holes on there an end up with text-block shaped sunspots every time.
Vivaldi browser has a "filter invert" tickbox at the bottom that does that to any page you want.
@@spelcheak the company that takes the free labour of wikipedia editors and uses it to make money by showing ads and selling user data?
I use Eye Comfort mode on every device. This really helped. My night mode filter is set to 75% on Windows, maximum on my phone. You'll get used to it really quickly, you can't go without it after using it a few days.
I've been using f.lux on PC since the year 26 BC. For the past few years I've also used a program called Dimmer to make the screen darker than the lowest brightness setting.
Omg I've been using it since I first got a phone. I can't imagine my life without it
I used dark mode for years and recently switched back to light. I enjoy how there's so much more color in the design of icons. Plus some apps have different colored themes you can apply, but only in light mode. This last point is a bit harder to find the right words for, but it also makes things look more solid(?) or "real"(?).
I think it's about better orientation. We aren't nocturnal creatures after all! That's just ehat I believe. I have no proof.
I use dark mode for stuff but always prefer when things have color than it just being shades of gray. Like the dark blue option instead of solid black in twitter, and at work I just use outlook and word in light mode cause the dark mode ones are just gray and gross
My friends use light mode discord in school so if a teacher glances at their screen he or she wont notice that it's discord, and you can also switch to google classroom or docs without the screen flashing from dark to bright.
I love that holy shit
That's hilarious.
My guy is a quiet genius.
which genius came up with that.
Heaven forbid your friend use class time for, you know, school.
I started having double vision issues a few years ago. My optometrist couldn't identify a problem, and so I started searching the internet for it (I know, sketchy thing to do, but I was desperate). I stumbled across a bunch of posts on reddit about people with bad astigmatism who were noticing that dark mode was causing massive eye strain, and who recommended switching back to light mode. I've been using light mode ever since, and have had no issues with double vision. So no, dark mode isn't always better for your eyes.
I also have astigmatism and find dark mode hurts my eyes more than light mode. I find it odd when people say it’s better for your eyes
Same here, dark mode makes it hard for me to see because of my astigmatism. And as she said, if you find light mode too bright... Then try to brighten your surroundings.
I have no eye issues, at most I'm a light sensitive, but dark mode has also always caused strain for me and is so much harder for me to read.
I've been having a similar issue lately and been using dark mode for years. I'm gonna switch and see if it makes a difference.
Edit: I just switched windows to light mode and oh boy will this take getting used to again
Guess I'm keeping my double vision.
My reason for using light mode wasn't even mentioned: eye burn-in. Lines of bright text on a dark background leave afterimages for quite a long time, which messes with my vision and I find uncomfortable. Light backgrounds have a much more even afterimage, because even dark text is still mostly light space, and therefore don't leave noticable artifacts.
I have the same issue. Even if I might prefer the dark mode aesthetics, the text afterimage is so intense and annoying there's just no way I can use it. I wonder if anyone will ever determine what's different about eyes like ours.
I feel like my eyes strain more in dark mode than light. Something about trying to read light words against a dark background, it's like watching TV in a pitch black room.
If there’s one thing I wish people understood about accessibility and usability in general, it’s that there is no one best design.
I feel like all the accessibility designs sucks. I would like to be able to control my background color my font color and my font style inline size. I guess that's too much to ask for as there is only dark mode or bright mode with crappy font options and no color options.
If I could give you multiple thumbs up, I would. I was involved in an accessibility working group a while back and got to meet lots of people with very contrasting needs. I knew they varied; I didn't realise they varied _that_ much.
@@taradid409 There should be more options, and they should never be behind a paywall, because that amounts to a disability tax.
I'm cool with having more font options and color options. But do we really need more background color options? Bright and dark mode pretty much fits all sorts of situations.
If there are more background options, I feel like it would be popular for 2 or 3 weeks, then people would go back to bright or dark mode again.
@@ralphfi9591 We definitely do. For example: Some people (particularly those with astigmatism) benefit from a grey background to reduce the effects of halation or bloom. Meanwhile people who have to read using their perifferal vision (eg stargardt disease) need as much contrast as possible (ie white text on a pure black background). There are many other use-cases that can, and should, be addressed by simply having the options available.
I was one of the only web devs in my office who used light mode. I was nicknamed "Database Admin" (database, for short). It still hurts.
Haha
_Simpsons_ reference?
Light mode is just fine. Your coworkers are jerks.
eyes still hurt?
My eyes still hurt. It was justified. >:)
10:06 If letters/paper is light mode, we had dark mode way earlier: chalkboards.
Apple's primary user base:
"Artists and designers",
Apple's actual primary user base:
"I have a lot of spare money"
Well I bought a used Macbook because I needed to run music editing software that didn't run on my Linux laptop, so sadly it's at least partially true
A shallow, cliche, overly said, worthless opinion
@@IsaacBrown-kk7jx isn' that at least partially true though? Just starting with specs, a MacBook can be worth the triple of similar components for a Windows PC, but if you don't care for all that, there aren't that many benefits apart from better battery life, it not breaking and better UI (although the last bit doesn't fully apply nowadays), I got myself a windows laptop for work and studying, I can also play all games on it, if I'm in a public place I turn the fans down so it doesn't make noise, I have a lot of freedom of what I can download and I can very well do design and art at a maximum capacity with it. And it was still 20% less expensive than a MacBook Air 13, with twice the RAM, a real GPU and twice the hard drive space.
imo a lot of the userbase is people who are used to apple products. what you grow up with generally feels more intuitive and thus easier for you, and often that's gonna be worth money to not have to get accustomed to something new
@@ArtichokeHunter I agree that applies to a lot of people, but isn't it the definition of neophobia too? Being afraid of new things, even if they might be better in the long term.
I think other was a missed reason for dark mode.
Screens universally got brighter so light mode became unpleasant.
with CRTs and old LCDs the brightest they got was like... 70 lumens. Now they are in the 300s, and in HDR, possibly over 1000.
White backgrounds that were normal and fine in the past really did become flash bangs to people. If light modes had a more parchment like brightness in the background to keep the brightness down, people would find it to not as blinding, and light modes would be more used.
This makes sense to me! When I’m using the Kindle app I have it set to that sepia-tone background
Sometimes, I wish displays would return to barely backlit LCD screens.
honestly, if more apps and websites had a more orange toned theme for their light mode, id use them WAYYYY more. but with how BLINDING of whites most sites use are, its just easier on my eyes, even WITH astigmatism
I think certain colour schemes look good on LCDs and others on oleds. I do not like semi dark grey colour schemes on oleds, but they are perfect on LCDs. LCDs give a very matte casual imperfect, but perfectly readable impression while oleds are much more vibrant especially smartphones maybe matte oleds plastic oleds will be a perfect middle ground between the LCD and the glossy glass oiled.
