Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

Checking this out on my Mac, the font is much better. It is impossible to read on my laptop, but decent on the Mac. I still have style issues with the lack of borders and massive amount of uninterrupted white space, but it is better off of Windows.

Danya wrote: "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...."

So true. The new fonts here and on many other sites have that "artisanal" look, which frankly is distracting and makes it harder to read. Slate comes to mind, also the New York Times Magazine, whose new titles/headers look like they come from a Wild West wanted poster (it's bizarre).

You'll notice though that serious sites, like the NYT and the Washington Post, haven't changed the basic font that their stories are actually written in. (Yet.) They know that serious readers need to be able to actually read the articles. Other sites, not so much.

Thank you so much to the members who suggested the Stylish add-on for FF and Chrome. I can now change the background colour to something less glaring and increase the font sizes! Much better now!

Werner wrote: "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. "

Werner is the politest person ever, so you know when he says he's disgusted, he really, really means it.

Absolutely ridiculous that i'm having to add a extension to my browser to be able to actually read the font on a site about reading. 100 installs on one theme alone in 24 hours should show you that your redesign and 'fix' are not working.

I also just signed on with my phone and the site redesign is far better on my android...

HOWEVER

I would like to note that Goodreads is the one website I almost use exclusively on my laptop/desktop. It's always been easiest for me to type up reviews on that rather than a mobile device. So, frustrating.

I downloaded Stylebot from Chrome. It allows you to easily change the colors and fonts on the site from items in the side bar to the main column. It took a little figuring out, but I'm happy with it.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/de...

The stars are two different shades of orange. Go to a page of a book you have rated and reviewed; right under the book jpeg the stars will be gold-orange. But the stars under "My Review" are bright orange (or pale red).

Then there's also a different shade of orange on the "My Books>Stats" page.

Why do I think the font changes came from the top (Amazon) and were intended to get people to abandon Chrome (google).

Lobstergirl wrote: "The stars are two different shades of orange. Go to a page of a book you have rated and reviewed; right under the book jpeg the stars will be gold-orange. But the stars under "My Review" are bright..."

Omg... they are. So much for reducing colors.

The book edit page is harder to use because the font is so small. Of course one can zoom, but there's still the flatness that makes it harder to see where to insert your edits.

At least the fields have a (very pale ) gray outline....you didn't get rid of the outline the way you did for User Profiles and Author Profiles and Reviews.

Apparently "modern design" is a new euphemism for "harder to read," judging by the changes made to a lot of sites this past year. I'm disappointed that Goodreads went the same route.

The fonts may have been designed to be more legible on screen, but the sizes or spacing or formatting chosen for them makes them significantly harder to read than the old fonts. The new serif font is especially bad: while tolerable in brief comments, it is hard to read as large bodies of text, rendering reviews (one of Goodreads' major components) and synopses nigh illegible. (Goodreads' old serif font wasn't the best for the job, certainly, but it wasn't as bad as this.) The color changes for the buttons and stars may have been incremental, but the colors are now glaring, especially against the copious whitespace. The design changes aren't all bad, but the combination of squint-inducing fonts, high-contrast colors, and over-bright whitespace gives me a headache and a desire to close the page.

I use Goodreads heavily, and that usage is exclusive to my laptop — no mobile app usage here — so the desktop design influences my usage. Will I quit using Goodreads? No, probably not. But I doubt I'll spend so much time browsing for books, since the font is now much more taxing to read.

What was even the point of making the profile picture a circle?

One last update to the Goodreads Fix Stylish style for now: https://userstyles.org/styles/121888/.... Changed more fonts to Georgia, toned down the background color a little, and included contact info for me. Thanks!

What's the point of having two different (and clashing) shades of brown? The progress bar is "tree bark" brown and the notifications boxette (which is only 2 inches away) is "oven-baked burnt-on tomato sauce" brown.

The first has a gray undertone, the second a red undertone.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of Verdana.

The bug that you can't add gender to an author profile is still extant.

PLEASE increase the line height for the body copy. The vertical spacing is far too tight and hurts readability.

Lisa wrote: "One last update to the Goodreads Fix Stylish style for now: https://userstyles.org/styles/121888/.... Changed more fonts to Georgia, toned down the background color a little, and included..."

My sore eyes thank you so very much for doing this.

