When you research website trends in 2024, one of the things that keeps coming up is ‘dark mode’. As it says on the tin, ‘dark mode’ is a design feature that allows users to switch to a darker colour scheme, typically with dark backgrounds and light text.
For many users, this experience is far more aesthetically pleasing and easier on the eye than the traditional ‘light mode’, where the roles are reversed – the screen is light and the content is dark.
When Did Dark Mode Become a Thing?
If you’ve already finished your website design and this trend has passed you by, we’re not judging you. In many ways, dark mode has crept into our digital life quietly, initially appearing as an additional feature that had to be sought.
Early implementations began back in 2014, when individual apps and custom Android ROMs began offering the option.
This was swiftly followed by ‘Android 9 Pie’, which was a dark mode that could be applied to certain UI elements and a variety of apps, although this wasn’t the comprehensive system-wide dark mode option we have today.
From 2019 onwards, both Android and iOS launched dark mode as a system-wide option, giving users the chance to have a cohesive dark theme across the operating system and supporting apps – and it hasn’t taken long for websites to follow suit.
What is a Website Dark Mode?
For website designers, dark mode has manifested itself in two separate ways.
On the one hand, some website builders are designing websites from the ‘dark mode angle’, meaning the one-and-only design of the platform is dark-orientated – essentially predetermining the user’s preferences before they even click on the site.
On the other hand, some websites are offering the same thing that apps do.
Instead of sticking to a single design template, they give the user the option to switch between one mode or the other.
In our opinion, if you’re going to utilise the dark mode trend, this is the best way to go about it.
For one, users like customisation and the ability to change a platform based on their own preferences – without them being predetermined. Secondly, it shows that you’re flexible, willing to respect individual preferences, ensure accessibility and user-friendliness, and therefore cater to a broader audience.
What are the Advantages of Dark Mode?
Dark mode isn’t going to be a website trend that will dissolve any time soon, but why exactly is this the case? It’s important to understand the answer to this question, if you want to get the implementation of dark mode right.
As mentioned before, the number one advantage of dark mode is that it alleviates eye strain, especially in low-light environments.
Dark mode essentially reduces the overall brightness of the screen; minimising the blue light to ensure reading and viewing content is more comfortable for extended periods.
If your website is story-driven, and you know customers will spend a good portion of time on it, this can be particularly helpful to avoiding a higher bounce rate.
Dark mode also offers improved readability – white text on a dark background can be easier to read than black text on a white background, particularly for those with visual impairments.
Add on to this that it’s more energy efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and it allows for user personalisation, it’s clear to see why it’s been such a popular website trend in the last two years.
What to Remember When Implementing Dark Mode
With all this being said, it’s still possible to get dark mode wrong. If you’re implementing it as an option, you need to ensure you maintain a high contrast between text and background colours.
You should also avoid using pure black and pure white – often, the most popular colours are dark grey for backgrounds and off-white for text.
Other elements of the website should also be kept in mind. While dark mode can be a positive, it can make images and other media elements look a little uneven, or even overly emphasised.
It’s important to ensure, in this case, that images and media elements look good in both dark and light modes, with transparent PNGs or SVGs being used where appropriate, and perhaps even separate versions of images being used if necessary.
Remember that this is all about accessibility. Users should have a clear and easy option to toggle between both modes, and the implementation on the website should be easily carried over to the mobile version.
Test the dark mode on various devices and browsers to ensure it is compatible, and the user experience is as consistent as possible. Only then will you be able to say that the experience in question is truly enhanced!