@@bluexroses414 Sepia is the true way, if only we could have it everywhere....
I felt it when you said "argument with friends turned to obsession"
"They're my friends, so I'm gonna do the kind thing... AND SPEND WAY TOO LONG TRYING TO PROVE THEM WRONG"
That's how you know you've got a real one.
@@AlneCraft If not to prove a point, then why do it at all?
Early computers (like pre-1980s) were all light characters (and later graphics) on dark backgrounds. Early computer graphics were mostly with vector displays, which cannot draw dark lines on light backgrounds. Once graphical user interfaces began to be researched, and we had high-resolution bitmap displays, researchers figured out that “page white” displays with black text was better.*
Oh. As I was writing this, we got to 9:30…
*In Doug Engelbart’s “Mother of All Demos” in 1968, where the world first saw the computer mouse, it used a white background.
The studies I heard in the 90s (when it came to marketing) was that we read text faster black on white, and our brains have to take an extra moment to focus on white words on black background.
So advertisers use black on white more often.
Switching to dark mode is the first thing I do on any device or app that allows it. I could not imagine being swayed. We shall see...
so?
@@KirbosPlanet Still in the process of shalling to see, it seems.
Whereas I spend far too much time having to switch to light mode, even if that’s only from an automatic sensor-based system.
@@KirbosPlanet Dark mode forever!
Yhea no, dark mode is better. PERIOD
Dark Mode and Light Mode being a toggle is actually good for design of websites, because it has forced many projects and companies to create more cohesive and company wide Design Systems and Rubrics. Also, again we're talking about the personal aspect here, more customization the better, not everyone who uses an Android device goes as crazy with customization as i do, but they are allowed to. Customization is also incredibly important to address different disabilities, there are many forms of impaired vision and the more options given allows end users who may be disabled in some way to fix something a designer may not have known because they're able bodied.
I find it weird that people who use Android phones seemingly always find a reason to talk about it
I mean even if iOS or Android was mentioned casually in the video, it’s hardly part of the point of the video
@@himynameisryan It directly relates to what I'm talking about, more customization is always a good thing and the goat (Sabrina) brings up the new feature in iOS which was touted as groundbreaking when it's basic levels of customization that they should've had for a while. As a Software Engineer who does work for accessibility, many designers can easily forget about how their design will impact disabled people
@@buffet_time but like I said
She only mentions iOS 18 as like a side thing in the video
The Android vs iOS debate is unimportant to the topic of the video
Yet you see a need to bring it up
Also every person with life altering disabilities I know or have seen on the internet sings Apple’s praises for their extensive accessibility settings
For example on my 15 pro max the accessibility section in settings is twice as long as the one my s24 ultra
@@himynameisryan ya no Apple consistently goes against their own published accessibility guidelines and industry standards in many products. And let alone that, the lack of customization inherently is worse for accessibility, the more you can change especially when we're talking about core things like colors, where things are placed, the sizes of things, etc the better.
And this is ignoring Apples consistent state of being far behind in Web Spec in comparison to Chromium and Firefox based browsers which often includes new accessibility features, or causing issues in websites because of their inability to adhere to standards which ends up hurting the accessibility of the same site on Safari. At the company I work at we constantly experience this where edge case bugs that don't exist in any Chromium or Firefox browser exist on iOS (because Apple forces all browsers to be skins of Safari on iOS) or Desktop Safari.
Still that's besides the point, more customization is always better to allow for workarounds for disabled people, which is why playing games on PC where you can connect either directly or with cheap X to USB adapters any controller or input that exists throughout history and get it working. Sony has done nothing and is wholly inaccessible as a platform, Xbox has a few really quality modular controllers but falls short in it being a locked down OS but is still doing something. But the customization of a real desktop is what allows many people I know personally to enjoy games given severe mobility issues.
Companies like Apple who have poor design in general that feels 10 years out of date consistently and have very little customization will always be worse for accessibility.
Don't care to continue this further as it's pointless, but sidenote Apple should stop participating in orchestrating coups and working with warlords to secure resources and having slave labor to make more profit /shrug
@@himynameisryan I find it weird that you're getting so defensive over someone using the more customizable operating system as an example for customization being good for users.
This is like the first sponsored segment I've watched fully for a while. These videos are crazy good.
i always use light mode for work/study related stuff because ive noticed it keeps me more alert. then i switch to dark mode when im trying to relax and wind down.
I just love dark mode because I have a lot of eye floaters which completely ruin reading in light mode, whereas in dark mode I don't even notice them 😊
That's your eyes those are white blood cells
Visual snow moment
Same
Until very recently I thought eye floaters were just damage to the eye, and my allergies backed up this claim when I got sore eyes and looking at anything bright hurt. So I thought my eyes were just really sensitive and avoided ANYTHING that gave me eye floaties. Sucked for a while but I'm glad I know what they are now.
@@user-xu2bf2bs3f I was 18 when I realised that not everybody saw random worms in their vison lmao
I've never even heard of them before.
What allergies can cause eyefloaters??
Edit: I should literally just type this into google xd
Me: Dark mode actually works well and doesn't strain your eyes and stuff
Sabrina: *Yesn't* .
Me: my eyes are strained by dark mode in VS Code.
@@edgarwalk5637 You can actually customize all of that! In your settings.json (for user or workspace) you can change the colors of everything. You can even do it in cpp_properties.json if you want conditional coloring/highlighting based on any number of things like language of the file - maybe you want c variables to be red and c++ to be blue. Everything you can set in settings.json files are also changeable in the settings menu. It's a highly customizable lightweight-IDE. I just presented this to my organization as a replacement for Eclipse since it has native Git integration and extensions are so good.
My laptop has a feature that makes me change the colour of the light, and changing it to an orange hue has made a huge difference in eye strain. It doesn't affect my sleep in any way (nor for better or for worse), but avoiding the intense blue light helped so much with the feeling that looking at my laptop for too long, was like staring in to the sun.
editing/transitions are on point this video, keep crushing it AiP crew!
Light mode is usually easier to read, because light text on dark backgrounds glow, which can blur the letters together. I don't personally find it a problem and usually set my theme depending on the time of day, but I know a lot of people who do. Both options are definitely important to have.
