# The New York Times Games' Path to Dark Mode

DevFeed: [The New York Times Games' Path to Dark Mode](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-new-york-times-games-path-to-dark-mode-39155.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://open.nytimes.com/the-new-york-times-games-path-to-dark-mode-345dfe464e1a?source=rss----51e1d1745b32---4>)

Author: The NYT Open Team

Published: 2025-09-25T15:25:52Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [New York Times](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/new-york-times.md>)

Topics: [Dark Mode](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dark-mode.md>), [Design system](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/design-system.md>), [Accessibility](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/accessibility.md>), [User Experience](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/user-experience.md>), [Web Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-development.md>)

Tags: [accessibility](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/accessibility.md>), [dark-mode](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dark-mode.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [design-systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design-systems.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [front-end-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/front-end-development.md>), [games](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/games.md>), [user-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/user-experience.md>)

## AI overview

The New York Times Games explains why implementing Dark Mode required more than inverting colors. The project involved accessibility decisions, preserving each game's brand, and creating a consistent design system across eight games and three surfaces.

## Source excerpt

How we designed a deceptively complex featureIllustration by Alessandro Gottardo By Joel Urena, Jenna Kim, Kenneth Ofosu, Shaka Clark, Raven Adaramola, Dylan Campbell At least once a day, our players requested a Dark Mode feature for The New York Times Games, particularly those who enjoy playing at night. The bright screens were negatively impacting their satisfaction and hindering accessibility. Our players often wondered why this seemingly simple feature -- just a switch from white to black -- took so long to deliver. People may think designing for Dark Mode is about inverting colors from white to black, one of the points players often cited when asking for Dark Mode. But there are numerous factors that make up little decisions when designing and implementing Dark Mode. Not only do we have to consider the color accessibility, we have to make intentional color decisions to preserve the brand of each game and The New York Times Games. A compilation of negative Games app reviews that reference dark modePrimer: Design Systems & Feature Discovery In the Spring of 2023, The New York Times Games was evolving quickly and we found ourselves with a user experience that was vastly different depending on which game you played and where you played it. We began to rectify this problem with the development of a Design Systems strategy. Like most other tech orgs, we hypothesized that if we began approaching product design and front-end development systematically, surely that would orient us toward a more consistent product experience, right? The answer: yes, eventually. From a business and user impact perspective, the clearest Design Systems opportunity to prioritize first was Dark Mode. However, given the maturity of The New York Times Games digital product, the operational complexity we were tackling was massive. At the time, we had eight live games spread across three surfaces: The New York Times Games apps, the The New York Times news app and on the web. We also had ancillary e