Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

Emily wrote: "Spinster wrote: "Overall I like the change in general, it does make the site look a bit more fresh and modern so great job there, but I do have to complain about the font like many others. It's bro..."

especially around the reviews, in my opinion. when you click on a specific one

I don't think this font works well to improve the site. There are many comments of people complaining of getting headaches or straining their eyes trying to read this new font, and I doubt that is what the update was meant for. I hope that the Staff at Goodreads are taking this into account. I would hope they are not trying to cause eyestrain and headaches upon their members who love the website so much. Please, please change the font, if not back to the old one then to a better one than this.

Emily May wrote: "But PLEASE give the borders and headings back. I think it looks awful. If I came onto the site for the first time, I would think it wasn't displaying correctly :("

Exactly what I said. It feels like there's no separation between sections, it's confusing.

I, too, am having trouble reading this font as it seems to be missing parts of the letters. For instance, in this comment, all of the 't's are missing the cross part. It is too light-weight for easy reading.

i am actually getting a headache too from reading the font. just no.

The color scheme is nice, but the font is blurry and a bit on the small side. Can you do something about that?

Emily May wrote: "I think the new colours are fine. The font, while ugly, I will probably get used to. But PLEASE give the borders and headings back. I think it looks awful. If I came onto the site for the first tim..."

Yes on the borders. I don't like how everything just floats around without any anchor at all.

No issues here.

My eyes hurt and I'm getting dizzy.

i can't read 90% of the text anymore

meh. I liked the it other way.

Just when I was getting back into the whole reviewing thing again you make the horrible font look even worse than before. My headache is coming in strong.

New font very difficult to read. Did you guys even test this out?
f's lack top curve
t's lack crossbars

Thin and blurry to me

I love the font in some aspects but it hurts my eyes i'm not a teenager to be able to read everything like I used to, I have to get bigger font for my books so it don't hurt my eyes. I understand the need to change and keep everyone's interest at peak but you could do a bit better in choosing fonts for those with bad eye sights including myself.

Future reference find a font every age can use including the style. Now the design is amazing of how it is set up it is much help but we need either the old style or new font not both it's to much.

I have super mixed feelings. I like it... but at the same time, I really don't. I'm glad GR is finally trying to make some changes, but I feel like we're going backwards instead of forward.

Oh my, so much hate! Ah, the power of changes to sites.

I love it but perhaps one day we should give users an option when it comes to choosing their own fonts/size/format/colours because not everyone can manage to read the same things.

(Well, if that were possible to manage.)

Being older and someone who wears glasses, the blue is an awful choice. Makes it more difficult to read! Please change it back!

It will take some getting used to. I think it's wonderful you're moving in the direction of streamlining, making things less cluttered, and trying to find new ways to present the site. I love the new color palette, but as much as I hate to admit it, I'm also not a fan of the new font. While I'm not having the issues others mentioned about disappearing letter elements, Merriweather just isn't all that pleasant to read.

hate it... change it back... it hurts my already bad vision..

Oh, thank you? Goodreads,: now I need to increase the zoom when I'm here... Hell! Why the web design new wave supposes that all the people has a 20/20 sight?

The new font used for the names heading every user's page and books titles look lightly blurry. And in a title list the font size used for books titles is disproportionately large.

Furthermore, that font normal size is blurry.

Definitely, the changes are anything but friendly.

So, it's simple, I don't plan to write any review nor to enter this Site until this horrible look be discarded, if it isnt discarded... bye bye Goodreads

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."

I agree. It doesn't work on the screen. Please return to the previous version.

I love it!

I absolutely *loathe* round avatars. Square peg, round hole syndrome. It cuts off my avatar design. Don't be Google. Please return it to the square.

Otherwise I like the new look.

ETA: I've cruised around for a bit now and I have to agree the font is definitely too tiny.

Nesrin wrote: "Emily wrote: "... Nesrin wrote: "Maybe it's Chrome, but the font looks broken on GR now!
The Lato font is okay it seems, but the main font, Merriweather, is BS!"

What do you mean by "broken?" Woul..."

What browser are you using? This screenshot is very helpful!


Emily May wrote: "Emily wrote: "Spinster wrote: "Overall I like the change in general, it does make the site look a bit more fresh and modern so great job there, but I do have to complain about the font like many ot..."

Thank you! We'll look at those more closely today.

Yikes...if this was an attempt the make the site EASIER to read, I have to say...you done failed at it. It's a neat little font, I'm not criticizing the creator...but wow...at this size, it is near impossible to comfortably read.
I use this website daily, not just for my personal reading lists...but professionally, throughout my workday, as well (librarian!) And I can tell ya...I'm not liking the change. I can't use this as a work tool if I can't easily and quickly access the information I need. I'm not really sure I can agree that a change needed to be made in the first place...Goodreads was awesome as it was. Did you maybe make a change for the sake of change, rather than because there was an actual need for it?