Personally I actually feel like the exact reverse is true for me. When trying to read black text on a glowing, white background for a long period of time, my eyes get tired from all the bright light which blooms, making the delicate lines of the text even thinner and therefore making it very difficult to read. When reading black text on a white background on my computer, if the text is particularly long at all, I will usually have to lean in closer to the screen and squint just a little to be able to see it better. Meanwhile with dark modes, I can lean back more comfortably and read the white text on black backgrounds much easier. This, of course changes once I'm on a phone or tablet screen, when the screen is pretty close to my face. It's not a big problem for me, but can be a bit annoying, which is why I prefer dark mode options for websites when they are offered.
But yes! Having options for different people with different needs is definitely a better choice for everyone involved, really! Honestly, I think that the best option is to have something that's baseline usable for everyone, but to have oodles and oodles of customization options for people who need it, or for those who just like to fiddle with those kinds of things because they're fun! (And I am one of those people lol)
Ideally I prefer grey on black.
@@valasdarkholme6255
Personally, for documents/ebooks, I like black on sepia. Maybe the trick is not using straight white unless you really need the contrast.
Oh my god I know you
My eyes are pretty light sensitive, so I need dark mode and it's a lot easier to read. I can barely see a single line on a white piece of paper for example. If designers prioritised softer colours like Sepia or other colours besides white, it would be good, but it's usually just white or off white, and those just burn my eyes pretty much.
I cannot use light mode. I have very sensitive eyes and always have to use the minimum brightness settings on devices, often even using accessibility settings to reduce the brightness below the minimum. Dark mode is so amazing for me. if I have too much white on my screen for too long my eyes hurt. if I accidentally turn my brightness up and don’t realise I can get a headache and have no idea why until I realise I accidentally turned my brightness up. Not offering dark mode can make me just not use a product.
"OMG
He is just like me fr"
But seriously someone understands.
I am prone to light sensitive migraines
Same
Same here; my screens are all extra dark, every OS & app set to dark mode, and I use the dark background/large font "Read Mode" in Firefox for every website with significant amounts of text. I can't read anything on Wikipedia without it.
yes, light mode actually hurts to look at. To me it's not really a debate of what's better it's an accessibility feature.
And this is precisely why the Mac has had an “invert” screen mode for decades. Dark mode is fundamentally just an improved version of that, where hues don’t get inverted, too.
Similarly, many video and hoots editing programs were “dark mode” long before that was a thing, because you didn’t want a bright user interface drowning out a dimly lit scene you were editing.
Both of those are functional examples of why light-text-on-dark-background has real uses. The modern dark mode obsession, in turn, has nothing to do with needs, it’s just a fad…
I've been using a dark theme in my OS since 2012 or so, and for code editors since something like 2009. The fact that every time a website or product or OS starts talking about their great innovation of dark mode I roll my eyes.
I've had the option to make all my app icons the same color on android for a while now and I love it
The last part about companies adding useless things to their products just for the sake of it struck home. When I got my new phone, the setup sequence couldn't continue unless I installed some random games and apps like TikTok, which I don't even use. I miss having operating systems work as utilities rather than branded advertisement devices.
My phone "easy" setup forces you to install google pay, like.. what ?
Thankfully you can turn off the notification for the reminder and just use it "partially" setup, but holy shit, that's the kind of shit that makes me understand why my grandma doesn't try to learn new tech anymore.
Yeah it is a real shame that only a few companies like Google and Nothing gives an actually clean setup experience with no bloatware preinstalled
@@slavboii420That's why I still use custom ROM in 2024 for every devices in my house.
That's why I use custom ROMs on my phones and Linux on my PCs and laptops
yeah, grapheneOS has been working well, and the majority of the bloatware is stuff I installed myself(like google play store). tho I've heard good things about calyxOS for the non google Pixel android users
There's one thing that was overlooked the entire video that, as a light-mode user, I find quite important: Screen brightness
Yeah, of course light-mode is gonna cause eye-strain if you leave the screen brightness high, but I *DON'T* do that, I use light mode in a well lit room, with the screen brightness low, and that not only helps make text A LOT more readable to me (I have astigmatism, dark-mode makes it quite difficult for me to read) but it also doesn't give me eye-strain, because I'm not looking at a super-bright screen all the time, I'm looking at something that looks barely brighter than paper.
I feel like dark-mode users are often forced to increase their screen brightness in order to be able to better read stuff, and as such, when something bright pops up on-screen, they're gonna complain that their eyes hurt, yeah, of course it's gonna hurt, you're forcing your pupils to constantly dilate while poiniting them directly at a screen with its brightness turned up!
Exactly this.
Yea this is exactly it
Yesss I literally have my screen brightness super low and I have night mode on constantly on my devices so nothing is pure white
white text against a black background is even easier to read at low lights than black text against a white background, what are you even on? You’re about as objectively wrong as possible.
I have asymmetrical astigmatism (aka irregular astigmatism) and light mode makes my entire screen bloom out the edges and the text becomes overwhelmed by the white light bleeding around the text, plus I get headaches. So, I am a dark-mode person. I've tried turning down the brightness, but it is just too dim then.
Well my eyes just feel more comfortable looking at pages in dark mode. So I basically never light up my devices since the day dark mode is integrated
I’m not sure about the battery claims. It might be true for OLED, but far from all screens are OLED. With light mode I can in most cases bring down the brightness low, which dramatically increases the battery life. Dark mode is mostly only usable on the brightest settings, which drains the battery way faster.
As someone with astigmatism and farsightedness coding in dark mode would make my eyes so fatigued that I couldn't even drive for the next two hours.
I have the same conditions and I really like dark mode. Since I switched I don't get headaches from using the computer anymore. Maybe it just depends on the person
@@AmiCestLaVie Just like the conclusion of the video, there is no right or wrong answer, there is only personal preference
hmmm, i have the exact eye problems (one in each eye) + lazy eye, and i just take my glasses off when driving if im having issues
could it be the color contrast/font in the code you are having issues with?
@@omarpadilla8033 anything dark text on light background seem to be fine for me. I don't wear glasses unless I'm using a computer or using the phone for extended period of time though.
A small aperture increases depth of focus, the region where things are in focus. The converse is also true and that is why low f-stop lenses are used to produce bokeh.
Windows 95 came with multiple colour scheme presets for the system colours, and you could customize them however you like, so it's been weird seeing those get reduced to just 2 modes.
The 2 modes are usually for phone users tho
yes this exactly.. i will never stop being mad about this.
No shortage of customisation options on Linux. I've got my MATE desktop looking like a weird hybrid of Windows 98 and XP.
exactly! came here to mention my weird purple/orange macOS-like Plasma config
That's right. But Microsoft didn't care to develop dark visual styles for Windows XP… and now we're stuck with light mode for classic Win32 apps. Even Royale Noir theme has light grey background for dialog boxes and white background for main document surface, like in Notepad. In Windows 10 and 11, only apps using the new WinUI controls have dark mode support.
