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Human eye’s signal amplification curve is not linear. [1] You can’t convert an existing app to dark mode so much as building a new design for it, or it looks we

Human eye’s signal amplification curve is not linear. [1] You can’t convert an existing app to dark mode so much as building a new design for it, or it looks weird. Youtube’s Dark mode is an example of this uncanny valley. Funnily enough, they themselves illustrated the issue with the first image on their post, in how weird the version on the left looks. Besides - what we need isn’t a full dark mode, it’s an app that is built for the human eye. Dark mode is as extreme as staring into a white lightbulb all day, which is what the light mode is. An example of this is Aether (disclosure: it’s a project I’m designing for: https://aether.app https://aether.app). It’s designed for the ‘dark’ mode from scratch, or rather, it’s at 40% mode and it’s the only UI, so it aims to work well for both day and night. So we don’t have to go for the one or the other. (I’m not sure about posting here since it’s a ‘Slack competitor’ and I don’t want to look like advertising, but hey, I guess it’s relevant) [1] Contrast Threshold Curve of Human Vision https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Contrast-threshold-curve-of-human-vision_fig1_253055649 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Contrast-threshold-curve...

alanbernstein 7y ago
> You can’t convert an existing app to dark mode. How can this possibly be true? Are you trying to say something else, like "just changing colors is not sufficient to create a high quality dark mode"? That is probably why it's a "mode" and not a "theme". This tool looks nice though. This type of threading is much more appropriate for work conversations, in my experience.
- rolleiflex 7y ago
  Yes, sorry, that was a little hyperbolic, so I edited to correct. I meant sometimes the things that you need to do to make a dark mode is not just changing colours, but also to produce new design work, since not all of the existing design can be converted. (And thanks — I agree. It saves quite a bit of productivity in our own remote team every day.)
samtimalsina 7y ago
> Youtube’s Dark mode is an example of this uncanny valley. What uncanny valley? I have been using Youtube's dark mode for a while now, and much prefer it to the default light mode. The light mode appears jarring and "noisy" for some reason.
- rolleiflex 7y ago
  It's definitely better than the light mode, but it's still a very 'skin' kind of implementation. For an example on the contrary, Twitter's dark mode is a much better reimplementation than YouTube's.

alanbernstein 7y ago

> You can’t convert an existing app to dark mode. How can this possibly be true? Are you trying to say something else, like "just changing colors is not sufficient to create a high quality dark mode"? That is probably why it's a "mode" and not a "theme". This tool looks nice though. This type of threading is much more appropriate for work conversations, in my experience.

rolleiflex 7y ago
Yes, sorry, that was a little hyperbolic, so I edited to correct. I meant sometimes the things that you need to do to make a dark mode is not just changing colours, but also to produce new design work, since not all of the existing design can be converted. (And thanks — I agree. It saves quite a bit of productivity in our own remote team every day.)

samtimalsina 7y ago

> Youtube’s Dark mode is an example of this uncanny valley. What uncanny valley? I have been using Youtube's dark mode for a while now, and much prefer it to the default light mode. The light mode appears jarring and "noisy" for some reason.

rolleiflex 7y ago
It's definitely better than the light mode, but it's still a very 'skin' kind of implementation. For an example on the contrary, Twitter's dark mode is a much better reimplementation than YouTube's.