Feedback on (permanent) site redesign

So a few people have said they like this design better than the usual one. Frankly, me too. My thought is that if people seem in favor, I will change the banner to one that says Snarkfest (in the same 17th C type) and remove the explicit Halloween references, but otherwise keep it as-is. I will change the banner over tonight so you can see what it looks like, but it will be pretty similar, just maybe a bit smaller.

Leave comments below about specific things you do/do not want modified from the Halloween design.

I like the idea of spicing up the normal appearance of the site, but most of the changes made today are hard on my eyes. It's overall brighter, but the contrast is lower, so it's harder to read. Which could be a function of the font size and easily fixed, but the pale blue boxes against the white background are so pale they don't stand out enough to really serve as a way to break up blocks of text, but are just dark enough that they're a distraction.

Er, they're gray, Laddical. But yeah, don't take it as absolutely VERBATIM like you see here, I can tweak sizes, fonts, etc. I'm a little baffled what you mean by lower contrast, because it's hard to beat black & white.

I also find the font difficult to read. I'm fine with the graphics, but my eyes much prefer the old font.

I prefer the usual look.

I like the way the comments in the threads look with the new design; the black and white feels cleaner. But I prefer the old look for the home page, with all the subforums. The halloween design has them all huge and aligned weirdly, at least on my browser.

particle_person wrote:Er, they're gray, Laddical. But yeah, don't take it as absolutely VERBATIM like you see here, I can tweak sizes, fonts, etc. I'm a little baffled what you mean by lower contrast, because it's hard to beat black & white.

I guess I mean the contrast in the grays then. The gray boxes separating posts look weird to me. They're there... but they're not there. The grays are present enough to be noticeable, but don't stand out enough against the white. Whatever the terminology is - or the color, because I'm looking at a box to the right of this frame that looks blue-ish to me, but I guess it could just be gray - the site is not playing well with my eyes. Everything looks washed out, like someone standing under theater or TV lighting who forgot to put on make-up.

I prefer the old site, too. This one is harder to read and most of the graphics aren't showing up due to my work blocking pretty much everything. The other design I can at least keep up with.

mrinsouciance wrote:I prefer the usual look.

Agreed.

dinahmoe wrote:

mrinsouciance wrote:I prefer the usual look.

Agreed.

Me three.

mokey75 wrote:

dinahmoe wrote:

mrinsouciance wrote:I prefer the usual look.

Agreed.

Me three.

I'd hope there was an option to switch back to the usual font if we keep it - I find this font harder to read than the usual sans-serif font. Fun for a day, but it kind of hurts my eyes when reading for a while.

Maxell, it's not your work, it's that the graphics are too big. (They are all saved on forumotion, so if you can see the regular, you should see them too.)

Fonts can be changed. I think if people ultimately vote yes, I would go through the same tweaking procedure as when I first set up the forum, fiddling with size and serifs, etc. Let me put up a "first draft" version tomorrow with modified fonts etc. and see if people change their mind.

Also there are other things I can do to improve the separation between posts, for instance.

I'm in the "this is hurting my eyes" camp.

Yeah, so far doesn't look like it's even worth me playing with the banner.

Okay, I'm declaring this an official thumbs-down, so we're reverting to normal now.