Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

I wish I could like it, but the font, for whatever reason, is hard for my brain to read/comprehend :( It's also harder for me to navigate even with a familiar format because I need clear section breaks (like the old headings that included the bars) because otherwise my brain just registers it as text that's part of a body paragraph and should be skimmed over.

I know flat design is really popular now, but without the gradient on the Want To Read button, everything sort of blends into one homogenous mix until it's very hard to navigate or have anything stand out.

Vira wrote: "These fonts are cool — but they don't have Cyrillic letters."

I am seeing Cyrillic, but we've definitely lost the Tibetan character set (see Dudjom Rinpoche for example).

It looks fine but the font is tiny and difficult to read :/

Guys, it REALLY hurts the eyes. We are not overreacting or something, the new GR is really literally painful to look at. I don't mind any changes, just please make them readable.

I'm all for a clean and simple design, but I'm not a fan of this. The blurriness is still there in titles and links, it's too bright, makes it really hard to read anything and looks kind of patchy all in all. :(

I don't care about the colors but the font is very painful to read and I hate it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Font is slightly better but white background still makes my eyes hurt... can we have the old one back please?

I haven't posted in awhile. The updated font is slightly more readable, but it still looks really bad. It looks like someone was writing with a pen that was leaking ink. It's clumpy and blot-y. Lowercase L's look bolded, and O's don't even look circular because they are so lumpy.

I tested the full site on my phone and it looks really good, but it is still pretty bad on my laptop.

Edit: apparently lowercase L's only look bold when I'm typing. They look normal when reading comments, but then lowercase B's look bolded.

I can't say I am a fan of the font... Maybe after a few days, I'll get used to it, but right now it just seems... messy.. like ink smudges almost. Would be better to let folks choose their own font. I think I can trick my browser into using a different font, so I'll do that so I can read it again.

Ciska wrote: "As I realize that not everyone has the same eye strain problem as I have I found an example on an image how the site now looks for me

With some squinting I can obviously read what it says but it ..."

Ciska, it isn't just you. There are a lot of users without vision challenges that are experiencing eyestrain and headache with the new design.

I agree with those saying the new font is extremely blurry and not a very pleasant layout/font to read in. Goodreads is one of favourite go to book sites and lately it has been quite difficult to stay on the site as the new font definitely adds stress to the eyes. I personally liked the old layout. I noticed steps are being taken to rectify the issues, I am hoping this helps as so far no change on my end the font is still quite blurry.

Heidi wrote: "THIS. Why assume that everyone is using a tablet? "

Or Windows 8. (or, I suppose, any later edition with touch screens and the like. Awful lot of us holding onto Windows 7, you know)

I'm using my laptop. I don't even OWN a tablet.

☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "I'm using my laptop. I don't even OWN a tablet."

Ditto. Windows 7

Susan wrote: "☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "I'm using my laptop. I don't even OWN a tablet."

Ditto. Windows 7"

Same. I mean does GR think we're all stinking rich to have an iPhone or an ipad or a tablet or a kindle or whatever? Like I got my laptop as a birthday present yo.

This whole thing is ridiculous -- GR, you have forced this stuff down our throats and don't seem to be listening to us. I don't spend as much time as I used to on here.

Jane wrote: "And of course there are low-tech people like me who wouldn't know one of those add-ons et cetera if it bit me. I guess I just put up with this dreck?"

And what about those of us on borrowed computers, such as work, library, friends', etc.?

Not everyone can install, even if they know how!

I also dislike that you have to install a million new things just to get one aspect to work!

Susan wrote: "☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "I'm using my laptop. I don't even OWN a tablet."

Ditto. Windows 7"

Double Ditto. #7. I'm using a desktop. Don't own laptop or tablet.

☆°•.. Unsolved Mystery ..•°☆ wrote: "It's going to take some time for me to get accustomed to it, but I like it.
Sometimes, change is good."

Sometimes, yes. But not for everything.

For example, changing the background would be a good change at this point... It would reduce alot of the glare and eye-strain for *everyone*, and possibly result in some of the other changes being more widely accepted.

Rosa wrote: "I think someone said that it makes it easier for mobile but not for computer usage. I have seem my favorite websites do this in the past and for me using only a computer I could no longer use the s..."

