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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 751-800 of 3,113 (3113 new)
message 751:
by
Linda
(new)
Dec 15, 2015 01:05PM
I like it!
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Sooo much sans serif, and it is SOOOO hard to read. Even typing this comment I get sans serif. YUCK. Sans serif fonts make great headers, but horrible paragraphs. Graphic designers do NOT know all, even if they think they do.
I don't like it at all. Please change the font Back!
GR, if you don't change it so it pleases people, many will drop out!
It's pretty, I like the font. I would do something about the contrast, though. It's too much, and it makes it difficult to read.
I WANT THE OLD COLOUR BACK! THIS IS HORRIBLE! HEAR OUR CRIES GOODREADS! PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Emily wrote: "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 ..."
Oh, spare us!
The font and sizing and colors are hideous and harder to read.I agree with everyone who says to at least give us the option to go back to the perfectly fine fonts from before.
Howdy! I really like the site changes, but I think there might be something going on with the particular version/mirror/whatever of Lato that you're using. I've had this happen on my site at work, too -- like the designer updated it via google and lots of letters went missing for some folks, and it overall had a 'grainy', nigh-illegible quality to it. I'd look into changing how you're serving up the font (internally hosted vs served from google), and maybe just try to switch it to see if it fixes the issue. Or make sure you're using the latest version of the Lato design...? I can't remember exactly what I did to fix the problem that I'm noticing on your site, but I remember that it *is* possible!I hope that helps! Lato is quite a nice font when it works right.
I seriously can't read with that background and the font. I love this page but I can't read it without a headache now. Thanks.
I like the change. Like all things, it is subjective to the person viewing it.The font, for me, looks more readable, and even slightly larger.
Could be the settings for my browser, on the computer, but I like it better.
Dree wrote: "Sooo much sans serif, and it is SOOOO hard to read. Even typing this comment I get sans serif. YUCK. Sans serif fonts make great headers, but horrible paragraphs. Graphic designers do NOT know all,..."I agree with you, this font is horrible, but don't judge all graphic designers.
It would be great if the Goodreads team could add a theme toggle with options for the traditional or modern theme. That way, anyone who prefers one or the other can have their choice.
I just found another issue with the updates. I cannot add the authors anymore (from the add book/author link) Books are ok but autors doesn't work. Am I the only one with this issue?
Emily wrote: "This is a first step towards future updates! "You mean you're working your way up to this? :)
Let me go and get my sunglasses cause I'm gonna get blind if the site stays this way. Guess what? I HATE HATE HATE THE NEW CHANGES.
How about listening to us before making changes? Where are the changes we wanted and truly need?!
Dreadful. I'm struggling to read, the background awful and the font not clear at all. HATE IT!!
Overall it looks nice, but fonts are killing my eyesight. They're hard to read and they're blurry, my eyes got tired immediately.
The font and text colors is much more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read. I also love the new page layout. Definitely better than the previous version.
I like it. It is easier to read with my Mac-Chrome.
I just love the "modern style" somehow means "netscape era style" in webdesign lately. I swear, at this rate we'll be seeing animated backgrounds and midis playing on every page in a few years.
I hate to inform you, but the new fonts are AWFUL. The serif font looks like 1980's dot-matrix printing, with missing dots here and there. ("Designed to be pleasant to look at on screens"? Are you serious? What universe would these screens be in?)
The legibility is really bad. For anyone who suffers from eye-strain or headaches, this new look is a disaster. Please, please go back to the easy-on-the-eyes site I opened this morning.
The new fonts look clear and sharp on my smart phone, but looks a bit blurry on my laptop.
I'm using a PC and IE and it is killer to read. I literally can't stand it. I'm NEVER one to complain when sites change format, but I can't believe that anyone would change the font to this. The font needs a HUGE overhaul. Something completely different... like right away. My eyes hurt really badly from reading and I'm young.
I like it, the fonts are more crisp and legible.
Very difficult to read, even in my native language - Bulgarian, which uses Cyrillic ... At least, give an option for previous view/font.
I used to love spending time here, now - I don't.
I like the tweaks on design elements, but the new font is a bit hard to make out. The lines on the letters are too thin, they make reading anything longer than a couple of words a real chore.
This font is so small! I thought I had accidentally zoomed out when I first clicked on the website.
I am trying to read this, apparently "improved" 20 minutes or so ago, font, but - NO.It's not that I hate this change just to spite. My eyes physically hurt :(
Annika wrote: "I just found another issue with the updates. I cannot add the authors anymore (from the add book/author link) Books are ok but autors doesn't work. Am I the only one with this issue?"I had this problem as well.
The letters are frayed and too small. Not happy...
Love it. It's legible and clean. Good move.
I hate it!! It's very difficult to read and it's hurting my eyes!! Please change it back :(
I'm not into it. Everything is blurry.I prefer the previous version.
it hurts my eyes......please go back to the way it was before. I hate change especially when it doesn't make any sense. If it ain't broke don't fix it!
This is very difficult to read. It is literally straining my eyes, perhaps because it's so skinny on a ton of white? The blue contrasts poorly as well. Really awful. Please give us an option to change it back! The site's layout did not need odd color or font adjustments :/
I think it looks interesting but I'm still trying to adjust to it since I am not used to this font! Man it's really throwing me off.
Goodreads, no offense but this is awful! I'm practically going blind here trying to read... I'll try with sunglasses.
Bjorn wrote: "Emily wrote: "This is a first step towards future updates! "You mean you're working your way up to this? :)"
lol, that was good. And maybe they are! ;))
Bjorn wrote: "Emily wrote: "This is a first step towards future updates! "You mean you're working your way up to this? :)"
Ha! How did you know? :)
Adriana wrote: "I like the tweaks on design elements, but the new font is a bit hard to make out. The lines on the letters are too thin, they make reading anything longer than a couple of words a real chore."
As of a few minutes ago, font rendering should be fixed for signed-in users. Please comment again if you are seeing any issues!
While I love the flat designs (gradients on buttons are the WORST) and the new link colours, have to agree on the font. I need more time to read a text and my eyes get tired very easily from reading in this new font.
I see you are addressing the font and scaling issue with font, BUT the bright white background needs to go! This is commonly known to be harder to see resulting in eye stain and headaches. Kind of a "duh" moment happening here.
The new font is absolutely NOT an improvement. Like so many other users have already pointed out, it doesn't make the site easier to read, it's actually harder. The "Add book/author" function no longer allows one to search for actual authors, just "books". I thought there was something wrong with my computer at first, but no, instead there was a completely unwanted and unneccessary revamp of the site.
I like the new font. I thought the old one was tacky. Plus I noticed the the color green is darker.
On Safari and Silk both fonts are instantly headache inducing--even zoomed to 125% and 150% they're blurry.
Really weird. But hey, we'll get used to it eventually... and then it'll get changed again.
Yeah, I agree that the blanket white background is a mess. I'm seeing spots.
