App designs are getting more and more innovative these days. From traditional apps with the usual white UI, more people are embracing darker colors in apps. Not only do darker-themed apps look more sleek and make the content stand out, but it also reduces eye strain and helps improve battery life. Because of this, more app designers are leaning towards using a darker UI for their app designs.
This article explores some of the best app designs with dark UI created by some of the best app designers today.
Table of Contents
1. Speeko by Arth Shah
Standout Features:
- Modular design system
- Balanced dark mode
- Meets WCAG 2.0 standards
App designer Arth Shah interned at Speeko, a public speaking app that offers a personalized training program in speech-making, business communication, and corporate confidence. He designed a dark mode for the Speeko app, resulting in a visually pleasing design.
The designer used colors from Apple’s dark mode and improved the contrast to pass WCAG 2.0 standards. The design delivers a balance between function and aesthetics, making the overall design inclusive to all users.
Lastly, the designer included small animations to strengthen the brand identity and add dynamic visuals. This move easily levels this design with the best app designs that encourage user engagement!
2. Imagine with Jimmy by Wilson Wijaya
Standout Features:
- Readable typography
- Night sky background
- Information button
AI-powered meditation app Imagine with Jimmy's app design by Wilson Wijaya provides a well-researched and user-friendly app design.
One of the standout features of the app is the night sky background. This is an excellent welcoming visual to the users, as night skies have a calming effect and set the mood before for the app’s intended purpose.
Despite using a thinner font, the texts are legible. There’s also a helpful information button telling the users which teachings are available for them to use. This adds points to the user experience and fits perfectly with the app.
3. Snooze Payment by Vincent Alojado
Standout Features:
- Eye-catching colors
- Colored backgrounds
- Legible icons and text
While most dark-mode apps use black or darker colors for backgrounds, app designer Vincent Alojado used colored backgrounds in his app design for Snooze Payment. This app helps people delay their payments for a predetermined amount of time.
The colored backgrounds add a splash of personality to the brand, making it more aesthetically pleasing. There are also colored icons and content sections, complementing the gradient background. A dark interface with occasional pops of color also helps make the text more readable.
Lastly, the headers are in boldface, while the supporting text is in a regular style.
4. Mobile App for a Social Network by Surf
Standout Features:
- Large image displays
- Colorful leaderboard
- Bright colors
With large displays for images allowing users to view pictures with a better resolution, design agency Surf's app design for this crypto social media app earns a spot in this best app design with a dark UI list.
As a social media platform, images are essential elements and must be presented in their best quality. The agency uses different colors in the categories, trending topics, and the leaderboard to complement the dark background. This adds character to the design, preventing the app from looking monotonous. (Explore other amazing chat app design examples.)
5. Spotify by Hiro Mejia
Standout Features:
- Recognizable layout
- Prominent image display
- Straightforward design
Hiro Mejia created a simple but easy-to-navigate app design for the popular music streaming platform Spotify. His design emphasizes the ease of navigation and use of album art and artist profiles to complement the dark background.
The text is also readable, and the lyrics display is boldfaced, enhancing readability for those with visual impairment issues. With the way Spotify's app design is created, it became an integral part of their branding, allowing everyone to recognize the layout as theirs.
6. Spotify UI Interactive Resume by Rocco Martarella
Standout Features:
- High-quality images
- Iconic layout
- Readable and informative text
With the Spotify app’s recognizable layout and simple interface, app designer Rocco Martarella created an online resume inspired by the music streaming app. For this project, the designer took cues from the music app’s design and layout and developed a clever way to present his credentials.
The artist's profile image was replaced with the app designer's photos. The text sections are legible as it stands out from the dark background. Skills, projects, and logos of past companies are presented similarly to Spotify’s albums, songs, and playlists.
7. Interplanetary by Pol Mas
Standout Features:
- Futuristic concept
- Realistic images
- Colorful iconography
Design agency Pol Mas showcased their creative skills in designing an app that presents interplanetary flight bookings. This futuristic concept is realized through a stunning dark UI.
Aside from the dark interface, the app design includes high-quality photos of different planets presented as available destinations. You can find the red dunes and deserts, setting realistic expectations of possible locations. The colorful images and icons add energy to the app's design, making it more attractive to users.
Check out these examples of excellent app background designs.
8. Savage by PixelPlex
Standout Features:
- Street art-inspired logo
- High-resolution videos
- Invite-only platform
PixelPlex's app design for video NFT marketplace Savage looks very much like how it sounds: free, fierce, and cool. The street art-inspired brand logo exemplifies these traits so well, too!
The platform has a black-to-dark-gray background, lending more focus to the vibrant video thumbnails. The agency displayed the videos in a gallery-style layout, making browsing easier for users.
Lastly, the marketplace retains its exclusivity by enabling an invite-only feature. Video creators can only join the community via invitation.