As a frequent reader of webnovels where sometimes my reading session can take many hours... Your eyes get tired. And at that time only dark mode is the mode thats easy on eyes. A good dark mode can easily double the time your eyes support reading without feeling sleepy. I am sure there must be other productive areas its useful for as well such as programming. Oh and the battery saving helps extend your reading time when on a mobile device!
Super interesting topic, and I really enjoyed all the wardrobe changes and allll the various shot compositions!! Really cool to see a person's set-up. Thank you for the video!
Was that Sarcastic?
Started with DOS and coding in BASIC.
When I started using CAD ware (~1994) we all switched the background to black or dark grey. Staring at a 21" CRT all day lit like a fluorescent bulb was NOT an option. We even dimmed the lights (by removing tubes) in the design studio.
Today I dark mode everything.
🤫🧏🏻♂️
Coming from UX designer, yeh agreed most studies I've read say :
Dark Text on a Light background (light mode) = less strain on your eyes for longer text like paragraphs.
Light text on dark BG (Dark mode) = Good for shorter text like headers (also tends to be more attention-grabbing).
As in most cases with design context is key.
dark text on light background is way more annoying for me personally
Coming from the point of a user. If the background is very bright, then I will not use the application. I have run into more than one ux designer whose response to my wish for a dark variant is that I am wrong (for one reason or another). I think it's pretty obvious that many users have a pretty strong preference for one or the other. I'm pretty tired of hearing that a website I completely skipped over because it was too bright to comfortably read somehow has good design and I just don't get it.
Amazing. One of, if not the, best incorporation of an ad-read into a video I've ever seen.
I was once a dark mode user. Reading articles for a long period of time in a black themed background strained my eyes more than light mode. It's easier to read in light mode, day or night. You can always use night shift to lessen the blue light if that's what's preventing you from using it.
i find it interesting how dogmatic people can be about dark mode. recently my brother asked me why i use light mode in the nyt games app and he was completely baffled when i said i thought the dark mode was ugly.
NYT games has a dark mode???
Sorry comrade, but please face the wall now
I usually use light mode unless it was designed for dark mode (stuff like Discord) and/or leave it at default
@@mglouise97 yeah and it's ugly
I thought anarchist are all about free choice and stuff@@du42bz
Good lord, the fact that "back in the day, screens were black with bright text" is now a "history fact" is beyond depressing, lol.
I'm a programmer and one of the "old school" programmers who got their start on DOS which makes me about 132 in computer years, but one of the things I routinely site when I have this conversation with folks, is that if you look at MOST of software that is the kind of professional software that people who use it are using ALL.DAY.LONG. - things like coders use like Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code, or Graphics and Video folks like the Adobe Suite, or the 3D modelling folks over at AutoCAD with 3ds MAX and Maya - all of them are some variation of dark mode by default, and in some cases they don't even have a light mode.
Not to mention I'm convinced that anyone who codes in a light mode IDE must be some sort of psychopath :)
Absolutely. I remember DOS and GW-BASIC.
We're the old-timers now. It was bound to happen eventually.
That was always one of the biggest issues I’d have in CompSci classes at college (and ICT lessons in school): Every single lesson would begin with me having to manually reset every single application back to light mode so I could use it.
(Eventually, we just collectively agreed I’d be assigned one computer that would be set to default to light mode.)
I code some languages in dark mode and others in light mode. What does that make me? 😂
I have my vscode switch to dark mode when it's dark and light mode when it's bright. it just makes sense that way
i’ve never liked a pitch black room so i literally never am on my screens in the complete dark (except for like tv sometimes) so light mode has never been too bright for me
I'm only 3:25 into the video but omg the amount of work you put into shooting and editing this video! The camera angle changes after every sentence. I shoot and edit videos, I know how many extra hours of work you've chosen with this format. I'm just curious whether it feels draining or more fulfilling. Will comment on the actual content of the video when I'm done watching
I feel like I don’t understand that last bit.
The new iPones features just offer more customization for those who want it. If a user wants to make their apps ugly and barely visible, that’s their choice. They have to make the active decision to do that.
I don’t understand why that’s a bad thing? Or how this means that dark mode has gone too far?
Plus the iPhone homescreen is a tiny fraction of all dark mode uses.
They just included it to justify the hyperbolic title.
Meanwhile they added some "super bright" mode that some videos trigger that totally ignores your screen brightness settings and just blasts you with brightness
This is why I hate adaptive lighting. More than which layout you prefer, consistency and expectancy are your friends.
HDR content yeah... fucking hate it
@@wombat4583 Disabling that is one of the first things I do on a new phone.
@@Call-me-Al can you disable HDR video from displaying in apps (Instagram, etc)? You may have just saved my life
@@TurtleKwitty Embrace the future
As a backend dev, I'm just happy when you click the button and the thing you're doing worked the way you wanted it to.
My wife's great with the UX stuff though :)
im a lifetime light theme user. windows 95 high contrast was neat back in the day but i quickly grew out of it.
Because one company added an optional feature to better support dark mode, it means that dark mode killed good design? That’s like saying custom backgrounds should be removed because users don’t consider how background colors affect design. I don’t get the thesis here.
Totally agree, what if you could apply the tint on light mode icons too, does light mode now kill good design? I really liked the video for clearing up the question if dark or light mode was better until that end. Kinda disappointed if I'm honest
Here's a copy of thoughts I posted in a root-level comment before watching the video: (tl;dr: Yes, Dark Mode did in fact do damage to UI design)
Most modern light themes suck because they are basically dark theme designs, light-ified. And not just that, they really, really try to be LIGHT. And as a result, they don't look good. Before Dark Mode became a fad and obsession for people, app designers just did UI design and tried to make nice applications. After dark mode became a Thing, we had to differentiate between them. So we got a Theme dropdown and the options are Dark and... what would be a good contrast? A, ha! LIGHT theme, of course. Which is where the disaster started. Just as in the original Star Wars movies where you'd never hear the words "The Light Side of the Force" - there was just the Force, a vaguely benevolent thing, and then the Dark Side corruption of it. If UI design had stayed with UI Design and Dark Mode, life would have been good. But humans like their categories and contrasts, so they named the not-Dark theme Light Theme, which obviously guides design: The Dark theme is obsessively dark-hued, so the opposite should be obsessively light-hued, right?
Well, no. It's what ended up happening, but it's actually a complete disaster. Why is that? It's because light and dark colorscapes aren't just equal but different. They're actively good at very different things.
The thing dark themes are fundamentally amazing at is making color contrasts pop. There's a reason code editors are dark, and it's not just terminal heritage: You can make colors pop in lighter themes, but in a very dark theme you have much more freedom in choice of colors that really stand out.