You know, I looked on the mobile site on my Kindle, and there isn't an improvement. Just more of the same from here. I don't think it was meant as a mobile interface improvement, just a poor design decision.

There isn't anyway to preview your review before you save it now.

Leah wrote: "There isn't anyway to preview your review before you save it now."

Its been that way for awhile now.

ps. I still can't open 'my books' nor can I add a shelf nor can I do anything.

Erma wrote: "Rosa wrote: "I think someone said that it makes it easier for mobile but not for computer usage. I have seem my favorite websites do this in the past and for me using only a computer I could no lon..."

I'm afraid to log onto GR through my kindle, because the one time I did, 20 books with sample chapters from by GR TBR list ended up on my kindle. Didn't care for that at all!

It also still doesn't say male or female and my profile still says last logged in November.

However the reply box is better, I can invite friends again from my groups and... That's about all -.-

Which wouldn't have been an issue to begin with had it not been for this disaster!!!

☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "ps. I still can't open 'my books' nor can I add a shelf nor can I do anything."

That's ridiculous. They should have fixed that glitch by now!

Deidre(Dee) ~ Loves Her Baby Ducks ~ wrote: "I was wondering if there is a chance that we might have a choice of backgrounds in the future."

Been asking for something like this for a while with no response.

We were told that having customizable/optional fonts was a no-go, but Staff still have not mentioned anything about the background (beyond saying they did not change it).

So, please, could we have someone on the design team address the snow white background? Please?

Susan wrote: "☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "ps. I still can't open 'my books' nor can I add a shelf nor can I do anything."

That's ridiculous. They should have fixed that glitch by now!"

I don't have much faith admittedly. I mean I've always had problems with GR (their nonchalance about rude comments and rude people) but really this is.... The worse deco ever.

☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: I don't have much faith admittedly. I mean I've always had problems with GR (their nonchalance about rude comments and rude people) but really this is.... The worse deco ever. "

I wish they would address or at least comment on peoples concerns. It's more than fuzzy/broken lettering, which I think they can fix on their end. It's the new fonts, colors, etc. that are creating headaches from eyestrain that should be acknowledged in some way by the staff. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I haven't seen a thing.

Susan wrote: "☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: I don't have much faith admittedly. I mean I've always had problems with GR (their nonchalance about rude comments and rude people) but really this is.... The wo..."

Yeah with everyone, young and old, commenting on eyestrain and headaches, I mean their messing up people's eyesight here.

Dianna wrote: "I love the new fonts and the way you've made my book titles stand out on my author dashboard. Great! I'm confused by those who claim it's harder to read. I think it's far easier to read on my iPad."

That's nice, dear. Sadly, unless we are all being miraculously gifted with an ipad this year, you are the exception, not the rule.

As it stands, I cannot afford an ipad.

Constantine wrote: "It's definately better! Fresh colors, readable font, simple and clean. Don't know why u haters hate... (actually we all know why)"

Why?? I'd like to know...

Erma, you're killing me!! lol

Susan wrote: "Erma, you're killing me!! lol"

Though she is right. How can anyone actually LIKE this?!

☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "Susan wrote: "Erma, you're killing me!! lol"

Though she is right. How can anyone actually LIKE this?!"

Yep. My friends who use ipads are also having issues.

Susan wrote: "☯ DαякєηRнαℓ ❛ ᴰᵃʳᵏ ᴴᵘᶰᵗᵉʳ ❜ wrote: "Susan wrote: "Erma, you're killing me!! lol"

Though she is right. How can anyone actually LIKE this?!"

Yep. My friends who use ipads are also having issues."

Everyone is having issues. I don't know why GR feels it needs to... What's the word now... Commercialize itself. It doesn't. I have always loved the old feel and features and style. The square pics and profile icons and then the more rounded edged group search bar and such. I resay GR is like an antique book. A much beloved antique book and shouldn't try to make itself pretty. Other social websites can do that. GR just needs to focus on the quality of its features and books. That's all. There is no reason for a makeover -.-

You know I never did like the notification bar change up but I learned to live with it (last makeover) but if GR doesn't hear the hundreds of complaints, then I dunno.

