I used to design dark mode with pure black backgrounds and now I avoid it completely

For years I set my dark mode backgrounds to #000000 because I thought it looked modern and crisp. After a client in Chicago showed me their eye strain reports from using my app at night, I switched to a dark gray like #1E1E1E instead. The pure black created too much contrast against white text and caused halation effects. Has anyone else noticed better user retention after moving away from true black?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.xena7d ago

Honestly, that thing you said about the support tickets dropping is wild. I used to be all about pure black too, thought it was the coolest thing ever, but seeing how much that small change helped totally changed my mind.

margaret_lane7d ago

My buddy runs a small dev shop in Austin and he switched from pure black to dark gray last year. He told me users were complaining about ghosting and eye fatigue with #000000, especially during late night sessions. After he changed it to more of a charcoal tone, his support tickets about visual discomfort dropped like crazy. Said it made a bigger difference than he expected for such a small color tweak.