What's the weaknesses, then? Well, first, it's not actually easier to read (there's a pile of articles on what is easier to read, not going to repeat them here, see eg. Nielsen Group's page on Dark Mode), and the highest contrast tends to make text a bit less legible due to the background and text bleeding into each other undesirably. This effect, as far as I understand, is worse with light-on-dark than dark-on-light contrast pairings.
What's the design sensibility these inform? What wee see in apps like Discord and Visual Studio Code: UI elements are just flat slabs of color distinguished by different hues, and smart use of smallish contrasts make things nice, clean and readable, because color pops. Light gray text on dark gray background looks fantastic in dark mode.
What's a not-dark color scheme good and bad at?
Well, it's comparatively bad at making colors pop. It's not that it can't be done, but you have a bit less freedom in choice and need to employ a lot more intense colors - my light VSCode theme uses very, very intense neon blues to highlight code snippets as blue, for example, and this isn't bothersome at all.
Not-dark ("normal") themes aren't generally amazing at distinguishing small differences in contrast.
What are they good at, then?
Contrast, baby. You can go absolutely ham on the starkest contrasts you can get and it looks good in a way it never would on dark mode. Stark black text on really light background is a treat for the eyes.
It's also much better at drawing materials, shapes, surfaces. Drop shadows are gorgeous and make things pop and stand out without being overbearing. Strong linework is much more at home in the light than it is in the dark - in the dark, it pops out too much, making subtle gradients obtrusive instead of just informative. Contrast differences are enough in the dark. With a Normal theme, you can make things have some substance, and deliberately draw lines between different parts of the UI. They won't stand out annoyingly, they'll just fade into the background but give a nice, structured feel to the UI, the way shadows do in real life.
Normal themes can also incorporate color into the UI in a more balanced-feeling way because they don't make colors poop with the salience of a floodlight in your face.
Finally, "light" doesn't have to be "bright as the Sun" - the best "light" themes don't try to be light, they just try to be good UIs that don't actively try to be dark.
Pop open Excel (the old theme before the latest redesign), if you have it installed. Strong lines all over the place to delineate different UI elements, the ribbon shadowed to float. Even splashes of color or simple contrast differences have border linework added them because that's how light looks good. The styles menu is very even-keeled in the "colorful" light theme - change the theme to "Black" and all of the colours scream at you. It's less hideous than a dark theme that's been lightified, but still bothersome and in your face way too much. You'd design your UI elements differently if dark was the baseline.
And that is where many light themes for modern apps like make their mistake: They take dark design and dunk it in a can of white paint to lighten it up, and it usually looks ugly as sin, because direct translation betweem the two paradigms doesn't work. Normal/Colorful design to dark design can, somewhat, but it's suboptimal, and taking a dark design and whitewashing it is near invariably hideous. To be excellent, you have to handcraft that stuff. Take inspiration from the dark design, why not, but the design has to really "walk in the sun", not just be dumped in a bucket of white paint.
As one more recent example, check Obsidian's default theme. The contrast ratio between the titlebar and page area/active tab is apparently mathematically the same in both light and dark themes. Is it experientially the same? Not even close. The stark black of the dark theme stands out in glorious clarity and lends the UI good structure, with clear separation of active and inactive tabs. Light theme? Uh, are these a different color at all? The same math just doesn't make whitewashed themes and dark themes the same.
@@Komatik_ can we have a tldr version... either way, i don't think sabrina's "thesis" was THAT deep. she only gave that one apple example...
I had the same feeling
@@Komatik_ I think what you’ve outlined is closer to saying that lazy design harmed good design, which is true.
Back when dark mode used to be the new thing it might have even been the opposite. Dark mode would’ve been just “light” theme in black paint. The true killer is in laziness. Although the fracturing of user preferences (light v.s dark) can be an indirect contributor to that, it is also not inherently the fault of dark theme. If UI designers properly leaned into the strength of both, it wouldn’t have been an issue.
I have high astigmatism. Dark mode to me is literally unreadable most of the time
do you wear glasses/contacts? do you have the correct prescription? I have astigmatism too and read dark mode fine. But you're right about bright light making things easier to read, as it was explained to me by an eye dr, the bright light has the same effect as squinting, shrinking the aperture of your eyes helping to focus the light into your eyes. Also it took decades until I found a doctor that got my prescription right so I didn't get headaches from my glasses.
Wait what??? I got bad astigmatism and for me, dark mode is the only mode I can use. Light mode is unreadable.
I also have fairly bad astigmatism and the reverse is true for me, with light mode being virtually impossible for me to read under most conditions lol
The halo from the bright background in light mode almost completely obscures the text for me, whereas the halos from white text on the dark background only makes the text slightly blurry but very much readable.
@@teaoanimar not the person you replied to but also someone with astigmatism who has never been able to read dark themes, I can definitely say there has never been a problem with my glasses prescription and that I get the same issues with my glasses on or off (I often use my phone in bed close to my face without glasses on)
I just posted this on another comment.
I feel the same thing when looking at a word file or something for too long, the white background blooms into the letters and makes them blurry
I use both depending on the context some things are better in light mode and others in dark mode, I think having an option to switch between both as well as having sepia mode is really useful. I love sepia when reading long texts and books because it is warm without being to high contrast which can be a problem with both light and dark mode
I’ve always used light mode when reading articles. I feel like there’s some psychological aspect from reading books that keeps my brain focused on longer text. I can’t stay focused when reading longer passages in dark mode. However when programming or reading code, I always use dark mode as the different colors are more visible (to me at least).
There are a lot of sites and apps that are only available in dark mode. I really struggle to use dark mode because I have astigmatism. When I have to use a dark mode site it hurts my eyes, gives me headaches, text is blurry and unreadable, and I get white lines over my vision for a few minutes even when I look away from the screen. Some sites are worse than others, but some are basically unusable for me. I wish all websites would have a light mode option available so everyone can use the site comfortably.
This! Some sites are completely unusable for me too for this same reason. Get those stripes in my vision.
I so a "select all" so that the text has my highlight color behind it. It's not perfect (or pretty) but it helps it burning the stripey image into my retinas.
First of all, I also wish all websites had ease of use in mind, which includes colour, contrast, etc.
But as someone who also has quite bad astigmatism (and often looks at his phone without his glasses - in the mornings/evenings), while I do find white text on black creating some blur, I get a similar experience from black on white 🤷🏻
I get this for "blackout" mode or whatever else it's called. If the background is pure black it's very uncomfortable for me. Dark grey is fine but even then looks ugly for a lot of sites/apps imo.