Bug (at least for me on Google Chrome) - my profile says I was last active in November 2015. Ahem... it's December and I'm here, so uh...

Bug (again, Google Chrome) - I can no longer add books/authors to my reviews. I can click "add" next to the selection, but nothing happens. No links are inserted.

Other dislikes: still getting a headache from the font, don't love the the font is strangely large in places, and strangely teeny tiny in others, don't love that the stars are TWO different colors (an orange and a gold), I find the blue link colors really difficult to distinguish... the list goes on and on.

I know sometimes change is hard (I really get it - I redesigned my work's website and you would not believe the hate), but really, I think with 2700+ comments and counting, it would be great if maybe some changes were adopted or a compromise had.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work on the redesign - I know a lot of hours must have gone into the website. I do love the way the site looks on my mobile, but, unfortunately, I'm mostly a laptop user (as it's far easier to type in reviews and filter/sort other reviews to read).

I think the main problem people are having is the font

Dawn wrote: "Heidi wrote: "THIS. Why assume that everyone is using a tablet? "

Or Windows 8. (or, I suppose, any later edition with touch screens and the like. Awful lot of us holding onto Windows 7, you know)"

I got Windows 10 on my borrowed lappy (Dell Inspiron with Pentium Core), and the sheer white is just too much. It seems that those with Apple products are happiest with the change.

Sorry, I don't have that kind of money to dump into electronics, and I'd wager there are other broke-folk out there having the same issues. So, unless Amazon is gifting us all this year (at which point I will cease fussing) with ipads or some such, something needs done to make this change functional for all of us (or at least the vast majority).

Angela wrote: "I finally installed Stylish (on Chrome) with the "Goodreads fix" and that's LOADS better."

Thanks for this tip. It's not perfect but it helps a lot.

Samantha wrote: "My biggest complaint is with the "Merriweather" serif font.

I usually like serif fonts, but this is hard on the eyes. Look at the "f" and the "t", the top of the staff all but vanishes. The hook on the "i" does something similar. Compare those to the sharp lines of the "l".

The changes in line thickness don't display properly, causing a 'faded typewriter' appearance. It's even worse when italicized. You can see this in some of the numbers, too. ( "5", "6", vs. "7").

This might be what's giving people so many headaches, especially in contrast to the even weight of the "Lato" font. "

Thank you, yes, repeating this because it is IMPORTANT.

Staff needs to read this. Are they reading this blog anymore or are they all gone?

Is there a POINT to all these changes? ARGHHH! Why playing with the layout? FIX THE REAL BUGS!

It looks like GR is still changing things around as we speak, tho people here have asked more than 100 times already to maybe do a survey first.
Going for a quick "fix" just create an appearance of doing something is going to run GR into the gutter. One of these days - permanently.

Good grief, why is the font so tiny in our private messages now? I just had a new one and could barely see the letters. They are about half the size of these in the comment boxes. Ridiculous!

"Did you notice something a little different?" YES, VERY little (type size), unreadable in fact.

Suvi wrote: "Goodreads changes the design and then suggests how users can fix it. Doesn't make any sense. ."

Because the redesign is for mobile users. Others can stuff it.

Sebastian wrote: "Other websites that have webfonts enabled (e.g. Boing Boing! - also using a free font, Libre Baskerville) do not show up all choppy and with missing Unicode characters that default to system fonts or blank squares. They are nice and legible, because they use proper fonts that antialias nicely and have proper Unicode support."

Are you saying GR does not have webfonts enabled? If not, why not? Because another person said earlier in the thread that the reason the page jiggles and shows one font before the final font gels, is that the new font is being loaded from the web. The jiggle thing is still happening.

Heidi wrote: "The sans-serif font is fine. The serif font, on the other hand, which was supposedly "designed to be pleasant to read on screens", is TERRIBLE. Of the many websites I go to regularly, it's the wors..."

YES. This is exactly what I've been saying.

Has anyone else tried to write a review and found that the preview option is missing with the new layout?

Aisling Zena wrote: "Has anyone else tried to write a review and found that the preview option is missing with the new layout?"

Been that way before the change.