Always two there are…
Welcome, blog reader, I have been expecting you. I’m looking forward to continuing your training. It’s true folks, this is the A to Z Accessibility: The Dark Side comes post! The question is are you a Dark Mode-r or a firm adherent to the Light Mode? Well, here at the Letter D I’m here to explore both – and neither.
This post is relevant to everything! If you’re an app maker, dashboard builder, email composer, blog writer or a user of technology then this is for you. Oh, and I make no apologies for the blatant Star Wars fanboy treatment here 🤣
“I saw the Light, I saw the Light. No more darkness, no more night”
I saw the Light (Traditional Gospel)
“Don’t underestimate the power of the Dark Side”
Darth Vader
A history lesson
When I was a lad, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, we lived in a world of black screens and green/orange/white(ish) text. Then we got four whole colours! Over the years that number of colours grew until it was too many to count.
Along with this appeared this thing called the GUI. The Graphical User Interface. It started to emerge and take over our worlds. And the GUI was, predominantly white(ish). Our screens morphed from blackest of nights into the brightest of suns… until we learned ways to change that. Of course, we can’t be forgetting the Teal that Microsoft introduced us to (seriously, how many people knew what Teal was before Windows 3.0?).
Years rolled by and GUIs remained, mainly, in their grey and white worlds with a splash of colour. Then the smart mobile phone arrived, a computer in our hands, and it too was a shining beacon of white. Well, the interface was anyway.
People over time discovered things like a reduction in sleep quality, and an increase in headaches or even migraines. The link was made to the white we expose ourselves to, or rather the blue light that forms a part of that. Too much blue light can lead to problems. There’s SCIENCE to it.
Around the same sort of time the Dark Mode UI was gaining momentum. It was the GUI that people knew, but it was DARK. Gone was the blinding light replaced by the soothing dark grey tones that meant sunglasses were no longer needed.
So, the Dark Mode comes again, right?
The temptation, especially the way trends in tech work, is for everything to go dark again. The science says that blue light can have negative effects. I love dark mode, as do many developers and folks who live in front of screens all day. For me reduces eyestrain and, as the typical IT stereotype, I love to live in the dark. BUT…
The flip side is that I have a friend for whom dark mode is a major problem. Whereas I use my eReader with a black page and sepia toned text, he would not be able to use that. For him, that setup would cause all the words and letters to converge into a blurry mass in the middle of the page. He cannot use dark mode and has to have light pages. For some people the light against a dark background can result in a halo effect which can blur what they are seeing. This is especially noticeable on smaller objects or thin text.
This is a prime example of the mantra, “One size fits ONE”. Dark mode is great for some, and impossible for others. Light mode can be amazing for some, and a literal headache for others.
So how does this all fit with Accessibility and the Power Platform?
Sneak Peeks, and Sharp Palettes
At the Microsoft Power Platform Conference in October 2022 keen eyed attendees were rewarded with sneak peek screenshots of Dark Mode Model Driven Apps, and even a theming capability! No idea on when that will see that light of day, but it’s on its way. We don’t know when, as nothing has been revealed since that sneaky screenshot. If I’m honest it is REALLY annoying that there has been nothing announced.
As discussed in the letter C post available by clicking here, colours are important. When we build Apps, Portals, Dashboards, Reports etc we need to consider the needs of different users. Remember, not everyone will share the same user experience as you do.
It’s for this reason that I would encourage people to incorporate different modes in their Power Platform output. At the least a Dark mode and a Light mode option. I’d go further and say include modes for High and Low Contrast and even a “reduced-light light mode”. This last one is a bit like the sepia mode you get in eReaders where the page is a sandier yellow shade rather than full on blinding light.
Now yes, that does take more work than some of the other stuff in this A to Z. I get that. But if you build the patterns once, you can make them reusable, so the only changes then come in natural iterative improvements rather than complete rebuild.
A quick side note… to email authors, website designers and more
Whilst I’m talking about Dark Mode/Light Mode can I please just address things like websites and emails. Folks who make their emails look beautiful with images and colours on a light background may not appreciate that they look worse than a 3-day old, regurgitated dogs’ dinner when put into dark mode! Yup, they can really be THAT bad.
And bloggers/site owners (me included here), can you please try to incorporate colour modes? If you use WordPress there are some really simple plugins you can add that immediately add Accessibility features. These include changing to dark mode and contrast modes etc. It’s a VERY quick win and makes things so much better, but ensure you test as some plugins actually make accessibility worse! Oh, and the above paragraph about email content does apply here as well, so please check it all out in every mode!
You were the Chosen One!
Obi-Wan Kenobi – Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
It was said that you would … Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!
A last note before you go
My hope is that this post has shed some light onto the need for balance in the force user experience. It’s not a case of black or white, there’s nuances and considerations in so many areas. For further reading on this subject, the UX Collective published an article that you can read here where they discuss many of these points.
This post is part of my series “A to Z of Accessibility – Power Platform edition”. Click here to go to the introduction article where I will be posting a Table of Contents, or simply check out the Accessibility section of the website from the top menu or by going directly to the category page here.
Content in this series is © Mike Hartley. I am happy for folks to quote or reuse snippets (with attribution) but please let’s not go all Clone Wars on this. This has taken a lot of work to compile so please do not copy whole sections or I may have to set Jar-Jar Binks on you. If there are any corrections or suggestions, then please use my social links to contact me. I am always happy to add additional content and remarks with full credit given. Likewise, these pages will evolve as my learning and understanding grows, so make sure to keep this bookmarked and check back every so often.