Just wanna say that everyone facing the same issue should check out "Invert Colour" or "Smart Invert" setting on ios (presumably also available on macOS) and "Colour Filters" setting on Windows 10.(I only have experience with win10 so not sure about other version) Linux should have the same function too.
Only downside is that one need to constantly toggle the function on and off to look at images so this isn't the ideal solution in my eyes, but at least no more teary eyes from trying to read text in dark background.
In my opinion the ideal solution would be using grey as background colour since it's a lot easier to the eyes compared to white colour without affecting readability. But I have no idea how to bring awareness to this option, so can only hope one day there would be a new feature called 'not so bright mode'. lol
Just started this video, but felt the need to share this, after my astigmatism worsened, I had to switch to light mode to mitigate the symptoms. It was painful at first but overtime I got used to the brightness and wearing computer glasses helped. Weirdly, I felt more alert and productive since I did it. At night I would just massively tone down the brightness. Dark mode does have a lot of benefits, and I grew up with dark mode, but light mode is still an option for those who might need it.
As an architect, I’ve noticed that a white or black background hurts my eyes more and instead our default background is actually dark blue, like CAD, which is much easier to look at all day
dark mode KILLS MY EYES. my vision starts to swim, the white text causes pinkish orange lines to form above and below and then there's the pain. first, my eyes start to ache, badly. then the headache starts. and then the headache becomes a migraine. all within a few minutes of trying to read more than a tiny bit of white text on a dark or black background.
6:57 dark mode is only better for battery on devices with OLED displays. On LCDs, it actually takes more energy to display black than white.
I hate that this was a missed fact
And most people use phones that have OLEDs and usually this debate is for phone apps
@@EspeonMistress00 No, this video focuses on phones, but computer nerds are just has agressive about it, if not more.
She said this at 3:03
@@ledocteur7701she also literally said this in the video lmao
I’m visually impaired and see dark on light WAY better than light on dark. It’s light mode for me at all times, except on Facebook, because the newest format provides absolutely no colour contrast in light mode. To the point where I emailed a complaint, and of course never heard back. Accessibility is an afterthought if a thought at all, which is BS.
This is literally me after not being able to find the solution I'm looking for in the first three websites in my search.
I too would spend weeks for research, getting deeper and deeper without even realizing. Then I remember what I was doing before the research.
I was gonna make breakfast.
I love this channel.
as a dark mode dweller, i'll say that
my precious is not making design worst,
companies' focus on bling over function is
it really depends on what it is, for some reason social media feels wrong in light mode but reading digital books feels wrong in dark mode
My theory to that is our eyes are used to reading on paper (which is usually white) so to some e-reading feels more natural on light mode
completely agree
It may be a matter of what you're used to, I mainly use social media in light mode and it doesn't feel off to me at all
nah fam i read fanfic in dark mode
@@eileendunger1023freaky fan fic for dark mode
I absolutely LOVE dark mode, I have it absolutely everywhere and refuse to turn it off. Only place I can't turn it off is at work and even there I'm trying to get them to implement it
Depending on how locked down your IT stuff is, you might still be able to set custom colour schemes through the OS and your user profile.
I found that Outlook etc were 1000x easier to deal with after I changed all the whitespace into greyspace.
Posting my thoughts on the topic before watching the video (VERY glad someone else is also bothered by this):
Most modern light themes suck because they are basically dark theme designs, light-ified. And not just that, they really, really try to be LIGHT. And as a result, they don't look good. Before Dark Mode became a fad and obsession for people, app designers just did UI design and tried to make nice applications. After dark mode became a Thing, we had to differentiate between them. So we got a Theme dropdown and the options are Dark and... what would be a good contrast? A, ha! LIGHT theme, of course. Which is where the disaster started. Just as in the original Star Wars movies where you'd never hear the words "The Light Side of the Force" - there was just the Force, a vaguely benevolent thing, and then the Dark Side corruption of it. If UI design had stayed with UI Design and Dark Mode, life would have been good. But humans like their categories and contrasts, so they named the not-Dark theme Light Theme, which obviously guides design: The Dark theme is obsessively dark-hued, so the opposite should be obsessively light-hued, right?
Well, no. It's what ended up happening, but it's actually a complete disaster. Why is that? It's because light and dark colorscapes aren't just equal but different. They're actively good at very different things.
The thing dark themes are fundamentally amazing at is making color contrasts pop. There's a reason code editors are dark, and it's not just terminal heritage: You can make colors pop in lighter themes, but in a very dark theme you have much more freedom in choice of colors that really stand out.
What's the weaknesses, then? Well, first, it's not actually easier to read (there's a pile of articles on what is easier to read, not going to repeat them here, see eg. Nielsen Group's page on Dark Mode), and the highest contrast tends to make text a bit less legible due to the background and text bleeding into each other undesirably. This effect, as far as I understand, is worse with light-on-dark than dark-on-light contrast pairings.
What's the design sensibility these inform? What wee see in apps like Discord and Visual Studio Code: UI elements are just flat slabs of color distinguished by different hues, and smart use of smallish contrasts make things nice, clean and readable, because color pops. Light gray text on dark gray background looks fantastic in dark mode.
What's a not-dark color scheme good and bad at?
Well, it's comparatively bad at making colors pop. It's not that it can't be done, but you have a bit less freedom in choice and need to employ a lot more intense colors - my light VSCode theme uses very, very intense neon blues to highlight code snippets as blue, for example, and this isn't bothersome at all.
Not-dark ("normal") themes aren't generally amazing at distinguishing small differences in contrast.
What are they good at, then?
Contrast, baby. You can go absolutely ham on the starkest contrasts you can get and it looks good in a way it never would on dark mode. Stark black text on really light background is a treat for the eyes.
It's also much better at drawing materials, shapes, surfaces. Drop shadows are gorgeous and make things pop and stand out without being overbearing. Strong linework is much more at home in the light than it is in the dark - in the dark, it pops out too much, making subtle gradients obtrusive instead of just informative. Contrast differences are enough in the dark. With a Normal theme, you can make things have some substance, and deliberately draw lines between different parts of the UI. They won't stand out annoyingly, they'll just fade into the background but give a nice, structured feel to the UI, the way shadows do in real life.
Normal themes can also incorporate color into the UI in a more balanced-feeling way because they don't make colors poop with the salience of a floodlight in your face.
Finally, "light" doesn't have to be "bright as the Sun" - the best "light" themes don't try to be light, they just try to be good UIs that don't actively try to be dark.
