Recently, I needed to answer the question of whether to default to dark mode, light mode, or system preference. System means that it would respect whatever preference the user had in the operating system.
The engineers thought system preference was the most logical and it seemed to make sense, so we went with that. However, like many designs, real users got in the way of logic.
Turns out that some/many users have a strange preference. They want the operating system to be light mode and the application to be dark mode. I realized this during a collaboration session with a customer. Then I looked at my own system and realized I had been doing that myself. OS light mode and GMail (and other sites) dark.
We are such weird creatures. So illogical. So quirky. This is why I love design. Getting things right is often illogical and takes a leap of faith.
On my new iPhone, they replaced “do not disturb” with “Focus modes”. I hate them and am trying to make them work the way I want.
Lesson here is that you need to dig deeper than what logic would imply and really get to the nuanced answers.
Whatya think?