Member-only story

Is dark mode simply a time sink?

Or is light mode the problem?

Aaron Cecchini-Butler
UX Collective
4 min readFeb 11, 2023
Light mode and dark mode controls on iPhone.
Light and dark mode controls on iPhone. Screenshots by author.

Debates around the pros and cons of dark mode have been going on for a while now. In fact, research done in the late 1980s by James L. Dannemiller and Benjamin R. Stephens indicated a preference in infants for dark content on light backgrounds.

This, along with other studies outlined well in Josep Ferrer’s article, Why is Dark Mode so captivating,” indicates that the early research pointed to dark mode as inferior.

For the eyes?

The initial push of dark mode as a way to protect the eyes has been debunked repeatedly (although it is thought that dark mode in dark settings may be slightly better and vice versa).

For the battery?

Another common refrain from dark-mode evangelists has to do with battery savings. While it is possible for dark mode to save some battery, a study at Purdue found that the savings are minimal if your brightness is around 50%. If your brightness is at 100% all of the time, dark mode can save a more significant chunk of battery life. Considering most of our phones regularly change our brightness automatically, it is unlikely that your phone is at 100% brightness at all times.

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Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Aaron Cecchini-Butler

Senior Systems Designer at Grubhub working on Cookbook (our design system) — as well as contributing to product design work.

Responses (6)

What are your thoughts?

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