Light vs. Dark UI When building out a project, does it matter if you go dark over light and vice versa?
Light vs. Dark UI
When building out a project, does it matter if you go dark over light and vice versa? What are your thoughts?
#tech-questions
Light vs. Dark UI
When building out a project, does it matter if you go dark over light and vice versa? What are your thoughts?
#tech-questions
Reasons to go with a light theme:
Reasons to go with a dark theme:
That being said, a good light theme beats a bad dark theme, and vice versa. :)
Couldn't agree more. I'd go a step further though and say, at least in the beginning, it's purely a branding exercise.
I would seriously question the benefits outside of that, until you're few years down the line anyway.
Most of the companies making a big deal about light or dark themes are those that already have a strong brand or customisation is a core part of their value. They have the luxury of creating an UI that contradicts their brand for some additional benefits like you specified above.
I agree that more common are Light themes, but I prefer dark and switch every site/app that has such feature into night/dark mode. I spend a lot of time in front of a screen and I feel that my eyes are less tired if the screen is dark.
I use a "low blue light" monitor and that's made a huge difference in eye strain for me.
I really do not like dark mode UIs that I cannot change. Pixelmator for the Mac is a great app for the price but I hate the UI.
Dark for sure, if available. The only painful thing is switching between light and dark themes.
Difficult to say, Casey. In some products, dark scheme is a no-brainer. (e.g. I love visual studio code and it's colour scheme) whereas in others (e.g. notepad++) , it doesn't appeal to me because the colour scheme is so different.
I don't think I've ever built a dark theme. Light themes are just so much more common. Dark themes used to feel dated, since they reminded me of the Android 1.0 UI, but now that they're making a comeback I don't feel that way anymore.
Generally, I don't like dark themes, even for coding. They're pretty, but:
I prefer light themes for similar reasons. IH is dark theme site though and we're all on here happily enough :)
Good point! IH's theme feels modern to me, and the blue background reduces some of the problems I've mentioned. Plus, the eye-strain issue is less of a problem since IH is for reading, not reference (I'm not flipping back and forth between IH and another screen).
I always tend towards light. I just think sites and web apps are fresher and enjoyable that way. I do see dark used consistently in particular niches though, for some reason: