Did You Notice Something a Little Different?

I do not like it at all and the reviews look strange too

"I liked the gradient backgrounds better. Now it looks too simplistic, as if this was an earlier prototype of Goodreads before it was updated." +1

I had the same feeling but didn't know how to put it but that's exactly it. It seems that this is an unfinished version with plain white backgroung.

Also, I find the color choice for the link very ugly, but compared to the blurry font, this is the least of the new layout problems...

BLURRY!!! The font is terrible, sorry GR. I have to make the page twice bigger on my monitor, so the letters won't be half transparent and some of them totally unreadable. Since you asked - yeah, I do mind this change.

And I haven't even checked the colours yet.

Oh no, I don't like it at all. I spend hours each day on goodreads on my iPad, but this will force me to take a detox. The writing is way too small, it's like the margins are gone from texts, and what's with the green?!

How is it "enhancing readability" when I have to squint to read it? I thought my eyes were failing. Nope, just GR messing about again.

Two key issues:

1. Removing the borders/colouring just makes everything float in a sea of white. Definition helps make things readable, not some weird attempt at minimalism; and

2. The new font is less easy to read and immediately more tiring on the eyes. This is not good for a site about reading.

I have a suspicion that other factors (coding simplicity? something to do with layout plans in the future? Something to do with our Amazon Overlords?) may have influenced the design - I simply cannot believe that someone would look at this on their computer and think it was a good idea.

awful

I find the new font VERY difficult to read. Hoping it won't stay!!

I don't like the font personally. it's fuzzy and hard to read.

I didn't mind the rest of the changes though

EDIT: Okay, so it's a bug. I mean, once certain letters start showing up properly I'll have no problem adjusting to the new font, but I can't say I'm a fan of the other changes in layout either--the new coloring, the lack of borders, the size, the rounded profile pic. Most of all I don't see what reason there was for this--I already really liked the site's design.

Love the serif font. That one is fine, though it does look blurry when bold.

Like the Sans-Serif but agree that it's too small in many places. Given that I usually rant about text sizes becoming too large on webpages, please understand how severe it must be for me to comment that something is too small!

Also, the brown background was way easier on the eyes. This bright white is giving me pain in my eyes.

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

Thank you

☾мiпx wrote: "PLS STOP GR THIS IS ATROCIOUS ily but im sry"

RIGHT ON

I suggest zooming in on your browser to about 120%, it makes me feel like a grandma but its almost as if its meant to be this way. It's a looot more readable and actually quite nice. So, until they fix it, which I'm sure they will, thats the way I'll go.

Wtf is wrong with the font

Adding my voice to those who find the new font difficult to read. I had to zoom in multiple times with it just to approach the readability of the old font and, as a result, am now seeing far less on the screen. This has made it harder to search through lists and shelves, rather than easier, and the font still feels inferior even when enlarged.

It's funny. To improve readability ... It is completely unreadable now. Something did not work out...

While I am still hoping that the Goodreads staff will listen to the multitude of requests for the website to change their fonts back, for those of you who are struggling with it (as I am) I want to share a few ways I've found that make it less straining on your eyes as a temporary solution.

I have found that dimming the screen on my computer has helped a lot. The font of the letters is not dark enough to stand out fully against a normally bright screen and with the background as a pure white now, it is one of the main reasons why the letters are blurred together, hard to make out and so on. It is no solution for the letters being easily confused with one another as that is the font itself, but dimming the screen down should help with some of the eyestrain and headaches this new font is causing. And as stated from some other members, zooming in on the screen to make the font bigger has also proven helpful.

I still hope that Goodreads will change the font, but in the meantime I hope that one of those two solutions I listed will help those who are suffering because of this font.

The change I dislike is when I update my reading status, I now have to "guess" what percentage of the book I have read. Previously, you plugged in a page number and it was calculated for you. I loved that feature.

Marc wrote: "Those on a PC, you can press CTRL + [the plus sign] and it will zoom in slightly. Keep pressing to zoom in more. CTRL + [the minus sign] will zoom out."

Thanks for that, Marc. That helps. Some.

Steven wrote: "Why are we changing how things look when there are simple functionality improvements we've all been asking for forever? "

This +1,000. What if GR takes all the manpower you seem to be devoting to aesthetic design and devote it to some of the improvements in this thread, starting with an updated search function?

Kimberley wrote: "I suggest zooming in on your browser to about 120%, it makes me feel like a grandma but its almost as if its meant to be this way. It's a looot more readable and actually quite nice. So, until they..."

I have to zoom to at least 125% to be remotely able to read GR...

Seriously, this font is so tiring for my eyes. After eight hours at work staring at a screen, I come home and find this. My head spins. This font may be OK for people that visit GR once a week, for me this is my go-to site ... half an hour today and I'm ready to bolt.
Guess it will have to be more reading books and less talking about them and reading about them. Put the font back please ..... or can we chose the layout/font we want? (killed my sight writing this comment)

Not happy at all about the changes. Difficult to read and the contrast only exacerbates the problems. I'm dreading what this is going to look like on my iPad.

I feel like I'm on facebook now. Was that the intent?

The whole notion of a "clean, white page" is absurd and just a tad racist in the underlying mentality that all things "white" are "clean" and what is not "white" is not "clean."

Amanda wrote: "The change I dislike is when I update my reading status, I now have to "guess" what percentage of the book I have read. Previously, you plugged in a page number and it was calculated for you. I lov..."

Simply click on the '%' and it should switch back to page, it's always been that way! :)

Stephen wrote: "Keep in mind guys, we aren't complaining because we don't like it, we are complaining because the text is literally broken on our screens. I'd take a screenshot, but I'm leaving my house right now..."

Exactly. I am very frustrated by the comments saying things like "wow, so much hate". I don't care for the aesthetic either way but the impact is on the functionality. It's so difficult for me to even ensure I've spelled this comment correctly as there are parts of the letters missing, such as the cross bar on the minuscule "t". We are objecting because it impacts our use of a great site, not because we enjoy griping about website updates in general.

I find it hard to read, please give us the option to reverse this change.

Don't like it, but interesting. Maybe having Beta runs before switching up the whole site, or having member votes?

Font hurts my eyes but the layout does look nice.

I like it, but the stars!!! They're meant to be red guys, please T_T

Sierra wrote: "Don't know what's wrong with you guys but my eyes work just fine and I don't see anything wrong with it, I can read it just fine. I think it looks nice :). Embrace the change, it happens everywhere..."

I'm glad you have great eyesight and this doesn't bother your eyes (seriously, I really am), but it DOES bother my eyes. To the point where I now have a headache after looking at this site since they released this this morning.

That doesn't make for an enjoyable time for me. Instead of "embracing" the change, I'll stop coming here as much. And that's probably not what GR is looking for with the change. There are a LOT of people that are complaining - not because of the change, but because the change does not work on our screens/browsers/computers. Whatever the issue is, it doesn't render right and we can't see the fonts properly at the correct size.

I want to be able to use the site just as enjoyable as you can. That's all I'm really asking for.

It wasn't broken, why did you fix it? It's harder to read now. Could we at least have an option for the old look?

Amanda wrote: "The change I dislike is when I update my reading status, I now have to "guess" what percentage of the book I have read. Previously, you plugged in a page number and it was calculated for you. I lov..."

Try clicking the "%" sign - you can toggle between pages and %.


Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "This +1,000. What if GR takes all the manpower you seem to be devoting to aesthetic design and devote it to some of the improvements in this thread, starting with an updated search function."

We are working on further updates!

Okay, this has nothing to do with fonts and colors and all that. Personally, I like the font and color changes. But I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the changes in the "Currently Reading" section. Instead of putting in my page number, it's telling me to put in a percentage. Is there a way I can change it back to the way it was before? I much prefer it that way; it's easier.

The font is terrible as viewed on my iPad. It's smaller, lighter, and much more difficult to read. The other format changes seem fine, but the font detracts from any positive changes.

Angela wrote: "Sierra wrote: "Don't know what's wrong with you guys but my eyes work just fine and I don't see anything wrong with it, I can read it just fine. I think it looks nice :). Embrace the change, it hap..."

Exactly. Sierra, I'm glad your eyes work just fine, but for many of us that's not the case. The priority has to be on ensuring the site is accessible to everyone. I simply won't be able to use the site as much now because of the eye strain and headaches. I've only typed a few comments out on this thread and already it's very difficult for me.

This TERRIBLE! it hurts the eyes! seriously revert to the old font!

I don't like it at all. It makes me want to come less on Goodreads for many reasons:

-I have A LOT more difficulties to read than before. It makes my eyes hurt, even if I'm only looking at my profile. Inever felt like that with the previous version.

-The different size of the book titles makes the website look ridiculous and not serious at all.

Please let us go back to the previous version! I don't want my experience on Goodreads to become horrible :(

This is me trying to read on Goodreads right now:



Also, my headache has gotten worse.

Looks fantastic to me! :) (Using Chrome, just fyi)

Linda wrote: "The font is terrible as viewed on my iPad. It's smaller, lighter, and much more difficult to read. The other format changes seem fine, but the font detracts from any positive changes."

Exactly my problem. Kind of ironic how they tried to make the font more readable, but it's far less readable. It's just annoying. Bring back the old font!

I love it.

I hate the font.
While everyone else is shooting for simpler fonts these days GR just makes it more difficult, go figure !

the new font is absolutely unreadable for me too...

These changes are horrible. I can barely read my screen; the font that is not blurry (and it is all blurry) looks like it has been put through a crappy pixel filter. We are readers, Goodreads... are you trying to blind us?

My eyes hurt so badly. Good Gods above. I miss the old one!

I think it's lovely, Goodreads Team. It's so silly how people can get so worked up over something like a simple layout change. My apologies on behalf of the crazy haters.

Emily wrote: "Steven wrote: "Why are we changing how things look when there are simple functionality improvements we've all been asking for forever?

So far, major dislike."

This is the first thing that we are..."

Seriously? Why weren't the functionality improvements the first thing on the list, rather than unrequested visual changes that have no bearing on features we actually asked for? Like advanced searches for one thing?

I've not complained about any of the changes through the past year or two, even when reviews and bookshelves were getting deleted willy-nilly. But honestly, do you know business at all? Focusing on LOOKS when it was fine before and ignoring FUNCTION is going to kill this website, because LOOKS are shallow. These "small-but-important changes" aren't small. The whole website has lost its homey feel and has become the stereotypical modern day blog look, completely unoriginal.

*sadness*

Erica wrote: "Okay, this has nothing to do with fonts and colors and all that. Personally, I like the font and color changes. But I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the changes in the "Currently Reading"..."

You can click on the % symbol and it should change to a page number. I too preferred it when the page number was the default and I would change to % if I were reading an ebook.

I'm actually having some issues with nausea because I'm having to strain so hard at focusing.

Thanks for reminding me that I'm not as young as I used to be anymore.