Zach LeathermanA very unscientific poll about light and dark modes on web sites:
My vision requires that I use light mode
My vision requires that I use dark mode
I prefer to use light mode
I prefer to use dark mode
Poll ended at .
Wolfr@zachleat I prefer to use light mode when ambient light = light and dark mode when ambient light = dark
@wolfr I also prefer Auto! Mastodon allows 4 poll choices š
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meduz'
mrtnvh
Cory Birdsong
Richard Bruskowski@cbirdsong @wolfr @zachleat That would be nice! There's https://github.com/insidegui/DarkModeBuddy for macOS but it doesn't work with external displays.
@cbirdsong @wolfr yeah I like the idea but would be unlikely to agree to a permission prompt for it
@zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr The Telegram Android app do it, and itās very useful when I open Telegram in the toilets during daylight.
(Thereās no way Iād turn on the light in the toilets until Iām done.)
Matthew Mone@zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr
This is seems like a good case for not prompting unless the users asks for it.
make the "based on my surroundings" settings option and warn the user that it requires the permission, then only prompt them when they select the setting.
honestly, a lot of these permissions prompts should require user interaction to make them come up.
having to say "no" to a permissions prompt for notifications on page load is super annoying
This is seems like a good case for not prompting unless the users asks for it.
make the "based on my surroundings" settings option and warn the user that it requires the permission, then only prompt them when they select the setting.
honestly, a lot of these permissions prompts should require user interaction to make them come up.
having to say "no" to a permissions prompt for notifications on page load is super annoying
sayrer@zachleat @cbirdsong @wolfr You can write your own to change the OS theme, and the browsers will react to that. https://github.com/oxidecomputer/design-site/commit/ab1c861a9a35e551af31b02f366a99e96bb0de9c
blemmie
Anton Palmqvist
Rik Schennink@zachleat I unfortunately have a bunch of muscae volitantes aka eye floaters in both my eyes.
Reading in light mode is a bit like Karaoke sing along where the floaters bounce below the words I'm reading. Not great.
Neave Interactive
Tyler Martin@rikschennink @zachleat Same issue here. In light mode they can obstruct entire words. Dark mode helps immensely.
Matt Stein@zachleat Iād pick option 5: I follow system settings based on time of day, except sometimes when Iām in a very dark room and boldly force dark mode.
@zachleat But then I should probably just stop replying to toots and change my middle name to āit depends,ā if weāre being honest.
@mattrambles this is my petition to allow Mastodon polls with 5 choices š
@zachleat I think that fifth option is where the engineering gets really complicated.
Andrew Douglass@zachleat depends on the lighting, really, but I voted my default preference of dark mode.
Egor Kloos@zachleat I lean towards dark mode as I have an aversion to bright light/glare (luckily, I don't get Summer SAD any more). But best for me, as I'm getting older, is a good contrast in the appropriate ambient light. Daytime with light mode and dark mode is great during the evenings.
Juhis@zachleat I'm lazy and 99% of the time just use whatever a site or app starts with.
Braw āš³ļøāš@zachleat I prefer the theme match time of the day, because it's much easier to have light mode when it's bright, and dark mode when it's dark (obvs)
sites that don't have automatic mode make me sad, but so do sites that don't have any theme picker at all and only use system pref
Christopher Neugebauer@zachleat Option that's not listed: I prefer dark mode on my phone, which has an OLED screen (i.e. true black, maximum possible contrast ratio), but light mode on backlit screens.
@zachleat Voted light mode since that's generally my preference, especially on traditional desktop OSes. However, I do let my phone automatically switch to dark mode at night so that I'm less likely to get my eyes blasted if I need to use it in a dark room.
It's also not always purely a preference ā when dealing with a migraine I am _very_ thankful to be able to manually force everything into dark mode.
tldr: It's complicated!
Eric A. Meyer@zachleat I voted āpreferā because I *can* read in the mode I dislike, itās just a fair bit more difficult. But itās not a requirement, the way some people have in order to avoid migraines and the like.
ą«®ą¼¼āļøæāą¼½ć¤ / Wildan@zachleat can we just switch back to win98 grayscale with their super snappy skeuomorphism? (but with bigger font)
Thomas Broyer@zachleat I don't really care, and use the site's default (my OS also being on its default light mode, which makes sites in "auto" mode use their light mode)
Johannes Baiter@zachleat
ā Light during daytime, dark at nighttime ("system" setting)
ā Light during daytime, dark at nighttime ("system" setting)
Trevor Stinson@zachleat This is extremely situational for me on both preference and requirement.
