Rant: I keep seeing designers use pure black for dark mode backgrounds

Back when I was first learning UI design around 2015, everyone just turned the brightness down to black. Now I see it all over the place, especially in small startup apps. It creates too much contrast and makes text look like it's vibrating. I learned this the hard way on a project for a local news app where user tests showed people got eye strain. What's a good dark gray you all use instead of #000000?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathang6714h ago

My buddy's app got roasted for that, he switched to a dark gray like #121212.

nathang679h ago

Ugh, tell me about it. Honestly, I just use #111111 for almost everything now. It's dark enough but way easier on the eyes. I had to redo a whole dashboard because the pure black made the blue buttons look super harsh and weird. That slight gray tone just lets everything sit together better.