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Applying Dark Mode to Our Own Brand
It’s always easiest to experiment on yourself, which is why we made a push to include an automatic dark mode on the new Blend Interactive site.
Client
Design for clarity. Design for simplicity. Design is deeply rooted in providing easier access to function and information — and, nowadays, that means meeting the user where they are. For some, that “where” is more of a “what”: in order to ease eye strain (and add a certain level of coolness) more and more websites and apps are adding a dark mode feature.
What better way to try things out than to experiment with ourselves?
The new Blend Interactive site was designed with two main goals: to clearly document why Blend is the best team in the industry, through articles, podcasts, and other thought leadership, and to provide a testing ground for new design methods. To that last point, Blend focused on implementing dark mode.
On one hand, dark mode is a front-end exercise. Instead of creating one standard style that works across the site, our design and front-end team was tasked with creating a second one. As we explained in an article about dark mode, the process means more than just changing the background color. Fonts, icons, and colors were all duplicated to work and correspond to both potential backgrounds. And, it’s as easy as flipping the switch: you can choose your theme based on your computer’s settings, or manually flip from light to dark.
On the other hand, creating content for dark mode is an editorial practice. Images must work well on both backgrounds — or, in some cases, a separate image must be created to correspond. We built these fields into the site to allow for flexibility (when necessary).
In the end, what we’ve done is back up our ongoing dedication to experimentation: we tested something on ourselves, creating a great opportunity for future clients. You could say that, when it comes to dark mode, we won’t be left in the dark.
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