Pop open Excel (the old theme before the latest redesign), if you have it installed. Strong lines all over the place to delineate different UI elements, the ribbon shadowed to float. Even splashes of color or simple contrast differences have border linework added them because that's how light looks good. The styles menu is very even-keeled in the "colorful" light theme - change the theme to "Black" and all of the colours scream at you. It's less hideous than a dark theme that's been lightified, but still bothersome and in your face way too much. You'd design your UI elements differently if dark was the baseline.
And that is where many light themes for modern apps like make their mistake: They take dark design and dunk it in a can of white paint to lighten it up, and it usually looks ugly as sin, because direct translation betweem the two paradigms doesn't work. Normal/Colorful design to dark design can, somewhat, but it's suboptimal, and taking a dark design and whitewashing it is near invariably hideous. To be excellent, you have to handcraft that stuff. Take inspiration from the dark design, why not, but the design has to really "walk in the sun", not just be dumped in a bucket of white paint.
As one more recent example, check Obsidian's default theme. The contrast ratio between the titlebar and page area/active tab is apparently mathematically the same in both light and dark themes. Is it experientially the same? Not even close. The stark black of the dark theme stands out in glorious clarity and lends the UI good structure, with clear separation of active and inactive tabs. Light theme? Uh, are these a different color at all? The same math just doesn't make whitewashed themes and dark themes the same.
I have dyslexia, and I find that the letters (on a smaller high res screen) blur a tiny bit more in light mode, but hat tiny bit of blur leads to a massive difference in how my dyslexia is affected.
I'm in the small camp of folks who finds it hard to look at dark mode. There's something about white fonts on a black background that leaves its imprint on my eyes like spots of colour if you look too close to a bright light, makes it difficult to read anything after a few minutes 😬
For me that's light mode.
Most of my vision.
Immediate.
That likely means you have an OLED or a really bright screen, or it's just a poorly designed dark mode. The test in dark mode shouldn't be pure white, it should be a slightly lighter shade of gray, which is very comfortable to look at. It should feel like you're looking at a matte gray surface under natural dim lighting, not something that's actively glowing.
@@flubnub266 hate to break it to you, but it's been on every screen I've used since I was a child, OLED or otherwise
I've never heard dark mode is supposed to be better for eye strain before. I never use it, even if I have to invert my screen to have a white background, because white text on a black background will give me such bad eye strain within just a couple of minutes that I need to stop looking at screens for at least half an hour, often more to recover. I'll also be squinting and reading really slowly if the text is white on black so one sentence is enough to cause eye strain.
When its dark I just use the reduced brightness or reduced whitepoint setting, then my phone with a white screen puts out less light than my partner's phone with the low brightness setting turned off and a "black" screen, since even on a black screen unless your phone is an OLED it is putting out light.
Finally someone else with the same problem as me! I was genuinely getting worried I was the only one!
(And I’m sure you can therefore sympathise with the struggle of having to explain this every time to dark-mode-using people!)
Others in the comments (myself included) mention the same thing about dark mode being harder to read. Do you have an astigmatism?
@@jackb7705 I know I do, alongside strabismus (my eyes aren’t actually the shape they "should" be, which means I am literally incapable of depth perception, and only one eye is working at any one time, which can be a problem if something is directly in front of me as it is likely I’ll see it somewhere not quite exactly congruent with where it actually is.)
@@DrWhoFanJ based on what people are saying I think the astigmatism seems to have something to do with it. I also have astigmatism as do it seems many others who prefer light mode
Oh same, honestly any bright text against a dark/black background gives me hella eyestrain.
I’m loving the editing in this video 10/10
0:12 That Brother ugh sound, got me good!!! 😂😂
I have a weird middle ground in this debate because all my apps are in dark mode, or if the option is available, "gray mode" which is not as black but still dark. Pure dark mode is kinda uncomfortable sometimes. In sharp contrast my home and lock screen is like a kaleidoscope of a bunch of bright colors.
The thing I noticed with going through the tests is that typically I did better on whichever one came second. Probably because I was more used to the test.
I mainly prefer light mode because it tends to have better contrast. Black text on a white background compared to light grey text on a dark grey background.
Someone's colors aren't right why is your text gray it's supposed to be white
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 would be nice
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 Many color schemes designed to be easier on the eyes intentionally use dark gray and an off-white rather than pure black and pure white. This is because excessive contrast causes eye strain.
Look around your room. Which objects are as dark as night? Which objects are so white that they light up things next to them? Pure blacks and whites don't exist in nature. Most of the things around us have a relatively narrow range of contrast. Instead, it's the overall lighting that varies considerably - from mid day sun to a candle lit room, we can see well in a surprisingly wide spectrum of illumination. Our eyes are really good at adjusting to the ambient light level. But that adjustment is a global adjustment. Wide ranges in contrast within a single view result in things so dark that we struggle to make them out and so bright that they physically hurt and wash out things beside them.
Color schemes for ebook readers will often have a charcoal gray on a sepia background, which spans a much narrower range than the pure black and white that most screens are capable of. This range is much more like reading printed words on a paper page of a book. This reduced contrast doesn't "pop" as much - it's less attention grabbing - but it's much easier for our eyes to deal with.
Why did 3:16 remind me of Daniel Thrasher so much LMAOOOOOO
haha, true :D
Love the video and how much info was packed in.
The title made me think about how the popularity of both makes it difficult to design a good marketing email that is accessible for everyone using both modes plus the large number of emailing platforms. Even making a black button gets really wonky, really fast.
I just want it on the record that I, a dark mode user, did slightly (but not meaningfully) better in the dark mode part of the test.
I'm glad for you; meanwhile I - also a dark mode user - was somewhat unhappy to find myself doing slightly *worse* in the dark mode part of the test 😅
I bet you threw the light mode part of the test on purpose to make it look worse
@@viliml2763 If I'd done that, it wouldn't have been "slightly."
I don't understand your conclusion here. Giving users more options to customize their devices and software is a good thing, not "bad design".
2004 MySpace would like a word
I believe she's more concerned that they are just throwing features at users without actually thinking about their usefulness. Which could potentially lead to software bloated with useless crap that is less pleasant to use than a more carefully crafted simple interface. I'm a software developer and we think about this kind of thing very seriously, it's at the heart of making a good UX.
classic windows is laughing at the idea that one harsh white light mode and one harsh dark mode is "giving us a choice to customise"
@@emryspaperart Yeah, same with Linux space... Looking at you, Gnome, and your dislike for theming.
I think it's part of a general pattern of enshittification. Features should be created to serve a purpose for users, but as platforms grow they lose sight of "how will people use this" and just start throwing things out that seem cool without actually having a real use case.
