Full Guide: Dark Mode Designing for Mobile App Developers

by Helena Khan Creative Writer

Here’s the step-by-step design process of the Dark Mode, the latest trend in App development & design. Here’s the perfect guide for dark mode in mobile apps.

One of the major design trends right now is the dark mode, however, companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have already adopted it. When iOS 13 and Android 10 were released, the dark mode feature brought attention to the topic. For the past few years, Google and Apple have both been concentrating on improving dark mode designs. Dark mode has various advantages, such as being simple to operate under dim lighting and causing less eye strain, and also having an impact on battery life.

As a result, reading in low light might be challenging if the dark mode is designed improperly and causes eye strain. Low brightness themes promote security in low light conditions, so when designing dark theme apps, make sure they are fun, well-balanced, and readable.

What Is Dark Mode UX & UI?

Therefore, the "night mode" or "dark theme" of a website or application's UI display mode when your online browser, application, or mobile apps have their lights off.

With the proper color schemes, visual contrast, and other designs, the background transforms from being light and colorful into completely black with shades of grey to change or adjust it for making texts, photos, and other readable content.

Pros and Cons of Dark Mode Design Principles

Many big brands such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp offer their users a dark mode experience so if you are considering dark made for your project here are some pros & cons which will help you in evaluating it carefully:

Pros of Having a Dark Theme

There are many benefits that a dark mode can bring to your project:

Pleasing to Eyes

Looking at the computer or phone screen can strain your eyes if you are working for a longer period. So if you are looking at your computer or phone screen for a long period it can strain your eyes & can also cause short or long-term damage to eyes such as discomfort, dry eyes, headaches, blurred vision, double vision, migraines & more

So if compared with the light mode the dark mode helps in relaxing eyes more as there is less glare & bright lights come from the screen.

Power Saver

The dark mode uses black & grey colors & on an OLED screen which helps in reducing the energy which is required for text, images & interaction.

Focus on The Important Things

So when designing a normal light mode designers use rich color, cool animations & interaction & appealing visuals. The more visuals you add to your design the more chances that a user is getting distracted.

There are some colors due to less contrast because of the black background which helps reduce distraction as users can focus more on the information rather than anything else. If used in the right way dark mode can help in boosting your app or website properly due to being more focused than the light mode alternative.

Luxury Feel

Users always feel traditional, beautiful, or luxurious when wearing black. The dark mode is perfect for you if your product seeks to generate similar responses in users.

Which One Is the Better Dark Mode or Light Mode?

So the light mode with more visibility is the default & widely used theme which helps users in creating a visually attractive website or mobile application. In dark mode, there are limited color options & visual elements as it helps in removing unnecessary visual distractions & lets users focus on the interface.

When to Choose Dark Mode?

Nowadays, a lot of people are using dark mode. It does not imply it is possible to use it everywhere. Try using dark mode if you want to:

when it matches your brand
when it matches your app's emotions
when you're designing a minimal project
Content to stand out

Nine Tips for Making Effective Mobile App Dark Theme Design:

Over the past few years, the dark mode has been one of the most requested features. The dark theme has been integrated into the user interface by both Apple and Google. Reduced brightness in dark situations offers safety and helps reduce eye strain. If you want to learn more about dark mode app design? Get in touch with Delimp Technologies the Best Mobile App Development Company in Dubai, UAE.

When developing dark mode UI, processes must work smoothly. You would like your product to be fantastic, after all. Let's complete the list of guidelines for creating a dark mode for the app of your product.

1. Avoid Pure Black Color

Black background and white text cannot be used with a dark mode. It may be challenging to see a screen with high contrast.

When adding a dark mode for mobile, it is best to use dark grey as the main color because it reduces eye strain and makes it much easier to see text on grey surfaces compared with black ones.

2. Avoid the Use of Saturated Colors

So, intense colors bounce on a dark background and can be quite difficult to see. Instead, utilize light colors because they have higher text readability and don't make the UI expressive.

3. the Emotional Side of Designing an App

So when you design a dark theme for the app there are chances that you must aim for translating the same light theme into a dark theme. So different color projects different emotions as your dark mode color code will evoke a different feeling so it is necessary to find the common ground emotional set for both themes.

4. Test the Design

Test the app twice a day to check how it performs in different illumination circumstances, just as your users would switch between the two themes' UIs at different times of the day. And to make sure it satisfies your requirements.

5. Incorporation of Dark Mode

You must also plan to deploy your app's animations or other visually demanding aspects in dark themes. To help keep the viewer's focus on the subject of the illustration as both a subject and a background, it would be wise to completely desaturate those hues.

6. Meet Accessibility Color Contrast Standard

To ensure that the content is comfortable with dark modes the dark theme should be dark enough to display white text. Google recommends a contrast level of 15.8:1 between the text & the background.

7. Don’t Reverse

So if you are performing a transition from light mode to dark mode the original theme will help you by providing you with useful visual signals. For creating a dark theme don’t flip the color so you can transform colors with psychological significance into light tones.

8. Use of The Right Colors

‘On’ colors are found on the top surface & elements as they are used for text, so for the dark theme so the default ‘on’ colors are pure white. The bright colors & vibrate visually against the dark backgrounds. Here is what Google designs suggest for using dark mode apps for android.

The disabled text utilizes darkness at 38%.
At 60%, medium-emphasis text is executed.
High-emphasis text must have a darkness of 87%.

9. Get Deep

A layer should be lighter as it rises in level. In a dark mode, this will produce visual elements that run from the aspects of the display that are used the most to those that are used the least.

This should be viewed as a step toward realizing your goal of giving your customers a good experience.

Conclusion

Now after knowing everything you need to know about designing the dark mode version of your app, the dark mode app design is revolutionary that is just stepped into the industry which means this is the perfect time to go dark & creative with the Best Mobile App Development Company in Dubai, UAE.