Clare wrote: "Lisa wrote: "My sore eyes thank you so very much for doing this. "

No problem! I figure if I was going to fix it for myself I might as well share it too. :)

Thanks Lisa!

Re: the color change to green
When I scroll to the bottom of this page and try to see what number page I am on it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the black page number that indicates the page I am on and the green color for all the other pages. I'm on page 44 right now but I really had to squint and look hard to see that.

Goodreads is the site I spend most of my time on when I am not actively reading. These changes have me either feeling disappointed or pissed, depending on how big my screen-related headache is at that moment.

Thank you to the members who informed me of Stylish for Firefox. I applied the Goodreads fix as well as changed the background dark by using the Goodreads Dark Sans . I also installed the Goodreads Dark Sans Background Book Stack. I love the dark background with the grey font - so much easier on my eyes. I was getting a migraine headache last night reading these comments after only 25 minutes. Now I don't have to deactivate my Goodreads account.


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.

Of course Goodreads will be keeping these changes. They've already celebrated the Font creator. Gramazon is never wrong when they change anything on this site, no matter how many of us users complain. They'll cite the few who like the changes and declare the New Design a tremendous success.

I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color.

Well, it's definitely roomier. I like it because it looks like the font has been enlarged, but the words themselves really do look faded. Perhaps making the letters thicker? (If that makes sense) It would feel better for my eyes.

Also, what's with keeping the font in the comment boxes?! If can still insert images and whatnot with html, keep Courier New in the boxes! It's so distracting with this new font in the boxes because I keep wanting to press "Ctrl" + "B" or "I" or something to mark my words.

Kristen wrote: "I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color."

You can go in and change the background color Kristen. PM Lisa and she can tell you the section where you substitute the hex code.

Kristen wrote: "I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color."

If you've installed Stylish, you can create your own custom style and change the background color to whatever you want it to be. The code would be:

body {background-color: #[hex code for color]}
So, for a white bg, it would be:

body {background-color: #ffffff;}

You can google for whatever hex code you'd like. BTW, if you installed my stylish theme yesterday, I changed the bg color today so it's less yellow, see the screenshot.

Lisa wrote: "Kristen wrote: "I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color."

If you've installe..."

Frankly, I'm impressed by the way people are helping each other out here. Yes, we're all unhappy (almost all), and have made our opinions known, but the point is that instead of continuing to complain there are quite a few people who are trying to offer positive solutions. Thanks to everyone who's shared.

Penumbra wrote: "Kristen wrote: "I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color."

You can go in and ..."

Thanks, I figured it out. Going to tinker with it a bit. :)

THANKS FOR THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT GOODREADS!!!!!! YOU REALLY SCREWED US OVER!!!

hope santa brings you all lots of coal!

Lisa, I forgot to thank you in my post 2223 as the creator for the Stylish Goodreads fix. My apologies, M'am.

Nenia wrote: "Personally, I'm a huge fan of Verdana."

Verdana's pretty awesome :)

I logged on today desperately hoping you'd have fixed the blinding glare of the new background. I don't know why I expected you'd actually do anything in response to the complaints users have been making. It's been clear for a long time you couldn't care less about creating a helpful user experience.

All you care about is the money you're making but I can tell you one thing for sure. I'm not clicking on a single advert or buying a single book through your site when you're attempting to give me a migraine. I'm also not going to be spending even a quarter of the amount of time on here I usually could because I have to physically take a break every 10 minutes so I won't go blind. It's pretty damn obvious that the majority of your big users are having exactly the same issue as me so I hope you enjoy watching your traffic and sales drop.

Thanks to everyone who shared the helpful hints about Stylish for Chrome (and other extensions as well). They make the site much easier to use with the font and background changes.

But I'm still upset that it seems like Goodreads isn't willing to address the problems that the majority of users have voiced in this thread about the stylistic and structural changes. Not to mention dumping a new change without previous feedback AND close to a major holiday.

My hope is that something's done about it that's different from the current form, if not a reversion. For now though, going back to reading, though I'll keep a watch on this thread for more updates on this.

Bug.

In personal bookshelves table view, the headers and column contents are properly aligned.

In Group bookshelves, the headers and column contents are misaligned. Headers are too far left.

Lisa wrote: "Kristen wrote: "I really wish the layout would go back to the way it was. I tried the Goodreads fix from stylish, and the font is better, but I don't like the background color."

