Dark mode
At its most basic, dark mode is a colour scheme setting that users can enable on their device, operating system, browser, or specific apps. Once switched on, supported software will display darker backgrounds with lighter text and interface elements. Think grey backgrounds, off-whites, and less harsh lighting overall.
For marketers, this matters most regarding content appearance and readability. Let’s say you’re sending out an email campaign to your customer base. If you’ve carefully designed your brand’s newsletter using dark text on a transparent or white background image, and your recipients have dark mode enabled, that image might sit against a dark background instead. That can lead to issues like invisible text, logos that disappear, or buttons that blend into the background.
This isn’t just theory. Real people face this. Designers often run into support tickets or user complaints like, “I can’t read this button on my phone,” or “Half the email text is invisible.” And it’s not a small problem, either. With both Apple Mail and Outlook supporting dark mode, not to mention Gmail on mobile, a growing segment of users will see your content this way, whether you planned for it or not.
From a development and design perspective, the fix often involves using transparent image files, testing your email or app in light and dark mode, and using CSS media queries to adjust colours automatically.