Vadim Makeev@zachleat My vision prefers light during the day and dark in the evening. But not requires, fortunately.
postmodern@zachleat as computer monitors increase in size everywhere, light mode websites and apps blast out even more lumens.
Derk-Jan šššŗš¦@zachleat no preference, i change what i use all the time
Christmas Tree@zachleat I voted āprefer light modeā but Iām not certain that itās NOT because of my vision. I think Iāve heard that astigmatism makes dark mode difficult to read, and I do have a mild astigmatism, but I donāt know much beyond that
mhoye@zachleat I think a lot of sites need a fifth "I would prefer not to see your website under any conditions, but I am unfortunately obligated."
Gokul Das@zachleat I use darkman to automatically switch between light and dark modes. After so many years fiddling with them, my answer is that there is no silver bullet. The preferred mode changes with ambient light.
Brantley Harris@zachleat I just donāt like switching between modes.
Philip Zastrow@zachleat 100% depends on time of day or my current lighting environment. I like light mode when it is bright around me and dark mode when it is dimmer or dark.
mandy brown@zachleat I prefer to use auto but I have trouble with a lot of dark modes and often have to switch back (or put down my device); I have a strong astigmatism which means high-contrast light-on-dark causes a halation effect which is very unpleasant. I can only handle dark mode if itās sufficiently moderate in contrast.
@aworkinglibrary Iām hearing that you *need* a UI toggle to have the best reading experience
Sara Joy 
@zachleat @aworkinglibrary and not just light/dark, also high/low contrast...
@zachleat i am agnostic as to the solution!
Tyler Gaw@zachleat @aworkinglibrary I was griping about this a while back. Mentioned there, but Arc Boosts have been great for it https://mastodon.social/@tylergaw/110577379518200562
Matt Lehrer@aworkinglibrary @zachleat just in case you use iOS and donāt know about itā¦ you can add a dark mode toggle to control center so that itās only one swipe and one tap to switch
Kristof Zerbe@aworkinglibrary @zachleat Ah, "astigmatism". I didn't even know there was a word for how I feel when reading pure or poorly done dark mode pages
Julia RezDark mode _anything_ is a shortcut to a migraine for me.
(Modulo console sessions which are all Solarized low-contrast and a specific hacker-font)
mrblank@zachleat I need a āIDGAF make it legibleā option
Amelia Bellamy-Royds@zachleat I'm very much "It depends" based on the website. I really wish browsers had an easy toggle & would remember preference per site (similar to zoom settings), so that sites don't have to try to implement their own toggles.
(To be specific: I like UI-heavy sites in dark mode, but text-heavy sites in light mode. If there's a dim dark mode, I can usually read in that, but high contrast dark is bad. And I use OS night mode filter in dark rooms. Where's the darn media query for all that?!?)
Chris Coleman@zachleat I prefer light web sites, but I want the interface of my browser and other apps to be dark. It was a brilliant move by OS vendors to tie these things together for some reason.
Gabor Lenard@zachleat I prefer dark mode during the night, and light mode during the day. I miss this option in the poll
Matthew Daniel Murphy@zachleat When the sunās up: lightāotherwise: dark
Garrett LeSage@zachleat It's very situational for me.
I have astigmatism, migraines, and some other issues that cause me to need light mode sometimes and dark other times. Some days, I can be fine with light when it's bright and dark when it's dark, but other days, I need it dark or light regardless of outside lighting.
(So I would probably check all the boxes if possible. Or at least both of the "I need" ones.)
I keep my browser (+ Dark Reader extension) and apps on auto and switch at the desktop level.
David O'BrienThis is a great example of how #accessibility is seldom a binary choice.
People are complex, and their needs are contextual and often intersectional.
The best experience you can give your user is the one they choose.
Paul Armstrong@zachleat Where's the "it depends on the site's color choices" option?
D is tired but trying@zachleat dark mode for visual, migraine and preference reasons, to be fair I donāt know what I would prefer if I didnāt have the visual and migraine reasons, because Iāve always had them I have no experience of what it would be like to not. One of those do I prefer this purely because I do or because Iāve associated light mode with difficulty and pain things.