My dark mode story: about 12 years ago I started my apprenticeship as a software developer. After a few weeks I started getting eye strain and headache just half an hour into work. I noticed that just looking at something dark helped getting a brief relief. So I switched the color profile of my IDE to a dark one. After that no headache anymore.
This happens just before the whole dark mode hype. Every time I need to read something in bright-mode on a screen for more than just a few minutes my eyes hurt. So even if there is no evidence, without dark-mode my personal screen-reading experience would be a hell of a time worse!
Sabrina’s the best. Love this video, especially the research. Also, the sponsor section was so interesting that I watched the whole thing! How did THAT happen?!
Too many apps add too many features just so they can say they have something new, in the hopes that it might encourage you to upgrade away from a perfectly functional app
Me at the end of the video: "so you're saying Apple does the bare minimum and calls it revolutionary? Who would've thought?"
What apple being lazy and terrible, and fans keep eating it up 😧
"Surprised Pikachu" 😯"well not surprised actually"😑
Incredible content, robust conclusions - what a banga! Here on team white-mode i'm just reminiscing of writing and re-writing school essays on paper, and that sense of when we progressed from calling an application from the command line into full dekstop GUI being like stepping out of darkness. Thanks for exploring this phenomenon
As someone who works in design, and stares at various screens all day, you've keyed in that the relative light of the room compared to the screen is what's important. It's why pros use a color calibration device on their screen that has an ACTIVE light monitor that takes readings from the desk periodically and shifts the lighting/colors of the monitor to fit context as the day progresses. Apple made its iphones and ipads sort of do that by changing with ambient light, but the $200 desk unit most professionals in the "make stuff look good for people" industry is weirdly niche considering how much the benefits of darkmode are touted.
What I don't like about dark mode is that the apps or websites are never consistent. They always use different backgrounds colors
As a designer I was always told to put dark letters on light space where possible as it's easier to read body copy that way. Nice to see that holds up.
I'm a developer and am a light mode convert. And when people get "flashbangt" by my screenshots or when screensharing and then proceed tell me they can't use light mode because it hurts their eyes, it's usually because they of their display's brightness is at FUCKING FULL BLAST SO THEY CAN READ TEXT IN FUCKING DARK MODE. Most of the time my screen's brightness is in the lower third percentiles - and I couldn't read dark mode in then either.
When I made the switch, it took a while to get adjusted - mostly to the aesthetics. But I really prefer it now, and now I only switch to dark mode, when it feels like I can't turn the brightness low enough and I don't have to increase the brightness within darkmode to be able to read text.
I've seen papers stating that brighter images are perceptually more appealing. The web is multi-media - If I can have a more appealing experience and comfortably use the highest available brightness - why shouldn't I?
We have lower contrast perception in the dark due to how our eyes work, but that does depend on the person. the perceived brightness of a white screen will be WAY higher than the overall brightness of a black screen at the same brightness setting, but you aren't able to keep the brightness at the same level because it is very straining. I think some of the anecdotes on eye strain in dark mode in this comment section are because of dark mode users at full brightness. Ofc, follow the 30-30-30 rule and you should be alright.
Art galleries sometimes use grey frames for pictures, so maybe that's the way we should go.
I don't like dark mode. It makes text look blurry for me, so I use the blue light filters and lower brightness as much as I can.
Absolutely love/appreciate all the camera work going on in this video ^.^
THE CLAPPING ON 0:41 MADE ME ROLL ON THE FLOOR
Damn, just like that
I lost respect for her when she said no to dark mode (im joking not really lol) but then i regained it with the double facepalm. shes adorable 😂😂
Great video! I'm surprised you didn't mention the number one reason I use and design dark mode: "color accuracy". When you have an image surrounded by white pixels there is light bleed, which changes the luminance of parts of the image. This is why video and photo editing software usually has a dark background.
To me this is why tinting the app icons is so upsetting. You use a dark background which makes true colors easier to see, and then you ruin the colors on anyways.
Going further back schools and students used slates and black boards which was dark mode. When I went through my educational foundation I experienced the teacher/ instructor using a black board and the student used paper. I have wondered if seeing the image in one (dark mode) then inverting it to write it down (light mode) may have a higher potential for a deeper imprint on the student.
I also know when the change to white boards as a default came along it felt like it diminished the effectiveness of the learning experience.
Then again black boards was also an audible experience. When the chalk sound stopped while you were writing notes your attention peaks, because something is happening.
How many have been deprived of the first hand experience of “nails on a chalkboard” effect?
This is the video I've been scared about since you posted that community post
as someone w light sensitivity i looove dark mode. but as someone w astigmatism i hateee dark mode. i gotta go back to no screens i thinkM
If only there's something in between. Personally I like working on text/code editors on solarised light / dark theme. It's less harsh because they use warm tones, as if you have an orange lamp over your screen. I have astigmatism too, and code editors are often dark mode by default, which I would usually change to something like solarised dark or something with warm tones to help make the text easier to read for me.
have you tried High Contrast mode? some programs use it, i know its a feature on Windows
@@cassinipanini I think high contrast is what makes dark mode difficult for people with astigmatism. For me, illuminated white text or yellow text on black background tends to glow which makes the words fuzzy. Solarised dark uses dark gray instead for black for background and off white instead of white for text, reducing the contrast and reducing the glowy fuzz around the text. Green text on black is also readable for me, I don't know what's the science behind this.
I'm not an expert, but customization is great. it allows for users to pick what better fits them and less people get upset. a great example of that is accessibility options: not for everyone, but if you want to you can pick something that helps you
Yeah, it makes me think about how my opinion has changed over time. As a kid when dark mode started to become a thing, I was like, "Why would anyone want that?" I even remember clicking on a website that "showed how bad" dark mode was, with paragraphs of text talking about how, when you shift your eyes reading in dark mode, the after images of the white text on your retina make your brain work harder to process the text, and other such claims.
Now I can't stand the thought of using light mode at night, and I secretly feel ashamed when I don't go for the "turn on light mode during the day" option.
hey Sabrina, I would like to take a moment to appriciate all the camera angles and takes it took to make this video. You are doing a great job
Your snark at 12:05 is really key to understanding. The biggest problem with "Dark Mode" is that *because* it is supposed to be cool, it gets implemented mostly by people who care more about looks than functionality, and who have unusually good eyes and screens. But if you think broken accessibility proves that accessibility wasn't even the goal, you need to try High Contrast mode for a while.
yall are some of the only youtubers i take seriously about your ads bc yall dont just incorporate them into your video the products are vital to whatever questions you are answering that day. Like I actually trust that yall vouch for the product bc yall are literally using the product.
Not sure if this will help anyone but on iPhone there’s a “Reduce White Point” setting and enabling that made my eyes feel so much better