Jessica wrote: "Oh my, so much hate! Ah, the power of changes to sites.

I love it but perhaps one day we should give users an option when it comes to choosing their own fonts/size/format/colours because not ever..."

For example, I can't read certain fonts well and have to zoom in. I also cannot read red on white (even if it's a deep red, nearly black, it makes my eyes hurt SO much) and for many people the colour combos used here are a strain for them.

Personally, I like it. But to each their own! I do think they should have a way to keep it the old way like they do with Yahoo and stuff. That way people who don't like it can stop hating it and change it back.

Emily May's screenshot @267 is much more readable than anything I can see in Firefox on my Windows 8.1 laptop. Is there anything else we need to install to make it render correctly?

I... I can't read thsgu. I can'y ready waht Im typing. Someon eHelp.

it's a sort of eye stabing color

Less than five hundred posts since this went up an hour ago, and a good dozen or so are positive. Looks like a keeper to me.

The only thing I would request is making the font a little bit bigger. This font size is a wee bit *too* small for comfortable reading. Either that or add a font size adjustment option for the site. I don't want to adjust my monitor settings across the board; I can read everything on all the other sites I visit without any issue.

Hugh wrote: "Emily May's screenshot @267 is much more readable than anything I can see in Firefox on my Windows 8.1 laptop. Is there anything else we need to install to make it render correctly?"

Nope - we are working on the font rendering issues. This is a bug on our side that we're fixing. Our apologies!

I really don't care... its not like your going from one extreme to another.....

I totally hate it. Hideous font, much harder to read.

Here's a couple of screenshots. The font is impossible to easily read for me - I'm using Chrome 100% zoom. I shouldn't have to zoom in more when I never did before. This hurts my eyes.


http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa...

The borders, especially around the reviews, need to come back. I'm sure they're missing in other places too, but this is where I noticed it most. It looks like it's floating around with nothing to define the space it should be in. Which means that there's just a bunch of empty white space...


http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa...

I'm usually cool with updates, but that font does seem fuzzy, missing pixels or something.

A Voracious Reader (a.k.a. Carol) wrote: "I absolutely *loathe* round avatars. Square peg, round hole syndrome. It cuts off my avatar design. Don't be Google. Please return it to the square.

Otherwise I like the new look."

OMG, I couldn't agree more!!

don't like at all

The font is nice...but I have to zoom a lot in order to read comfortably. I'm on Chrome.

ETA: Overall I like what I see. I'm ok with change I guess and it' s really not that drastic. It does feel a little "unfinished" ? (I know nothing about web design, but there seems to be a lot of white space.) I don't like that very much.

REALLY hard on the eyes. I don't notice anything that actually improves the experience, just change for change sake.

The new teal font for links doesn't go well with the rest of the colors at all, and it seems like the e's, the a's, and anything with little lines like f's and t's have parts missing depending on which page it is. It also looks like my profile info has been reduced in size on top of the box being taken away.

I didn't even think there were problems with the previous layout; that seems like the last thing on this site that needed work.

I liked the gradient backgrounds better. Now it looks too simplistic, as if this was an earlier prototype of Goodreads before it was updated. Also, having headers in between each section more clearly defined everything, now everything is just moshed together and gets lost.

No good. Where is the sense of hierarchy? This design just blends and there are no breaks where they are needed. I like the fonts, the clean colors, but the titles and sections are all blended in together and do not work.

Better readability? Um, sorry, but most of the font is getting eaten, and I can barely read stuff I type, not to mention that book titles just miss half of their letters and more.

Maybe an interesting font, but readable? Nope. Using the latest stable of Chrome.

Nope. Font is too small and I have difficulties reading. The colors are not helping either. Go back to the old layout. You're killing what's left of my eyesight.

The colours are fine. The font would be OK if it was a little bit bigger (at least on the homepage showing my timeline). However, the pages now take ages to fully load which is a bit annoying.

I don't know about anyone else, but on my screen (lenovo x60s, windows 8.1), the new fonts look way worse than the old ones. They're blurry, not smooth and crisp and sharp as they should be, and letters that usually are of the same height all look higgledy-piggledy and all over the place. The rendering is just wrong, so very wrong. I sincerely hope this is a temporary system hiccough and the font at some point will start to seem crisp and smooth, but right now it really does actually make my eyes hurt. (I do like the new bluish-green link colour, though; and the rounded user icon in the top bar. :) )

Really don't like the new fonts...they are harder to read.