Visited the new library in Springfield and their dark mode kiosk hurt my eyes

Checked out the new public library yesterday. They have these big touchscreen kiosks for the catalog. The dark theme used pure white text on a black background. No gray, no dimming. It was way too much contrast. My eyes felt strained after looking for a book for maybe two minutes. Do you think public screens need different rules for dark mode than phones?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren3012mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah, pure white on black is rough. My old laptop did that and I had to change it in the settings lol.

finleybutler2mo ago

Ugh that sounds awful. Pure white on black is brutal for public screens. They really should use a softer gray.

terry_mitchell9d ago

Holy hell, they actually used pure white text on a black screen in a public place? That's just asking for eye strain lawsuits or something. I can't believe nobody on their design team stopped and thought maybe that's a bad idea for something people stare at under fluorescent lights. Whoever okayed that needs to have their eyes checked. It's not like it's hard to find a middle ground either - just use a light gray on dark gray and call it a day. Public kiosks are completely different from your phone because you can't tilt the screen away or adjust the brightness yourself. They really dropped the ball on that one.