We’ve noticed that the "Skyline Mixed" colour UI scheme has recently been removed in favour of light (white) or dark (black) modes, and we’d like to better understand the reasoning behind this change.
From an operational perspective, this has presented some challenges for our environment:
- Our existing service drawings (Visio-based) are not compatible with dark mode, and converting thousands of these diagrams is not feasible from both a time and cost standpoint.
- Using the fully white (light) UI in a live MCR environment introduces significant screen glare, which impacts operator comfort and usability during extended monitoring periods.
The previous mixed colour scheme provided a good balance and was well suited to our operational setup.
Could you advise:
- Why the mixed colour option was removed?
- Whether there are plans to reintroduce it, or provide alternative configurable UI options?
We would strongly advocate for the return of the mixed colour scheme, as it better supports our operational needs.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for taking the time to explain why the "Skyline Mixed" theme is important in your environment. I completely understand the concern. Personally, I was also a big fan of the mixed theme, so its removal was certainly not a decision we made lightly.
At Skyline, we continuously modernize both Cube and our web applications to keep the user experience aligned with current software design standards. During that process, we observed that the industry is increasingly converging on Light and Dark themes, while more traditional "classic" themes are gradually disappearing. Supporting fewer themes also allows us to focus more effort on consistency, quality, and long-term maintainability.
Because of that, we evaluated the impact of removing the "Skyline Mixed" theme. We knew strong Dark Theme support was essential, especially for MCR and similar operational environments. However, I believe we underestimated how many Visio-based views in the field are still not fully compatible with Dark Theme, which effectively made "Skyline Mixed" the preferred and sometimes only practical option for some users.
You are definitely not alone in this feedback. We have received similar comments from other users as well, particularly from MCR environments relying on Visio diagrams. Based on that feedback, we are seriously considering bringing back a mixed-style theme in some form. That said, it will likely not return exactly as before, since we still want to achieve the broader UI modernization goals.
In the meantime, if the new theming was introduced through automatic Cube updates, there is an easy workaround available. In the Cube Launcher, you can right-click an agent tile and select "Connect using..." to choose another compatible Cube version. Versions prior to 10.6.2609.xxxx should still include the "Skyline Mixed" theme option.