The screens of electronic devices have become part of our daily lives - present from the moment we deactivated our cell phone alarm in the morning until it was time to send that good night message to a loved one on WhatsApp.
We spend a lot of time glazed at the screen of our devices, whether they are Web or Mobile. But have you ever stopped to think that most of them have one thing in common: a bright background with dark text as standard?
Well, that's changing with the arrival of Dark Mode and its benefits, which aim to make the user's vision more comfortable in the face of multiple hours of screen use and to save the energy used by the device. In this article, we'll list the main benefits of using Dark Mode on your product.
How did Dark Mode come about, anyway?
It may seem that it is something modern and recent, but what we call today Dark Mode It had been showing its faces since the 1970s and 1980s. The first programmable display, the Manchester Baby, was powered by cathode rays, a technology called CRT (Cathode Ray Tubes). However, the CRT technology was not so powerful as to illuminate the entire screen, so only a few characters remained lit.
For this reason, the first computer screens of the 70s and 80s had this color scheme: the black screen with illuminated green or white characters — contrary to what we see today in most of the machines on the market.
The dark screens of the past decade reappeared on the market with greater force after the arrival of technology OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode). Unlike LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), does not use any backlight, as the diodes emit their own light.
In other words, the OLED emits its own light. When there is a need to produce the color black, OLED simply turns off, saving the lifespan of the devices' batteries. For this reason, Dark Mode has been gaining space and study.
After the introduction of OLED to the market, technology companies began to look more at this “darkness” mode - the Instagram, Facebook and Google, for example, they started offering the Dark Mode option in their apps.
Benefits of Dark Mode for the user
Below are five benefits of Dark Mode for the user. Take a look:
1 — Reduces eye strain and helps with sleep.
A survey from Harvard showed that blue light, emitted from white screens, interrupts the secretion of melatonin, a hormone very necessary for sleep. In this way, Dark Mode is much more beneficial for a restful night's sleep.
The researchers also recommend that smartphones and devices are not used three hours before the sleep. However, if the device is in dark mode, sleep will not be affected as much as if it were being used in light mode — as it will emit less blue light.
2 — It increases the battery life of the devices
As in Dark Mode most of the screen is not being illuminated, as a result, cell phone battery is not as required.
Searches studies by Google confirmed that using Dark Mode on OLEDs is a great help for longer smartphone battery life.
In the experiment, using YouTube at 50% brightness in dark mode, battery savings compared to light mode were 15%. With brightness at 100%, the Darkness interface saved 60% of energy from the screen.
3 — Improves contrast with light colors and facilitates accessibility
The black screen offers several possibilities for colors to stand out, different from screens with a white background. This is because some Colors gain more personality when placed against a darker background.
An example of this are light colors, which, on a light background, require a greater effort to be read by the user, even if it were not the case with a dark background. This characteristic is very positive for accessibility for people with low vision, for example.
4 — Keeps the user in your application longer
Dark mode is also being correlated to increasing our ability to focus during tasks performed on the smartphone or desktop. Apple, when launching macOS Mojave with dark mode, stated that users would have a “distraction-free and eye-pleasing work environment — in every sense”.
In this sense, Twitter announced that its users spend more time browsing the app when they have dark mode turned on. This is due both to visual preferences and to the fact that many users use the app during the night — during which the Dark mode is much more comfortable to navigate.
5 — Users want to opt for Dark Mode in applications
According to a survey carried out by the Android Authority with 2,500 people who use a phone with the Android system, 81.9% of them use dark mode on their phones, in apps, and anywhere else available. 9.9% said they switch between dark and light mode.
Thus, a total of 91.8% of the interviewees use some form of dark mode on their devices. Only 8.2% said they don't use or Dark Mode.
For this reason, technology giants already allow users to choose which look they prefer quickly and simply. An example is Apple, which, at the launch of iOS 13, provided the option for the user to decide which look they want to use on their device.
Conclusion
We can see, from the amount of research, studies, data, and the commitment of technology giants to Dark Mode, that applications already need to adapt and bring not only one interface visual, but two: Dark Mode and Light Mode.
The benefits listed in this article show the potential that this darkness mode has. With emphasis on battery savings, improved accessibility for colors with low contrast with a lighter background, Improving focus and attention, decreased tiredness visual and even sleep improvement. With all these points, if applied correctly, your product can only win with Dark Mode.
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