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Did You Notice Something a Little Different?
UPDATE: Thanks for all the feedback! For those of you who were having issues with blurriness, we have good news: we pushed out an update this afternoon that improves the sharpness of the font for users who were affected. We’re monitoring all the comments and will keep you posted on any further updates.
If you’re a frequent visitor to Goodreads, you've probably noticed a few tweaks we’ve made to the fonts and colors on the desktop site today. Our goal with these small-but-important changes was to consolidate and refresh our visual styles and lay the groundwork for some design improvements that we’re planning in the future.
What’s different?
To enhance the readability of text on Goodreads, we’ve adopted two new open-source fonts. Lato, our sans-serif font, was designed by Warsaw-based designer Łukasz Dziedzic (“Lato” means “Summer” in Polish). Merriweather, our serif font, was created by Eben Sorkin and was designed to be pleasant to read on screens.
To make it easier to scan the page for information you need, we’ve touched up and modernized the design of common page layout elements like section headers, tabs and links.
To simplify and modernize our visual design, we’ve reduced the number of link colors we use, removed gradients from buttons and the site navigation, and applied a more harmonious color palette to interactive elements such as buttons, stars, and links.
Before:
Comments Showing 701-750 of 3,113 (3113 new)
message 701:
by
Bjorn
(new)
Dec 15, 2015 12:50PM
OK, that's a bit better, but I'd still like to see someone from GR address the shiny-white-background issue. Was it really this bright before?
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Did the fonts all just get bigger? Still hard to read...
It's actually a lot harder to read. Please put it back the way it was.
I love the color on the names of the posters and the site ."labels"---...so much easier on my old eyes. A very pleasant change.
"To enhance the readability of text on Goodreads" You've literally done the opposite!
MarkoGilmore wrote: "It's really...really awful. If I lose my eyesight because you have contrast differentiating issues along with strange taste in font, I'm footing you the bill, m'kay? Well, what would be a welcome..."
Agreed! How difficult would that be to set up? Or, have a 1-10 rating!
I don't get it, why exchange strong colors which are easier to see to some very alike pale colors? This new layout feels cold and unwelcoming. My profile page looks like a washed out version of the old one ;(
Thanks for making these changes! The font and new, brighter page colors are much, much easier on my eyes. Nice work!
I wouldn't say it's hideous, but the strokes of the letters are far too thin. I much preferred the old style :| The new styles rather hurt my eyes.
You might find people begin to complain of headaches, as this will probably cause immense eye strain.
Whoa. This was a sudden change. I can't tell whether I like it or not yet, but only time will tell.
While I do like the font, the colour changes are not to my taste, as they make the site read more aggressive.
This sans-serif font is awful. If the goal was improved readability, this is an epic fail. It's blurry, and looks like something printed off with a printer out of alignment. Goodreads, what were you thinking?!
I'm glad the staff spent time on something that didn't need to be fixed rather than, I don't know, making re-reads count on the Goodreads challenge.
I hate this, and I see I'm not the only one. Please, change it back.
It was much easier to see the different parts headers, such as Currently Reading, Recommendations, on a colored Background.Also, I saw that finally we can access the preview option of books on the app for the android phone, looking forward to have it on the kindle app as well!
Also, please choose a darker color for the font on the android app, it's way too light on the white background to read easily
The serif font is fine: the sans serif font not so much. Not all that easy to read. Color palette seems very cool and pale. More contrast would be a plus.
I think it would be easier to read and look better if it actually matched the colors and aesthetic of the rest of the website.. The brown and blue does not look very good, in my personal opinion. The font isn't as terrible if you give it awhile to get used to it.. but idk.
harlie wrote: "I'm glad the staff spent time on something that didn't need to be fixed rather than, I don't know, making re-reads count on the Goodreads challenge."Do I detect a bit of sarcasm in your first few words? :)
Nope.I think a font roll-back is an the agenda.
Still gltchy. Still awful. Still missing pixels. Still running on.
And I took a look at the fonts you mentioned.
I can live with Lato.
But Merriweather is plain awful.
And I miss the headers something fierce. Now I can't see clearly where one things ends and another begins.
And links. I SO miss actually, you know, SEEING them.
I really like the idea of a change but the letters are pretty small!!!
Both new fonts are too small and look blurry and jagged on my screen. I have to zoom in to 120% before they're readable, and now the layout is a little wonky, and fonts still doesn't look great. The serif italic is particularly unpleasant.
