How UIs could get better

I want to propose several graphical improvements that could be implemented mainly in mobile devices’ operating systems to make them better.

To illustrate the ideas, I will use screenshots of iOS just as simple references and special cases that allow the reader to induce the more general idea I want to convey.

A truly black dark mode

Most of today’s screens are of the OLED type, where blacks are achieved by literally keeping the pixels of the screen off. This allows the rendering of perfect blacks that do not even use electricity. It is almost impossible to overuse a gorgeous black, and using it wherever one can, especially in place of dark grays often used as backgrounds, would serve the dual purpose of improving the aesthetics of interfaces and prolonging battery life.

Uniformity of symbols and gestures

In the iOS photo app, a photo is deleted by clicking on a trash can, while in another view you have to click on a “delete” label. A symbol is aesthetically cleaner and takes up less space for other buttons, which makes them preferable to text. Using a symbol in an unambiguous manner throughout the operating system causes the user to develop an immediate and intuitive interpretation of it, which speeds up their interaction with the device. A more literal description, especially for less common symbols and actions, could still be accessed in a secondary way, such as by a long press.
In this regard, symbolic uniformity (already partially present) even across different…