I understand many love their dark themes, but why has IMDb assumed that's the case for everyone? The latest app update has removed the light theme in favour of the dark. Why? That makes absolutely no sense, and with that one blunder, the app has become unusable for me.
Hopefully you'll put theme options in the app...as should have been done with this update.
Hopefully you'll put theme options in the app...as should have been done with this update.
Posted 4 years ago
While I wasn't clear in my post, like jeannie above, it's not about aesthetics. For me the high contrast cause by white text on a black background leads to severe eyestrain and headaches, and quite quickly. And I can guarantee that I am not the only one. I have a feeling you didn't have good sample data when you decided to make this change.
I care little about the development costs, to be frank. I only care that you've removed a feature and made your app unusable for me and, very likely, many others. I hope the team reconsiders.
I care little about the development costs, to be frank. I only care that you've removed a feature and made your app unusable for me and, very likely, many others. I hope the team reconsiders.
Jeannie and sar40,
Thank you both for following up and sharing more details about your experiences with the app.
Accessibility and usability are very important to us and reports like yours help us better understand where we can do better in the future, particularly when we blend the science (industry standards or customer data) with the art (making a judgement call about what to do) to make the final product.
On the science front, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/), which also apply to mobile apps, call for general minimum contrast ratios of 4.5:1 and 7:1 for enhanced viewing. The heading text contrast ratio in the app is now 10.57:1 and main text is 8.22:1. For reference, black on white or white on black text has a contrast ratio of 21:1.
(http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ allows you to evaluate the contrast ratio for different combinations of foreground and background colors. Our background color is #303030, heading text is #E6E6E6, and main text is #CCCCCC.)
Obviously the standards don't address your personal requirements. I've shared your feedback with our design and development team to consider how to address for future releases of the app.
Thank you again for using IMDb.
Heather
Thank you both for following up and sharing more details about your experiences with the app.
Accessibility and usability are very important to us and reports like yours help us better understand where we can do better in the future, particularly when we blend the science (industry standards or customer data) with the art (making a judgement call about what to do) to make the final product.
On the science front, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/), which also apply to mobile apps, call for general minimum contrast ratios of 4.5:1 and 7:1 for enhanced viewing. The heading text contrast ratio in the app is now 10.57:1 and main text is 8.22:1. For reference, black on white or white on black text has a contrast ratio of 21:1.
(http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/ allows you to evaluate the contrast ratio for different combinations of foreground and background colors. Our background color is #303030, heading text is #E6E6E6, and main text is #CCCCCC.)
Obviously the standards don't address your personal requirements. I've shared your feedback with our design and development team to consider how to address for future releases of the app.
Thank you again for using IMDb.
Heather
The dark theme gives me headaches and it's hard to read anything. Change back to light!!!
... Obviously the standards don't address your personal requirements. ...FWIW, one of the W3C "Understanding WCAG 2.0" documents
includes a note that says: "... we allow and encourage authors
to provide mechanisms" [that enable users] "to adjust the
foreground and background colors ...."
(Edited)
Wow - I can't believe that Android users are written off and not worth the time and development effort - very disappointed in IMDB's decision. I realize you can't watch anything from Hollywood without some kind of "Apple Logo" in it, but I didn't realize that developers would think the number of Android users versus Apple users is a very small part of the Universe and that we are of little consideration. Android users are much more accustomed to having the ability to tailor their devices and not having the ability to select a light vs dark theme is unacceptable. Not all of us live our lives in the dark. I hope IMDB reconsiders this and adds this simple choice to the settings of their app very soon. If it's worth the time and development effort for Apple users, then it certainly should be worth the time and development effort for Android users.
Why is this so difficult. We just want the appearance back to what it was.
julia
Eric Kapenstein
Eric Kapenstein
Sylvia Starshine
C LaGuire