Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 4m 970 #goingdark
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
What’s That Feature: Going Dark in Night Mode
Confessions of the Professions has a new feature: night mode. Actually, it is not very new. We have had it for quite some time. When I first became a web designer, I could not stand how bright “white” was on websites. Every website I created always had a darker theme, whether it was pitch black or some off-shade of black, usually with white text, as I always felt that the white on a screen hurt the eyes.
As I began to become more experienced in web design, I realized that there were other colors, particularly neutral colors which were far easier on the eyes. The colors were between gray and silver, giving the light on the eyes seem much more “soothing” feeling than that of pure white, and even pitch black. With time came the understanding and realization that white is part of almost every website out there that wants to be noticed as professional.
There are, of course, many professional websites that have adopted to a black theme and do it very well. Black is far more common on websites than most people realize, and often is associated with brands that prefer a darker tone of their website. Black and white both have their great place on websites and webpages, and while there are many other colors that are in use on websites, these two colors are the most common. Whether there is a white background and black text or a black background with white text. The two blend together very well and are both considered the most professional colors that can be used on websites.
White gives off a professional look and a look and feeling of positivity, purity and innocence, while also illuminating business, service, and normality and is often associated with the good. White is the color that our eyes are most commonly used to seeing, considering that we associate white background and white text with a book, to which many of us are accustom to in childhood. Books are familiar and comfortable. While we may not all be avid readers of books, we all know what a book looks like, and many of us wish we could read more, but also despite not having time, there is a certain respect for the unlimited amount of books that exist in the world. We give this same respect to a website that keeps to the traditional colors of white and black, black on white, and black font that can be easily read from white pages.
Black, on the other hand, is sometimes associated with negativity, mystery, fear, rebellion, or guilt and is often associated with the bad. It gives the presence of a more darker experience, a mysterious thriller to which the unknown might exist. Black contains a magic that cannot be seen in the white. It could be argued that black is a color that web designers should stray far away from, while there are plenty of web designers who rebel in the practice of going with the traditional website or webpage. They focus on the darker color, because it illuminates the mystery of the website, while also bringing comfort in lighting to the eyes, as the eyes do not have to strain to see content, particularly in the dark. Websites that are dark tend to look better in the dark and are much easier to read in the dark as well.
Darkness or blackness and lightness or whiteness have their places in the world and have continued to be the inspiration for millenia, from paints to clothing and art. Of all the colors, even in the rainbow, our eyes are most drawn to the two colors that are normal and comfortable to us. When it comes to web design, the preference is solely in the eyes of the designer, as very rarely, do visitors ever complain about a black or a white website.
On Confessions of the Professions, we brought to you not only the light or the white, but the power of reading articles in complete darkness and blackness. Our inspiration from our past keeps up with us, and while we wish to have our default appearance in white, we also offered the option to “turn off the light”. Located on the navigation menu at the top of the page, is an easy-to-see light bulb that looks like it is in the off position. However, once the light is pressed, the page will become completely dark, and the light will be turned on, for if it is pressed once again, it will turn on the light.
We wished to cater to both audiences who love the white background as well as those who love a darker background. If you prefer to read this page in darkness, just click here to bring on the mystery of darkness. It is as simple as adding the query ?darkmode=1 to the end of any URL on Confessions of the Professions in order to turn the page dark. It is a completely optional experience and there are plenty of people who prefer darkness. There are some people who even prefer to search Google in the dark.
We hope that other websites will take inspiration and be influenced by offering a feature that enables their visitors to “go dark”. While we don’t have any statistics on the preferred methods of viewing our website, we know that there are people who are turning out the lights and reading in the darkness. The rumors of it saving energy are just rumors, however, there is no doubt that a darker screen in the night time is far easier on the eyes than a bright white screen. Try it out! Go Dark!
Photo courtesy:
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/mmx/series/view.php/174
http://bondsofbloodandspirit.com/going-dark/
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