The Dark Side of Digitec Galaxus

Galaxus and Digitec customers can now shop in Dark Mode: Online stores are now also available with a dark background and light text. The community has had to wait for this moment for a long time: they have wanted this feature for years discussion It also has over 1,500 upvotes. There are also hundreds of comments within editorial articles.

“We are pleased that we can finally satisfy our customers’ wishes,” says Tobias Grundmann. As the Product Owner of the online store at Digitec Galaxus, Tobias is sometimes responsible for new feature. “Dark mode has been an issue for a long time, both community-wide and internally,” Tobias says. “More than 30 percent of our users use dark mode on their devices – and this trend is on the rise.” The increasing number of users was the deciding point for the team around Tobias. They also want to take a pioneering role when it comes to dark mode in online retail: “It’s exciting to implement something so new. No other online store in Europe has implemented dark mode on both the website and the app,” says Tobias. 2022, the team addressed dark mode in Digitec Galaxus.

Big project

There were reasons why it took a while before work on dark mode began. Tobias says the implementation was a big task. A project like this ultimately affects the entire store and different teams and brings with it many technical challenges.

Because there are thousands of places on the Galaxus and Digitec websites where colors are specified. “Some of these places always behave the same way, like text,” explains Leonardo Hochschild, lead user experience designer at Digitec Galaxus. “However, for other items, color mapping depends on context, for example, with compare and note buttons on individual product pages. Given the size of our stores, it quickly becomes very complex. Since colors are so important to the user experience, it was important to find A solution for efficient color coordination and mapping. This is the only way to ensure a cohesive look for online stores even in dark mode.

After months of development and work on color palettes, the time has now come: Dark Mode is available across Europe in all Galaxus online stores, in Digitec and in apps (from version 4.4).