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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.
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Comments Showing 1,701-1,750 of 3,113 (3113 new)
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Dec 16, 2015 03:39AM
nice touches
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Please allow us to vote on this.I don't feel I will read long reviews anymore - it's just too unpleasant.
And I like a text to be justified in reviews and comment spaces - it adds coherence and readability.
Not a fan, sorry - the font is too small and it all looks squashed together on my screen.
For the sake of your over 30 users could you please increase the size of the new font? Choosing a font that reads smaller without increasing the size of the font does not enhance the readability of text. And good luck, we all love change.
Not the fonts I would have chosen, but I like the mix of serif and sans serif fonts. In general, I'd prefer Crimson Text instead of Merriweather and Open Sans instead of Lato. All fonts are open source.
I really don't like the new font. The letters look blurred. Especially the name of the author in the update feed and the names of the books/authors you're reading in 'Currently reading'. It hurts my eyes, not in a aesthetically way, but in a fysical way. Please give us a option to change it.
My eyes hurt, I have a lot of difficulties trying to read with this new format; the text is blurry and too pale.
I think its great and I love the blue in the links. Please keep it. I think the font works well and it seems easier to do things. Really like it.
The font is horrible especially while you're typing!! It makes me squint! I had laser surgery and my eye sight is supposedly close to 20/20 and this font is making me feel like I need my glasses again. I can't imagine how it feels to people with vision problems. The font should be a touch bigger and darker not just when you type but overall. If not different all together.
A lot of arabic words in the books data is not seen
This is not easier to read for me and has a less professional look to it.
Btw, goodreads, sorry that your change flopped, I realize it represents a lot of work and good intent on your part. But it might be better to back it all out and reintroduce changes gradually instead.The usability has gone down.
I am also getting a blink and reload on a lot of GR pages now.
It's a bit too bright and it's hurting my eyes.
The moment I logged in I knew there was something different about the site, but I just didn't know what, haha xD It sort of looks sharper; more polished? I'm not 100% sure how to describe it but it's such a good change for the site. Thank yoouuu! <3
well you've added crosses to the A, t & f's..... but its still very difficult to read, will definitely limit my time on GR if this is to stay as its blurry & effects my eyes
It is so hard to read. the font looks really washed out and my eyes are hurting from reading this article which didn't took that long. gosh
It's awful! The changes hurt my eyes, text is difficult to read and the text color is distasteful. Also Eastern European Letters are all in uppercase, even in the middle of a word! I want it back to how it was. Please give us a choice to revert to old style.
If you don't want the Arabic books readers here, just say so.
It's also harder to read for me. It also seems that you changed the size of the font and it's unnecessarily too big. People are adjustable, we will get used to almost anything but at least my first impression is not very positive.
Both fonts hurt my eyes. The narrow strokes on the serif font are too narrow, which makes the wide ones seem unbalanced and thus make the entire font appear blurry--it's an issue with the font itself, not just the size or anything. The serif font, on the other hand, seems smashed close together; this makes my head ache trying to read it (and type this).Additionally, the colors, though more "harmonious" as you claim, don't stand out as much when I'm scanning a page looking for a particular piece of information. Everything seems to blend together in a nauseating, headache-inducing alphabet soup.
What, exactly, was wrong with the original setup?
Maeros wrote: "Gerard wrote: "Still blurred, despite update. May work well on some screens but not on my laptop."That's precisely my problem..."
I still have the problem too and am on a laptop. Glad to know it is not me as people post it looks much better.
I would love to back with previous version of goodreads. Actually I like new font style but not the new layout. Earlier layout was perfect.
Regarding blurriness: on my tablet with retina display the fonts are sharp and defined no matter what zoom level but reading the website on my PC with a 'normal' resolution display the letters appear fuzzy, even at 200% zoom..
Readability feels greatly impaired for me on desktop; please allow us to vote and/or customize the fonts. A huge number of people appear to be struggling with this.
The new author's page is very uncomfortable. Before, there were sections for books, blog, and so on. Now it all merges together.
