darkmodenow.com

DarkModeNow – Promoting a greener web by tracking and celebrating dark mode adoption.

Comment

🌱 Inspiration

Dark mode is often seen as just a visual preference — but for OLED/AMOLED screens, it can significantly reduce power consumption. With billions of devices browsing the web every day, even small design choices can have a real environmental impact.

DarkModeNow.com was born from a simple idea:

What if we could track and promote dark mode adoption as a way to make the web more sustainable?

💡 What it does

DarkModeNow.com scans popular websites and checks whether they support dark mode. It visualizes that data and raises awareness about the environmental benefits of energy-efficient web design.

The goal is to celebrate websites that implement dark mode well — and gently nudge others to join.

🛠 How I built it

The project was built with:

  • HTML/CSS/JS for the frontend (hosted on GitHub Pages)
  • A Node.js script to crawl websites and detect dark mode support
  • Simple JSON-based data store for easy updates and scalability
  • Open source from the ground up, with future contributors in mind

🚧 Challenges I ran into

  • Accurately detecting dark mode support was trickier than expected — especially with custom theming, prefers-color-scheme variations, and dynamic sites.
  • Balancing technical checks with user-visible results — e.g. a site might support dark mode only after login, or only in certain regions.
  • Designing something that feels both lightweight and meaningful.

🏆 Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • Built a functional MVP that’s already generating interest
  • Created something that blends design, tech, and sustainability
  • Sparked real conversations about energy-conscious UI/UX choices

📚 What I learned

  • The environmental impact of design is real — and still largely overlooked
  • Small features (like a dark theme) can scale to massive collective benefits
  • There's a huge opportunity to make sustainability more visible in tech

🚀 What's next for darkmodenow.com

  • Add a browser extension to crowdsource dark mode detection
  • Launch a public API so others can integrate the data
  • Build a badge system for eco-friendly sites
  • Improve UX/UI and add more interactive visualizations
  • Grow the community and open up contributions

Built With

Share this project:

Updates