Dark Mode — the fad that wasn’t
In this post I’ve shared my research and views on how the extremely popular “Dark Mode” has moved beyond it’s initial label of “The App Design Fad of 2019”.
Dark Mode: A color scheme using light coloured text and icons on dark background.
Light Mode: A color scheme using dark coloured text and icons on light background.
Over a year ago, when Android and iOS enabled dark mode — one of the most requested features of the year — most critics labelled it as “The App Design Fad of 2019”. A bit skeptical of this “fad” and quite late to the party, I moved to the “dark side” only months later in 2020. My reasons for doing so were similar to those of most people.
“It’s better for the eyes and it saves battery life”.
Over a month later, my eyes don’t strain any less and nor has my phone’s battery performance improved. And yet…there’s no going back.
Origins of the Dark Mode
Contrary to popular belief, the world isn’t really shifting from light-mode to dark-mode. It is actually shifting back to dark-mode.
Dark mode isn’t some new breakthrough discovery in user interface design, but rather simply a by-product of the technology of the old days. The monochrome CRT monitors of the old days contained phosphorus inside them which under normal conditions appeared dark. This would only light up when an electron beam would hit it. The common choice for phosphorus back then was the P1, which was green in color. Hence, the green text on the dark background a.k.a dark mode.
The early user interfaces didn’t really have much going on for them and were thus predominantly dark in appearance.
Stepping Into The Light
It’s hard to trace exactly when we moved towards light mode, but a strong case could be made for the Xerox PARC graphical user interface (widely believed to be the inspiration behind the Macintosh) to have influenced this shift. The more advanced RGB CRT monitors, which were capable of displaying color, became the forefronts of the light-mode revolution.
Any new advanced technology, in order to become successful amongst the masses, needs to appear friendly and non-intimidating.
Hence, not surprisingly many computer designers and programmers began shaping the advanced computer displays to emulate the age-old look of the written paper to lure the average Joe into the world of mobile computing. These advances in display technology helped usher us into the dominant phase of the “light-mode”.
Ironically, it ended up being one of these advances in display technology itself — OLED — which sparked the public’s renewed interest in the dark mode.
Why do people move over to the dark side?
Ask people who have recently shifted to dark mode on why they made the shift and nine times out of ten you’ll get the same answer.
“Dark mode is better for my eyes and it improves my phone’s battery life”.
Promotion around dark mode is everywhere. Apple’s own website says that the dark-mode on macOS is “easy on the eyes in every way”. Google once said that YouTube’s dark mode could save between 15 to 60% of the phone’s battery depending on the screen brightness.
But is dark mode really better for the eyes and does it really improve battery life?
Mythbusting
Let’s try something. Try googling for images of “prehistoric paintings”. Notice the thing in common among most of the images shown? They are dark sketches on a light background.
We have evolved over the centuries to see dark on light.
Now, I’m not making my case on the basis of a random google search but if you are interested in learning more on this subject, there are enough studies conducted which reason that our over 200,000–300,000 year old homo sapiens species, being a diurnal species (mostly active throughout the day) had to adapt over the centuries to effectively distinguish food, useful tools, dangers and objects of interest from the blindingly bright background of the savannah.
Is Dark Mode really better for the eyes?
Reading in dark mode actually opens our pupils more in order to capture the necessary visual information. This is in contrast to reading in light mode, where our pupils actually narrow in order to get used to the increased brightness.
This is the reason behind sharpness actually being better when dark text is written on a light background a.k.a light mode, as compared to when light text is written on a dark background a.k.a dark mode.
Have a look.
Unless you have sworn fealty to the dark side, it’ll be apparent that the image on the left is easier to read. Furthermore, if you focus for a bit longer on the image on the right, you may start noticing “halos” around the white characters on the black background. This halation effect is a real problem in the dark mode and is one of the main reasons why patients of astigmatism are cautioned against using their devices in dark mode.
But maybe dark mode is good because it helps us from the harmful “blue light”?
As with most things in life, the answer is both yes and no. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually the spectrum of light not just the brightness that makes blue light damaging. Dark mode can only make so much of a difference. Most researchers attribute that the discomfort we feel in our eyes after staring at the screen for too long is more due to the lack of blinking.
Most researchers believe that the discomfort we feel in our eyes after starting at the screen for too long is more due to the lack of blinking.
What about the battery life savings?
Battery savings are one of the main reasons OLED screens became popular. When OLED screens display black, the respective pixels are turned off, which saves some battery. This is in sharp contrast to LED displays which would draw the same amount of battery whether you look at a beautiful polaroid image or simply stare at a pitch black screen.
While enabling dark-mode on your phone device, equipped with an OLED display might not double or triple or your battery life, it may well increase your daily battery life by 1–2 hours and that is something valuable to a lot of people.
There’s just one problem….most devices don’t have OLED displays.
Apple’s iPhone XS, XS Max, and X use OLED panels but Apple’s other iPhones and iPads don’t — not even their best-selling iPhone XR. On the other side of the spectrum, while Samsung’s latest flagship Galaxy phones are coming equipped with the OLED displays, the majority of the Android phones still don’t come equipped with an OLED display. It’s worse in the case of laptops.
Neither Apple’s best selling phone nor the MacBooks come equipped with an OLED display.
Depending on who or what you choose to believe, the reason behind the low market penetration of OLED displays is anything from high time to reach market for new technologies to the higher costs compared to the chearper LED displays.
So then why is dark mode so popular?
More than a year post being labelled “The App Design Fad of 2019”, the “dark mode” rages on with more and more users moving over to the dark side every single day. If it’s not truly “better” for the eyes and if the resulting “battery savings” aren’t significant for most , then what really is the reason behind this ongoing trend of going black?
Maybe at the end of the day, it comes down to something as simple as the fact that dark mode is cool.
Staring at my Instagram or Twitter on a dark screen just feels better than on a light screen. Perhaps, the black and grey makes us feel less conscious of how long we have been staring at the screen. Maybe the average smartphone user like me was just in need of a fresh outlook and some change, which is sometimes the most overlooked aspect of any product.
People love a refresh. Even if it’s just a theme switch.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that despite knowing all of this, I’ve decided to stick with the dark mode and have no plans of switching back to light mode anytime soon. As one of my friends says — “Once you go black, you’re not going back”.
Or maybe just until the next trend arrives.
