UIs becoming darker
After years of being bombarded by particles emitted by bulky CRTs and LCD dirty waves, the industry has finally started to make applications User Interfaces darker. Adobe as one of the leading software developing companies has given some of its products (strangely enough not all of them) a dark interface.
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| Adobe Illustrator CS6 dark UI |
Are there any arguments that would support such a choice? Yes, there are. Company web-sites mainly have a white or light shaded background. Apart from hanging on to the traditional white paper analog hard-copy documents, this was done to avoid being associated with shady xxx-sites and hackers dens that preferred dark interfaces. So, Adobes choice was rather remarkable. It started with the Elements program and was later followed by Illustrator and Photoshop. Audi, maker of top quality cars, also created a beautiful, somewhat darker site that has stylish written all over it.
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| Audi Corporate web-site |
Cinema 4D offers its users an elegant option that allows them to choose the colors of the UI themselves. Quite similar to what open source Blender 3D application offers. Such solutions make it possible for the conditioned and aware to create their own preference. It is even possible to go wild with their selection option (though not advised...).
When heavy and large CRTs still cluttered up desks in the office and at home, users were literally bombarded with particles by a particle canon aimed straight at them. Especially when those monitors were displaying light UIs users took a full blow. LCDs emit dirty waves; these are not nice and smooth sinus shaped waves, but jagged doodles, representing frequencies that cause headaches and other unpleasant disorders (or worse). Dark or black screens by default emit less of whatever may be hazardous to human health.
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| Cinema 4D configurable colors UI |
When heavy and large CRTs still cluttered up desks in the office and at home, users were literally bombarded with particles by a particle canon aimed straight at them. Especially when those monitors were displaying light UIs users took a full blow. LCDs emit dirty waves; these are not nice and smooth sinus shaped waves, but jagged doodles, representing frequencies that cause headaches and other unpleasant disorders (or worse). Dark or black screens by default emit less of whatever may be hazardous to human health.
So, EFCs web-site is for these reasons also darker than average. It is healthier than the screaming light ones and while companies are still considering what to do with their corporate web presence, darker hued sites stand out from the common light UI-ed web-sites that still comply with old paradigms.
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| EFCs dark site |
Theres also an other advantage to darker sites that I assume many prefer to omit. Since a certain category of shady, dark tinted sites on the web are statistically among the most visited, it is quite safe to assume (especially) men go there when their wives are not looking... And, as she gradually gets familiar with darker interfaces occupying her husbands or friends monitor screen, paying visits to it, will cause less suspicion. At least it will take her more time to figure out what those dirty minded male surfers are secretly watching. There appears to be a lighter side to the dark after all....
Have a nice day!