2024-08-09 · UX
Dark mode is a system, not a feature
Shipping a theme toggle without token work just doubles your design maintenance.
Introduction
An opinion piece on contrast ratios, third-party embeds, and the hidden cost of treating dark mode as a checkbox item.
The uncomfortable middle
Most advice here is written for the extremes: brand-new teams and enormous organizations. Real teams live in the middle, where the pragmatic answer is rarely the textbook one.
Notes from the middle
- Process is what makes a bad day survivable, not what makes a good day efficient.
- The person who writes the summary owns the decision — so rotate it.
- “We should” statements rot; dated commitments don’t.
Questions worth asking
- What would we do if we had half the time?
- Which part of this would we defend in an incident review?
- What are we pretending not to know?
Closing
Disagree, commit, and put the date on it. Then move on to the actual work.