Dell Technologies · Enterprise SaaS · 2022–2023
Dark Mode System Review
Challenging an established design direction — with research, benchmarking, and a willingness to push back.
My role
Product Designer
Timeline
FY25
Scope
Design system · Dark mode · Accessibility
Outcome
Partial direction change · Contributed to org-wide design system rethink
Overview
One of my habits as a designer is constant benchmarking. I regularly use Mobbin, study products I use every day, and compare our work against what the industry is doing. It's something that differentiates the way I work.
When I first saw Dell's dark mode concept, I knew right away it was off. The color, hierarchy, accessibility, scalability, readability — all of it felt behind modern standards. I checked with my manager and a few teammates. They agreed.
So I raised the concern early — before these patterns had a chance to scale across products — built a research-backed case, connected with teams inside Dell who had already solved this problem, and brought in expert perspective from Dell's own dark mode specialist. That work became the first formal challenge to our design system's status quo — and it contributed to a broader org-wide push to modernize how Dell's products look and feel.
Problem
Dark mode was built on a saturated slate blue background. At first glance it looked branded. But underneath, it had real problems
Image: Initial dark mode concept
The team building it was applying light mode logic to a dark context. Vivid accent colors — the same reds, blues, and greens used in light mode — carried over without adjustment. Bold outlines were drawn around everything to show grouping. White outlines were added to every status icon because the color combination technically passed the contrast ratio test.
That last one is the clearest example of the core problem. A dark background, a white outline, and a vivid accent color — three competing layers of color where one would do. It passes a WCAG test. It doesn't look right. And no enterprise product anyone respects actually does it that way.
👉 The team was using workarounds to pass compliance checks instead of solving the root problem. At scale, these issues would compound across products — making the system harder to use, harder to maintain, and more difficult to standardize.
Evidence
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External benchmarking
I benchmarked against multiple SaaS/enterprise products, including IBM Carbon, Azure, Figma, and ChatGPT. Every one of them uses a neutral gray foundation, muted accent colors adjusted for dark contexts, and minimal use of outlines. They're calm, focused, and scannable. Dell's concept was none of those things.
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Internal validation
I also talked to other design teams inside Dell who had already shipped dark mode for their own products. Their approach was much closer to mine — neutral foundations, softer accents, minimal outlines. The original team wasn't just out of step with the industry. They were out of step with what other Dell teams were already doing.
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Expert input
I also reached out to Dell's internal dark mode expert and shared my work. Their perspective aligned with mine and connected to broader design council and North Star efforts already in progress inside the org.
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Heuristic evaluation
I put together a formal heuristic evaluation on my own initiative, outside of my normal project work. I used Nielsen Norman's 10 usability heuristics as the framework and referenced WCAG guidelines, research from PubMed, ACM, and ArXiv, and design systems from Apple HIG, IBM Carbon, and Google Material. I used ChatGPT to help structure the document, but deliberately stayed neutral to avoid building a biased argument.
All eight heuristics pointed in the same direction:
My Role
Identified the problems independently through benchmarking — not asked, not assigned
Raised concerns early, before these patterns had a chance to scale across products
Built a full heuristic evaluation with citations across Nielsen Norman, WCAG, PubMed, ACM, ArXiv, Apple HIG, IBM Carbon, and Google Material
Connected with another Dell team that had shipped dark mode — reviewed their research and validated the approach
Reached out to Dell's internal dark mode expert — aligned with design council and North Star efforts
Shared findings with my manager, who backed the concerns and escalated to leadership
Proposed a compromise-oriented direction that worked within the existing system
Advocated consistently despite pushback — stayed focused on the evidence, not the conflict
What I proposed
I wasn't asking anyone to throw away their work. I knew a full redesign wasn't realistic. So I proposed a targeted set of changes:
Switch the background from slate to neutral gray
Use the existing neutral palette as the foundation — just add two darker neutral tones to give depth. This addresses the core problem without rebuilding the color system.
Soften the accent colors for dark mode
Vivid reds, blues, and greens from the light mode palette are too intense on dark backgrounds. Lightening and desaturating them slightly gives you the right contrast without the visual noise. This is standard practice — Material Design, Apple HIG, and IBM Carbon all handle it this way.
Remove the outlines from status icons
Dark background + white outline + vivid accent = three layers of color competing for attention. Drop the outline, use a softer accent color, and you get better visual clarity with fewer elements. Cleaner, faster, more logical.
How it played out
The team pushed back — not on the substance, but on the territory. They were used to working in silos. Having another designer challenge their direction with research wasn't welcome.
I was eventually moved off the project.
But something did change. After sharing the heuristic evaluation, the team moved away from the original slate toward a darker, less blue version. Not the full neutral gray I recommended — but a step in the right direction.
While not all changes were implemented immediately, the work helped shift direction and influenced longer-term design decisions. My manager escalated the concerns to leadership using my work as the foundation. That contributed to leadership-level alignment on the need to revisit the design system — ultimately helping initiate a broader effort to modernize design standards across products.
I got pulled into that effort right before paternity leave and will be returning to it in April.
Impsct
Improved readability and usability in the dark mode implementation
Increased consistency across components and patterns
Prevented long-term usability issues from scaling across the design system
Elevated design concerns from feature-level to system-level discussions
This work extended beyond a single feature and helped shape how design quality and consistency are evaluated at the system level
Contributed to leadership-level alignment on the need to revisit the design system — ultimately helping initiate a broader effort to modernize design standards across products
Key insight
Passing an accessibility test and designing something usable are not the same thing
Compliance is a floor, not a ceiling. The real standard is what the best products in your category actually do — and the only way to know that is to look. Constantly. Not just when there's a problem, but as a habit.
I raised these concerns early, before patterns scaled across products, to prevent long-term usability and accessibility issues. I benchmark all the time. It's what gave me the confidence to push back — and what made the argument hard to dismiss, even when it was uncomfortable to hear.
The team moved. Not all the way. But they moved. And the conversation is still going.