One thing I’ve noticed is that many smartphone and mobile app creators set up their default interfaces beginning with a blank white or otherwise very bright screen, then add their functional elements to that glaring white background. I’m guessing this derives from our old-school understanding of the screen as a metaphor for print, a bleached white page, and it’s simply wrongheaded. We are peering into a light source, after all, so as often as possible we should be designing such that the background pixels are dark and the functional elements are (relatively) the brighter objects on screen. It’s the polite thing to do, to protect and preserve eyesight, and it makes sense in other ways, as the eye is drawn to the brighter and larger elements on a “page” of any kind.

Who knows how much damage can be done to the eyes of people using these things for a lifetime? Must we wait to see the adverse effects to prompt a change in our bad design habits? Well, maybe not for long. I’m using a browser called Dolphin on my Android phone, and among several very nice features it includes a plugin for “Night Mode.” This mode instantly dims the screen significantly and greatly reduces contrast, making for comfortable glare-free reading in very dim light or absolute darkness. Smart. I’d like to see more of such thoughtful design, and I hope Fujitsu’s first steps with the Stylistic SO1 will provoke more thought and action in that direction.