Dark mode for Aha! Roadmaps

Looking at this glaring white screen in Aha Roadmaps all day every day is damaging to my eyes. It causes a great deal of eye strain for persons with and without existing eye conditions, even with the blue light night filter turned on all day.

For a product of this magnitude to not permit a user preference for Dark Mode is a major miss for csat and usability. Doesn't Aha have a UI/UX department?

Posting a comment since the last was over a year ago. I'm confident that many more want this than have voted.

Im using a chrome extension called Dark Reader and it works well for dark mode

For all of the reasons previously stated, this feature is a must. I don't understand why it was only implemented for Aha Develop. A dark mode option is quickly becoming a standard, and Aha needs to get on the bandwagon!

Sorry for the out-of-date admin message. We just removed it. We are continuing to monitor feedback here and will keep this idea updated as progress is made.

"we hope you can understand" - Dark mode is an accessibility feature... so no, that's not very understandable.

Do we know by when Dark theme will be available to all.

I was trying to switch to "Dark theme" - Settings--->Personal-->Profile

but doesn't work as it says

"This theme will only apply when you are in an Aha! Develop team." !!

I really really need dark theme to work as white screen strains my eyes. it should be free for all by default.

Yes, please

Thank you Jeff for explaining. A dark(er) experience is indeed important. This is mostly because screens are becoming bigger, and the white stands out more. As (almost) application I use has been adapted by now, most of them quite some time ago, the few ones that haven't stand out even more. I have to change my display settings when I use Aha!, because of the contrast.

Hi @Jean-Marc,

I apologize – I mistakenly updated the status of this feature to shipped. Thank you for sharing how important this feature is to you! We are continuing to listen to feedback on this topic.

Yesterday I received two e-mails about this idea. The first one said that the status had changed to "Shipped". The second one said that the status had changed to "Future consideration". I hope the first e-mail is right but I'm afraid the second e-mail is right. Having a dark option is one of the few things missing for me in Aha!.

Since this idea was posted 3 years ago, dark mode across native and web apps have very much become a common thing, and many frameworks make its implementation much easier than before.

I don't think the ability to create themes for the UI is required, I agree that is overkill. However, being able to switch between "Light", "Dark", and "Auto" would align Aha with the current UX and accessibility trends embraced by many leading SaaS tools today.

Most apps are introducing the dark theme, it would be beneficial to have this for the Aha web app as there is a lot of white space and the font styles are very slim

Upvote, the Aha! mobile app has a dark background and it's wonderful. I work a triple-split shift in the early morning, mid-day, and evening. Daylight hours are okay but definitely feel the eye strain of bright backgrounds when it's dark.

yes plz

Would be great to make the usability improvements even more useful by providing a dark theme for them.

I'm surprised more people have not voted for this. Might be to do with the user demographics. I've noticed this is a common problem in development tools most used by that certain demographic.

Still, time has moved on, eyeballs have not improved, so the problem still remains. It's a bit mad.

Here is some really good reading on the subject:

Dark or white color theme is better for the eyes?

Excerpt:

"People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye."

Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia

I have astigmatism, so I am one of the 50% where black on white is often harder to read! Makes sense that I prefer a dark background with light text!

• UX.SE Post: "Which color scheme to choose for applications that require long work hours?"
• Applying Color Theory to Digital Displays
• Why light text on dark backgrounds is a bad idea.
• When to Use White Text on a Dark Background <-- this one is really good!

According to this post: Which color scheme to choose for applications that require long work hours? as well as the article it quotes Applying Color Theory to Digital Displays, contrast is the real key:

Ensuring the Readability of Text Through Contrast

For backgrounds behind text, use solid, contrasting colors, and avoid the use of textures and patterns, which can make letterforms difficult to distinguish or even illegible. Choose combinations of text color and background color with care. Value contrast between body text and its background color should be a minimum of about eighty percent.

. . . and it goes on to discuss to be an effective dark theme, what rules should be applied as to the color contrast.

Contrast and Legibility

To provide the best legibility, ensure that text contrasts adequately with its background in both hue and value.

[Microsoft's O365 Dark Theme image, attached.]

[Amazon's Kindle and their many options, image attached.]

Some even claim Solarized color schemes help you code longer .

And while I found tons of individuals adding in their two cents, i did notice a trend of programmers and those working with lots of text content and information for long periods of time. I thought this guys explained it pretty well:

I've always felt that for long copy, reversed text is really difficult to read but for long hours it's a godsend. Consider how most programmers look at their environment. There is a good reason for this:

[see attached JetBrains Darcula theme image]

The JetBrains Darcula theme has been exceedingly popular as it is both high contrast and desaturated. You can offer a similar option in midnight blues that is equally pleasing on the eyes. Note that we throw out the top and bottom 20% of the brightness scale as well.

Would I read a novel like this? Probably not. This style of interface is great for digesting blocks of information for hours on end.

In addition to being a technical writer, a content manager, and someone who assists management in our product reporting, I am a web developer. I have found the muted colors work really well around twilight or late afternoon for some reason, and I can actually prefer the dark chocolate background themes with light text better for all of the time. As a result, the Zenburn Notepad++ theme works well for me (see attached image), and I use a similar custom theme for Slack (also attached). And for my graphics programs, such as Photoshop and SnagIt, dark the better so my workspace really stands out and keeps my focus where it should be. . .  I am similarly loving the dark theme in Visio, as well -- a thought for your Mockups tool, perhaps?

Okay, well, as you can see, what I have gathered (rather quickly for this post, I admit it) is that for up to 50% of the population, either always using a dark background with high contrast text -OR- having the choice to switch between them (due to astigmatism), is rather essential. It is my hope that Aha! will reconsider their view on this issue. Thank you!

First of all, scientifically, eye strain of any kind implies protracted focusing causing strain to the muscles in the eye. Truly, the best cure is to give the eye periods of rest, such as looking out at other things or closing your eyes for a minute or by using glasses with magnification. However, apps that use grey or dark grey options, and that have been doing it for years, have a reason for doing so. For feature-heavy programs like Microsoft Office and Adobe's products, it can allow the user to really focus on the what is being created and less on the tools; it all becomes "background". . . which, I'm honest, if you're knee-deep working on projects and managing projects until the wee hours on a somewhat regular basis, the contrast is awesome to have. Especially in the evening; it really allows me to concentrate on what I am doing. Also, high contrast helps both eye fatigue and individuals with visual impairments.

Dark themes, specifically, have been found to be much easier on the eyes in the evening; the contrast of bright colors, or simply the inverse of white of dark, is plainly easier to see at that time of day. The eye is automatically drawn to where the light is. I would absolutely *love* to be able to toggle a dark theme or a "night mode" in the late afternoon. Maybe I just speak for myself, but it has been my experience that those of us who live in project world at all times of the day could really use the help focusing; purposefully moving the user's eye from the bright light of the rest of the screen into the focused area will definitely do that.

It also has the added bonus, as with the new O365 Dark themes, of looking highly attractive.

+4 for this request. Thanks.

Update: I found, on MacOS, that you can easily invert colors using SysPref->Accessibility->Display->Invert Colors if that helps any Mac users.