Dark mode support in the AWS Management Console | Hacker News Reader

Dark mode support in the AWS Management Console

aws.amazon.com

19 pointsrobbiet4807 comments

Interesting how much developer tool UI aesthetics are moving towards dark design. The homepage for Linear App (https://linear.app/) also embraces a dark mode.

I was talking to a designer friend of mine and he bemoaned how difficult it is to design for dark mode because you have to give up shadows in the design and move towards other ways of separating elements on the page.

"Dark mode helps reduce eye strain and provides contrast in bright environments which improves readability and accessibility. Dark mode also improves navigation across user interfaces..."

I dispute this. And now this is going to be cited, further manufacturing the idea that this is an empirical truth.

Anecdote on eye strain, I can't speak to the contrast in bright environments. I am 46 don't need glasses but started feeling the strain of staring at a monitor. Switched to dark mode and my eyes feel better for it. I now use DarkReader in Firefox.

I bet you would get similar results from slightly darker whites (e.g. a gentle yellowish/grayish background), slightly increased font size, monitor brightness better adjusted to the ambient light, and an adjustment in your viewing angle.

I think people probably find situations where one variant of dark mode is just less bad then one variant of light mode, and that perpetuates the simpler idea that dark mode is always better than light mode, where light mode is often unfairly represented by black text on white.

I do admit that it can be more complex to tune your setup for non dark modes. And sometimes it's officially impossible, like when browsers don't support tweaking your own colors well. But I think the popularity of dark mode prevents this kind of tuning from being more popular and supported.

Its the same with Dvorak, HN loves it but empirical evidence for it being a better keyboard layout is flimsy at best.

In my personal experience, dark UI only has the stated benefit when the monitor is the only light source. I find a light UI much better for on a well lit room

Agreed. I'm surprised they specifically say "in bright environments" when, in my experience, that's the absolute worst-case scenario for dark mode. Try using dark mode outside on a sunny day sometime; it's terrible.

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