Email marketers are constantly searching for ways to improve the subscriber experience, and one trend they can’t ignore is the emergence of Dark Mode. Litmus data shows 40% of emails were viewed in Dark Mode by the end of 2022. While most of us have probably turned on Dark Mode to set ourselves up for a restful night’s sleep, this design feature isn’t a fad or a nice-to-have option. It’s a must-have for readers with visual impairments and a growing preference among subscribers of all kinds.

More than 350 million people have color vision deficiency worldwide. According to UX researchers from the Nielsen Norman Group, Dark Mode adoption can improve accessibility for low-vision users, as reading for longer periods in lighter environments could contribute to myopia.

Another important reason users adopt Dark Mode relates to battery usage as devices expend a lot of energy lighting up pixels in Light Mode. Dark Mode requires fewer activated pixels, saving energy and extending battery life. For these reasons, Dark Mode has become more popular as a personal preference.

Demand for Dark Mode will only increase. According to Litmus data, around 12% of subscribers prefer dark mode, and the preference jumps to around 36% on iOS. However, marketers can face a challenge implementing Dark Mode in email design and development since the functionality requires consistent support across email clients. Those email design challenges are worth overcoming to improve the subscriber experience and meet subscribers’ needs.

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Let’s review some key steps email marketers can take right now to optimize email design for dark mode, enhancing accessibility, improving battery usage and increasing engagement in the process.

1. Update your brand style guide.

Optimizing email design for Dark Mode requires intentional updates to your brand style guide. It’s important to take a fresh look at the total user experience through the dark mode lens as the defaults can’t be trusted. This ensures that brand identity remains consistent across Light and Dark Modes. Choosing the right colors and fonts for Dark Mode enhances readability and legibility while avoiding any colors or styles that may look washed out or blurry in Dark Mode. Additional style updates include:

• Use high contrast colors: In Dark Mode, the contrast between text and background is critical to ensure legibility. Marketers can use high-contrast colors that stand out and avoid using colors that are too similar.
• Choose fonts carefully: Font selection is crucial when designing an email for Dark Mode. Some fonts may appear great in Light Mode but become unreadable in Dark Mode. Choose a font with high contrast between text and background for the best results. Arial, Helvetica and Verdana are examples of sans-serif fonts that are highly legible in both Light and Dark Modes.
• Emphasize Headlines: Headlines draw attention to an email’s content in dark mode. Use bold, bright colors for headlines to stand out against the background. Marketers can also utilize larger font sizes to emphasize the headline’s importance.

2. Optimize logos and images for all styles.

Using transparent images — GIFs or PNGs — as much as possible is an easy and effective way for marketers to tweak their email campaigns to conform to the needs of dark mode. These images inherit background colors when inverted and naturally appear well in Dark and Light modes. If transparent images are not an option, carefully crop images so that they appear as close to the intended look as possible when Dark Mode is enabled. For example, instead of cropping images too closely to the avatar, allow room around the image, making any outlining look intentional when Dark Mode is enabled.

Adding a white outline around a logo also helps an image to be more legible in dark mode. Marketers can use a stroke, softer shadow or glow. Regardless of the method they choose, the goal is to keep images with dark text or vital graphics accessible to subscribers who view it in Dark Mode.

3. Always be testing—and optimizing.

Testing email design is always important in the email marketing development process, and Dark Mode compatibility is no exception. Testing is an essential step that shouldn’t be overlooked. Marketers can take advantage of email testing tools to see how their email design appears in different email clients’ various Dark Mode settings. It’s vital to ensure that email design looks just as good in Dark Mode as in Light Mode. Regular testing ensures that email design is optimized for all subscribers, regardless of their preferences. The right tools, such as automated QA checklists and previews, allow marketers to quickly identify issues and adjust to provide the best possible email experience.

Dark Mode is here to stay, and the time is now for marketers to begin adapting their email design to improve the subscriber experience. Optimizing email design for Dark Mode and implementing key brand style updates improves accessibility, the overall subscriber experience, and engagement. By always testing, staying up-to-date with the latest Dark Mode trends and using all the tools at their disposal, marketers can ensure email design remains on-brand and accessible to give every subscriber an exceptional experience.

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