A short guide to dark mode

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Everything we would tell a client about dark mode in the time it takes to drink a coffee.

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

The reason this keeps coming up

Pure black on pure white is harsher than a slightly softened pair. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

The practical version

Respect the visitor's system preference before your own default. The cost of getting this wrong is rarely visible on the day it happens. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Where it usually goes wrong

Shadows stop working in dark mode, so borders carry the depth. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.

In practice

Design decisions are the ones clients feel most confident arguing about, which makes it worth separating taste from evidence early. 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

Worth checking on your own setup before it becomes someone else's problem to fix.