Dark mode: what to get right first

The advice here is unglamorous, which is probably why it gets skipped. If you only fix one thing about dark mode this quarter, make it the first item below.

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

Start here

Pure black on pure white is harsher than a slightly softened pair. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Then this

Respect the visitor's system preference before your own default. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

Eventually

Shadows stop working in dark mode, so borders carry the depth. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

The short version

The measurable part of design is whether people can find what they came for and act on it without hesitating. Three things worth confirming about dark mode before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Pure black on pure white is harsher than a slightly softened pair — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

Pick the one that would hurt most if it failed, and start there.