14
My dark mode update broke the entire site last Friday
I pushed a dark mode redesign to our app with what I thought were good contrast ratios. Ended up making all the links invisible on some older monitors people are still using. Had to roll back in 20 minutes and redo all the color testing with a proper tool.
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
charlie_stone726d ago
That older monitor problem is a real blind spot... literally. Most devs test on their fancy Retina displays and forget there's still a ton of Dell Ultrasharps from 2012 out there in offices and homes. Those panels handle contrast totally different than an iPhone screen. What gets me is nobody talks about how color perception changes based on the lighting in the room either. Someone working late with dim lights is gonna see links way differently than someone in a bright open office. Might be worth testing your dark mode at like 20% brightness on a cheap monitor just to catch those edge cases.
7
milam426d ago
Yeah but how do you even test for that without buying a bunch of old monitors?
6
joseph_west596d ago
And what worked for me was just hitting up Craigslist and grabbing an old 24-inch Dell for like 40 bucks. Plugged it in next to my main monitor and ran my tests with the room lights dimmed down. Caught so many contrast problems I never would have seen otherwise, and it cost less than a round of drinks.
2