Dark mode usability
- Agnieszka
- Sep 8, 2020
- 4 min read
Lately, there has been a hype for a dark mode. Companies are working hard on delivering this functionality for their clients. Apart from its cool design is it really bringing so many benefits from a user perspective? Two big fintech companies, N26 and Revolut, recently released dark mode for their apps. I was led by my curiosity and checked it myself. Let's look into it more.
Many may think that the dark mode it's a cool modern invention, but in fact, it was the first available display on computers. The background was black and the text displayed was white. Only after some time, a new invention was introduced, which was the opposite, white display with back letters. Only until recently, that was the main common display, but the dark mode is becoming more and more popular.
In fact, the dark mode is offered us as an option and companies are listing multiple benefits of its usage, among others:
1) Saving your device energy consumption - this it's true just to some extent as it works only with OLED and AMOLED screens. As a user, I wouldn't be able to say if my device has this kind of display or to be honest, I wouldn't even be bothered by checking. However, tech-savvy users will be delighted. It's important to mention, that the price range with this kind of display is a bit higher, starting from around 250 euro so this advantage does not apply automatically to every user of the phone.
2) Lighter for your eyes - "Money management that’s easier on the eyes" (N26). The dark mode is claimed to makes your eyes less tired, which happens to be true but when there is a shortage of light or at night. During the day white text on a black background makes it more difficult to read it. Moreover, dark mode is even more difficult to read for people with astigmatism, I happen to be one of them. When I first checked dark mode I got the impression of heaviness and I was tired by looking at my apps. Little did I know at that time, that in fact, the dark mode also has its dark side.
3) Better money management: " It’s the perfect solution to after-hours money management" (N26). I thought about it, looking into basic needs, it might be useful for doing a quick money beam to a friend, checking the card and the account balance. These situations are more likely to happen let say in limited light circumstances. We go out with friends in the evening and we run out of cash. We want to send a quick transfer back to a friend, quickly check something, great it works, our brain did not focus on too many details. The dark mode happens to work better to highlight colorful elements on the black display. It's not working the best when we have a lot of small details on the black screen (like numbers), the eyes are getting more tired and the numbers may be blurry. This is important to know especially when we talk about money and accuracy dealing with them.
The dark mode is great to present and compare visually catchy objects. Let's take an example of Netflix and how easy is to distinguish different elements/boxes. Moreover, our choice is often based on visual appeal.
When we deal with numbers we deal with accuracy, rather than a visual appeal. In fact, in the example below of the N26 app, colorful icons are more catchy than the numbers themselves. The second most catchy element, it's the green highlighted transaction of 50 EUR. As mentioned, the colorful objects are more catchy on a dark display.
4) It's cool in design - definitely dark background looks chic. The black color is associated with elegancy, finance, fines and richness. That is one side of the dark mode - the black color can be also associated with sadness or evil. This simple comparison was used in Star Wars where the good character was in white and the bad character was in dark. Colors are often connected with our emotions and they can provoke different user experiences. The dark color can be considered as cool, modern, chic, simple and I believe that in terms of the current app development it has mostly this association. Although, we need to be aware of the whole spectrum of associations while using colors in the design.
Looking into the N26 app and the Revolut app I found out that non of them offers functionality to switch the dark mode on between certain hours, which from an efficiency point of view would be the best option. Both Revolut and N26 will have 3 options to choose from: light, dark, and automatic/system. You can have either the dark mode based on your app settings or based on the system, which means if your phone is in the dark mode, after opening the app it will also be in the dark mode. Comparing two solutions, in Revolut it's quicker to get into the setting section, where you can adjust to the dark/light mode and also I like visual display explaining how your app design will change.
Revolut visual icons of light, dark and automatic
All in all, the dark mode has its advantages and disadvantages. It's important to understand that it can actually decrease our productivity in some instances and with financial products, I think it's very important to consider. The dark mode is cool looking and a good option to have but it's not definitely a must for a banking application. Which feature you would like to have?
More about dark mode: https://www.androidauthority.com/dark-mode-1046425/
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