Microprocessing
Dark Mode Isn’t the Answer to Our Screen Problems
Research suggests the feature is overhyped as an accessibility tool
In Microprocessing, columnist Angela Lashbrook aims to improve your relationship with technology every week. Microprocessing goes deep on the little things that define your online life today, to give you a better tomorrow.
The night is overtaking our computer screens.
It’s coming in the form of dark mode, a trendy feature in the tech industry in which the standard bright backgrounds are substituted with a muted navy or black. Twitter launched its dark mode for web in 2017, while Facebook Messenger introduced a dark mode feature in April of this year. Most notably at WWDC last week, Apple announced it will include a dark mode option in iOS 13, which launches this fall. Apple claims that dark mode will “make every element on the screen easier on your eyes,” while some users assert that dark mode is better for people with people with migraines.
But there’s little data to show that dark mode is actually easier on the eyes for most people. Even for users with vision impairments, dark mode isn’t necessarily better than other accessibility options that have been available for years, though there is little research on the subject…