The link colors blend very easily with the black of the text so that when you're typing up a discussion in a group and linking to something, you have to pray it isn't a long post or whoever reads it will be searching through the wall of text for your link.
Alexandra wrote: "The new author's page is very uncomfortable. Before, there were sections for books, blog, and so on. Now it all merges together."I'll completely agree with that. The lack of the heading backgrounds with the gradiants really makes the whole thing jarring.
The sections don't distinguish themselves from one another in any clear way, making things harder to navigate quickly.
Lately, numerous sites have switched to similar fonts and visual approach in general - saying they want to improve and appeal to the masses.However, to me it's taking a step back in functionality and looks too. The fonts on Goodreads do look pretty but they are TOO pretty to be functional. They're are also very light and have too big gaps in-between. And not to mention the font size - it's huge. The review section you scroll through while on a certain book page looks horrible.
I liked the previous font better. It could be a matter of becoming used to the new one, but I too find it difficult to read ... :(I noticed also that the links to statuses, reviews, users' profile pages, etc. have been put in black bold where before they're coloured: that's not so user friendly - you have to drag the pointer to discover what is clickable and what is not...
I like it. Good change. Much more readable and easier to use.
Loathe it. It is very difficult for me to focus on, and to read. It's awful.
I really, REALLY, really, intensely, dislike the new font, and find it more difficult to read, to the point where it's actually irritating. It detracts from my Goodreads experience significantly. From what I can tell from the comments here and in the feedback group, this is also the opinion of most Goodreaders. Also, I resent the way that this change was dumped on us with no prior warning or consultation, and no opportunity to express our preference until after it was an accomplished fact that we just have to live with for the rest of the time that Goodreads exists (even if we're cynically allowed to "blow off steam.") I can't express my frustration and disgust strongly enough.
It still looks drastically different between browsers.See the comparison: Readable on the top (Firefox for me) non-readable on the bottom (Chrome for me):
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=vie...
Fiordiligii wrote: "I still don't like the update. The fonrt remains slightly blurry and harder to read. As far as my two cents are concerned why change something that was already doing very well I will never comprehend."While I agree that the new update is terrible and difficult to read, the old layout was not much to look at. It looked dated. It is nice that GoodReads wants to modernize the look but they might have overshot the target a fair bit.
I think its harder to read now than it was before. Some letters are blurred and I get a headache looking at them!
Logan wrote: "It still looks drastically different between browsers.See the comparison: Readable on the top (Firefox for me) non-readable on the bottom (Chrome for me):
http://drive.google.com/uc?export=vie......"
Logan, your post shows the difference beautifully.
I am starting to get sparkly eyes already, and usually I can spend a long time reading here and 'playing' with my books, but I'm going to have to limit my time on this website if they don't change back.
The links in my iPad app are still bold and dark gold, which is easy for me to read, but the pale teal on the desktop in chrome and IE isn't working for me.And looking at my book lists makes me dizzy! ARGH$#!
If you don't like the new style, you can use an add-on called Stylish to change the layout of the page and fix the worst problems (weird fonts, glaring whiteness). See one example here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Also, I resent the way that this change was dumped on us with no prior warning or consultation, and no opportunity to express our preference until after it was an accomplished fact that we just have to live with..."I'm not intending to troll, I'm genuinely curious - why should 'we' be warned or consulted beyond standard usability response groups? I agree that it could be helpful if only to keep the user base up, but I sense some entitlement in your word choice (correct me if I'm wrong).
It is, of course, the members that make the site, if only because we provide the data. But we don't own it. And I'm really interested to know: where does the entitlement of the members begin and end? For example, the membership as a whole could decide to ban some books from the database, or ignore a feature passively or actively (by punishing people who do use it). To name just a few things I just made up. But lay-out? Best left to the professionals, I'd say.
What do you think?
Like it. It looks cleaner and is easier on the eye.
I'm sorry, but this layout gives me a headache, there's too much white, it feels like my screen is glaring at me, I wish there were boarders or something, otherwise the whole things feels too... unfinished, like a prototype.
Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I prefer the previous version. I find this new font too strenuous for my eyes. Just saying.