"To enhance the readability of text on Goodreads, "EPIC failure there then, as these changes make the text of Goodreads LESS readable.
The font is small and less easy to read than the previous font, and removing the color from links means I now have to SEARCH for what MIGHT be a link and just click on it to SEE if it's a link, because, well, you can't actually TELL now otherwise.
If improved readability and "modernization" was the actual goal, GR has failed. Which makes me think the truth of the reasons for the changes is something OTHER than the stated reasons.
The information in my Feed is now very hard to read, and links very difficult to find.
PLEASE GR, stop making changes YOU "think" are improvements without actually considering what USERS are telling you WOULD be IMPROVEMENTS.
And when are you going to stop changing things users are basically happy with and focus on things users are actually ASKING to be improved?
I LOVE IT! <3It's rare that I love changes immediately, so kudos!
The font only looks a bit bigger, but still not really readable...
Joe wrote: "It looks terrible. About 10% of all the letters are just missing on my screen, like they all have holes in them. Enlarging or shrinking the font doesn't fix it."Yeah, me too. (looks like t's look like l's now... great!)
I don't hate it but I miss the warmth of the old design. This seems so cold and flat. I'm not a fan of the new font but I think after some time getting used to it I will forget it was ever different
Ha, they DID just increase font sizes. The discussion text was at 12px and now it's at 14px.
Everything looks blurry...not a fan at all. I paid a lot of money to have eye surgery and drop the contacts-this font makes me feel like I wasted my money.
Mirabelle wrote: "[insert melodramatic overreaction to change here]"Tee hee.
I have no problem reading the new font on my computer -- but when I go to tablet or smaller screen - it becomes harder to read...like the new colors though no matter what.
It is definitely different, however like all changes...need to get use to it. Shocking at first but it wears on you and becomes likeable. Suggestion...make it more user friendly and have where the user can change the look/colors/fonts if they want.
I'm not a fan of the bolding. I liked the "old" version. :/And the circle profile picture! Noooo! I already can't stand that on Instagram! Not on here too! :(
I like the fact that you guys are trying to improve, but it would be better if the whole thing was redesigned.
It still looks like some 1990's site trying to be modern.
Evandro wrote: "I like the fact that you guys are trying to improve, but it would be better if the whole thing was redesigned.
It still looks like some 1990's site trying to be modern."
This is a first step towards future updates!
Who cares if the new look is "aesthetically pleasing"? Who cares about aestheticality if you can't read it without a headache? This is a site for READERS, .... and this font is killing my eyes.
I greatly dislike the updates. The font is WAY HARDER to read than the original.
the font doesn't appear very well on my screen -- its almost like the letters all fade around the edges, especially at the tops of the words.I do not find it easier to read.
The new font acutally gives me headaches, anyone else experiencing this?
I'm not normally someone who moans when websites update their look but this time I have too. I cannot read this font the top of all the letters look blurry and I have trouble seeing things like the cross bar on the lower case e they look like c's and t looks like l to my eyes. In areas where their is lots of text I am going cross eyed trying to read it and the tiny text in areas like currently reading on the main page is impossible to read.
Evandro wrote: "I like the fact that you guys are trying to improve, but it would be better if the whole thing was redesigned.
It still looks like some 1990's site trying to be modern."
I agree with Evandro.
Your new serif fonts are missing their horizontal lines on my screen. So no horizontals in A, t, e... You've got an error going on. :/
People are hating on the new changes, but I like it. Good job, GR!
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Yes, and I hate it. This is horrible. Please return to the previous version. GR has now become very difficult to read."Agree. The font is horrible!
FYI making this bigger is not helping at all. I just read this on my cell phone in desktop form which is just awful at this point. I read this on Chrome and Firefox too. I think the other problem is that when I am typing it reverts back to a smaller font size and I don't know if it's even the same font as the font on the screen at the moment.You need to adjust the whitness of the background if you are going to insist on keeping it. Seriously you are going to blind people. That is making the font so hard to read and makes it appear that letters are missing/floating. And I swear the font color appears to change from light brown to an almost black back to a green depending on how long people's comments are as well.
Amanda wrote: "Your new serif fonts are missing their horizontal lines on my screen. So no horizontals in A, t, e... You've got an error going on. :/"We are working on the font rendering issue!
