Emoji vs. Switch for choosing light/dark theme on a navigation bar
The previous version of my website had a toggle/switch for changing the color theme between light and dark modes (for fun and practice). Here's what that looked like:
More recently, I decided to replace the switch and text with emoji—a sun for light mode, and a moon for dark mode:
Question: From a UX perspective, which of those two sets of navigation bars is better?
Here are some of my more specific concerns:
The switch is unambiguous—you know exactly what it does. But it's lacking personality. It also seems pointless to tell the user what mode they're currently in. (Gee, thanks!)
The emoji give the navbar a bit more life, but at the cost of meaning. Since they're so close to my name, could they be mistaken for a logo instead of a clickable theme switch?
"Home" on the previous navbar seemed a bit boring. From what I've seen, most websites traditionally place the home link in the top left of the navbar, sort of like on Stack Exchange.