Inside the design of Celigo’s dark mode

Dark mode in Celigo’s iPaaS platform isn’t just a visual enhancement. It’s the result of a deeper investment in scalable, accessible, and consistent design.

What started as a popular customer request became the catalyst for a complete design system overhaul, built to support long-term growth and deliver clarity and comfort across user roles.

Product design Q & A

We spoke with Tyrus Smalley, Lead Product Designer at Celigo, about how a user-requested feature sparked a broader modernization of the platform’s design system.

He shared what it takes to build an accessible, enterprise-grade experience that scales.

What does good design mean in enterprise iPaaS?

In consumer tech, “good design” means creating instant delight and encouraging engagement. But in the enterprise space, our goal is a bit different.

To me, good design in this context comes down to focusing on trust and velocity. Building trust means ensuring that every element of our interface is consistent, accurate, and reliable. Users should feel confident that what they see and do in the product will behave exactly as expected.

Focusing on velocity is about helping users move quickly and efficiently from recognition to execution. That means reducing visual clutter, eliminating unnecessary distractions, and presenting logical tools and intuitive workflows at the right time and place.

Ultimately, if it takes a user 30 minutes to build something that should take five, we’ve missed the mark. Good design should always accelerate time to value; it’s about empowering our users to get meaningful results faster and with confidence.

How did dark mode lead to a design system overhaul?

Moving from a request like “add dark mode” to a fully realized experience required much more than just changing colors. As we explored how to implement dark mode, we recognized that our design foundation needed to evolve to support platform-wide theming. That realization opened the door to building a more scalable and unified system.

Over 12 to 18 months, we built a completely new design system focused on accuracy, consistency, and scalability. By establishing this system first, we ensured that every component, interaction, and visual style was cohesive and made available across the product.

Once that foundation was in place, implementing dark mode became far more seamless and reliable. Instead of treating it as a one-off feature, it became a natural extension of a robust system with a unified design language.

Dark mode became a natural extension of the system, not a standalone feature.

How did you keep design and engineering aligned?

Our design system initiative was a long-term, highly collaborative effort. We had a small, focused team of two designers and about six to seven dedicated developers working side by side throughout the process.

Design and engineering alignment was maintained through constant communication and iteration. We collaborated closely on every component, making sure that each piece was not only visually consistent but also technically sound and performant. Regular design reviews, shared documentation, and continuous testing helped us validate our work as we went.

That tight partnership between design and development was crucial and allowed us to move quickly, maintain quality, and build a system that could scale beyond just dark mode.

How did user demand influence your direction?

When I first joined Celigo, one of my earliest conversations with Matt Graney, the Chief Product Officer, was about how to make dark mode a reality. It had been one of the most consistently requested features on our product boards for years, with users repeatedly asking for it.

As we began evaluating the feasibility, it became clear that our existing UI architecture wasn’t originally designed to support a system-wide dark mode.

That realization became a turning point.

In many ways, dark mode theming became the guiding light for our broader design system overhaul. It wasn’t just about meeting a popular request. It became the driving force behind building a cohesive, scalable design foundation that could support theming and adaptability across the entire platform.

What does dark mode represent beyond the visuals?

Dark mode has evolved beyond a visual preference and is now table stakes for any modern application UI. Offering it demonstrates a level of respect for users, acknowledging that they work in diverse environments and have different comfort needs, whether it’s reducing eye strain, conserving battery life, or simply matching personal preference.

Implementing dark mode reflects platform maturity by signaling that the product has the design and engineering discipline to support complex theming at scale. That’s something only possible with a solid, well-structured design system. It’s a subtle but powerful indicator that the experience is both thoughtful and user-centered.

When is it worth investing in quality-of-life features?

Knowing when to invest comes down to understanding that design quality is a form of technical quality. When both advance together, the result is a more powerful, mature, and human-centered product.

In my experience, user needs and technical capabilities are deeply connected. In the iPaaS space, complexity is inherent, and investing in “quality of life” features like dark mode is about reducing friction and supporting focus for users who spend hours working in our platform.

When the interface feels effortless and considerate, users can concentrate on solving integration challenges rather than wrestling with the tools themselves. These are direct productivity and satisfaction gains that complement our technical strengths.

What were the technical considerations?

We evaluated every component and interaction end-to-end. For each design decision, we asked how it would impact implementation and the large-scale effort ahead.

Because dark mode required a 1:1 replacement of every UI component, we planned for a systematic rollout. We considered how to map old components to new ones, define the migration steps, and ensure each swap could be executed cleanly across the product.

What role did collaboration play in performance and quality?

Development and design collaboration was critical throughout the project. Working closely together allowed us to quickly identify not only which components needed to be replaced or updated, but also to uncover broader gaps and inconsistencies within the existing UI.

This process revealed opportunities well beyond dark mode itself. Issues in workflows, layout structures, and component behavior that had accumulated over time. As a result, we built a substantial backlog of enhancements, including new tools and features aimed at improving the overall user experience and becoming the foundation for the next phase of work for the design system team.

Why rebuild instead of layering dark mode?

While our previous design components served the platform well, they were built at a time when theming and system-wide flexibility weren’t primary requirements. As our needs evolved (especially around supporting dark mode at scale), we saw that layering new capabilities onto the existing system would introduce unnecessary complexity and limit future growth.

Rebuilding from the ground up allowed us to take a more scalable and maintainable approach. By developing a headless, token-based design system, we created a foundation that not only supports dark mode but also enables greater flexibility, long-term consistency, and faster iteration across the entire platform.

How did you address eye strain and accessibility?

When selecting our dark mode palette, we focused heavily on accessibility and visual comfort, adhering to WCAG standards to ensure sufficient contrast and readability for all users, including those with low vision.

We also paid close attention to how color, contrast, and hierarchy interact over long periods of use in data-dense interfaces like ours. The goal was to create a visual environment that feels balanced and legible in both light and dark contexts, minimizing fatigue while maintaining clarity and usability throughout extended work sessions.

How did you validate the dark theme’s comfort?

Our design approach was based on well-documented external research showing that dark themes can help reduce eye strain and support better focus. We’re still collecting long-term feedback, but user reactions have been very positive.

Several users have said that the new dark mode feels more comfortable and reduces fatigue during long work sessions.

How do you design for focus in a complex product?

Designing for focus means being intentional about every interaction. We want to eliminate unnecessary actions, reduce cognitive load, and simplify complex processes wherever possible.

The goal is to give users the right controls at the right time so they can zero in on their workflows, complete tasks efficiently, and spend their energy on problem-solving rather than interpreting intent or navigating the interface.

How does design help build trust with users?

A well-implemented dark mode reinforces trust by showing attention to detail and reliability across every UI and interaction. When the experience feels cohesive, polished, and considerate of user needs, it signals that the platform itself is dependable, mature, and something users can rely on with confidence.

Why design maturity matters in iPaaS

In iPaaS, trust isn’t just earned through technical capabilities. It’s built through every interaction in the product. A mature, accessible, and consistent UI is a sign of platform discipline. It shows that design and engineering are aligned — not just on what gets built, but on how it’s delivered.

Celigo’s release of dark mode reflects that philosophy. It’s not just a color scheme. It’s a signal of where the platform is going: scalable, thoughtful, and designed to support users doing complex work.

In a space where integration complexity is a given, usability is a competitive edge.

By reducing friction and increasing clarity, Celigo is setting a new standard for what thoughtful design can look like in enterprise automation.