If you've installe..."

Thank you for the code. I'm messing with the background color a bit to see what I like best.

I prefer this version than the previous one! I always access Goodreads from Chrome on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 inches and it looks MUCH better now! Love it so much, especially the font!

Lobstergirl wrote: "The stars are two different shades of orange. Go to a page of a book you have rated and reviewed; right under the book jpeg the stars will be gold-orange. But the stars under "My Review" are bright..."

I noticed this as well when I was showing a friend the differences. He hadn't noticed.

I refuse to install anything for just ONE site :/ I already have a long list of extensions, thank you very much, enough is enough.
If it doesn't bug us any more, we'll stop commenting here, because it's "fixed". But it's not. We stop complaining, GR will keep pushing. Next time it will be something even more atrocious.
This is plain wrong.

Stylish helped a LOT. Went in and messed with the coding a bit, trying out different background colors and fonts to try and get my eyes to hurt less. Unfortunately, it seems a large portion of the issue for me the is the overwhelming use of white space on the pages. There's way too much of it and not enough of any other color to break it up.

It really sucks that (a) developers are focusing on improving UX for mobile/tablet users and basically saying a giant FU to those of us who are using computers, and (b) coding only with IE in mind. Chrome has overtaken IE and MS Edge in browser market share so why the hell are we being ignored? And for a site which requires so much typing with reviews, many many users prefer computers.

When you click on and arrive at a new page everything is in Arial for 1-2 seconds before the fonts adjust; can this be fixed? It is really annoying. Causes a jiggliness on the page.

New bug.

When you are on a user vote for a listopia, as here:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/user_v...

there is no way to get from this page to the Listopia itself. It used to be in the title line but now it just links to all listopias.

Please fix.

The problem is compounded because on the page where you are looking at all your listopias you voted on, there are two HTML links per listing, and instead of one going to the list itself and the other to your user vote, they both direct to your user vote. (This has always been the case, I've never understood why.) (For the lists you LIKED and the lists you CREATED, there are two different HTML links, one going to the list itself and the other to your user vote.)

Before your site overhaul, there was at least a way to arrive at the main listopia from your user vote; now you have removed that link, on the "lists I voted on".

In listopia edit mode, the book number (the far left column) is too big, causing a line break. So book #198 is appearing as:

19
8


very unsightly.

I am at 110% mag in order to see the site, but it happens at 100% as well.

Lobstergirl wrote: "When you click on and arrive at a new page everything is in Arial for 1-2 seconds before the fonts adjust; can this be fixed? It is really annoying. Causes a jiggliness on the page."

Oh, yeah, that jiggly stuff is SUPER annoying. (OK I don't know if it's mostly on this blog page or if it's universal on the site.)

The fonts also feel a bit wimpy to me. I'd rather see a heavier bodied font. But what really makes me guffaw is the FAKE italics. It seems to be obliquing an upright serif instead of just using a matching italic face...

Anyway, I'll shut up. I'm sure the UI mavens at GR are getting an earful...

I have the jiggly thing with fonts coming and going, too. I have razors in my eyes. Frigging RAZORS!

I've had it for the day :(

Richard wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "When you click on and arrive at a new page everything is in Arial for 1-2 seconds before the fonts adjust; can this be fixed? It is really annoying. Causes a jiggliness on the page."

Oh, yeah, that jiggly stuff is SUPER annoying. (OK I don't know if it's mostly on this blog page or if it's universal on the site.)."

Is this the same as the font size changing/reformatting I am seeing every time I go to a different page? Because that is getting old. Fast.

I thought someone shrunk my screen size, but it's just GR. It's too small.

Fiordiligii wrote: "Does anyone know the name of the old font? Was it Calibre?"

I believe it was Georgia. :)

Lisa wrote: "Clare wrote: "Lisa wrote: "My sore eyes thank you so very much for doing this. "

No problem! I figure if I was going to fix it for myself I might as well share it too. :)"

Thank you... from a fairly computer illiterate gal!

Lori wrote: "Fiordiligii wrote: "Does anyone know the name of the old font? Was it Calibre?"

I believe it was Georgia. :)"

Thanks Lori. Well, for all that it's worth, I always use GR on my laptop, never with my mobile phone. I think it's going to stay the way it is - fortunately I figured out stylish. But I feel cheated.