It seems to fail in so many different ways, especially readability. What ever possessed you. Trouble is you can't go back to the old design because you would look silly, so we're stuck with this cack.
Since I came online earlier this evening, the font colour was light grey, which everyone hated. Now it's darkened, which helps a bit. There are other minor amendments, too. The background colour has darkened slightly (not enough, imo), for instance.
It's almost midnight, so I suspect they will carry on addressing issues by making improvements tomorrow and next few days
They do need to address the accessibility issue ASAP, though, as it can't be good for those with sight impairments. How can a screen reader read text when there's a tabbed banner in the way, for instance?
I have to agree with others, I am having to keep going out of the forums as its giving me a headache, as I said earlier the layouts not too bad but please can we go back to the blues, it may have been the colour for a long time but its user friendly.
So other than the fact it's a ****-up the design is fine? What about the masses of vertical whitespace? WTF is that all about?
And the weird pop-up on the "more" smilies panel?
The white space would be sorted out by using the percentage formatting option as opposed to the fixed pixel width they currently use. The previous version used a percentage width, as it would reformat itself if you changed device, browser and/or screen resolution.
I haven't used the smilies panel yet so cannot comment on it.
This is crap. I hit a smiley and it took me out of my post to the white pop up I can't get to the end of a thread coz I can't see it. Right side gone. This is not an improvement it's 20 steps backward . Grey grey grey
Well it's been a resounding success for me, it turns out. I found it SO bad that I started looking at the available stylesheets in Opera and discovered one that's high contrast white font on black background.
So unprofessional to not only roll out a new look without finishing things first, but to then ignore hundreds and hundreds of messages from upset users who are being caused genuine discomfort from said new look.
I've rarely seen a more pathetic display from a management team in my life.
If I was the team responsible, I'd currently be holding a crisis meeting and saying "oh shit" a lot.
From what I can see it's failed on every measure of a site redesign:
Multi platform use in either desktop or mobile mode
Multi browser commonality
Ability to read whole post and see what you're writing
Aesthetic and visual impact
Accessibility for visually impaired
Eye comfort for anyone
Adequate functionality when using mobile version
They are clearly up to something because more and more things keep changing. The posts (at least on my computer screen) are now wider-there is less blank space either side and the stupid banner is taking up less room, although they seem set on having it follow you down the page.
You want more feedback? GIVE US BACK OUR SMILIES! I really don't know why you have changed them, the old ones were fine, you could have added the new ones in without altering the old ones. Please change them back, the old ones were much easier to differentiate between, these look mostly the same and some don't look like what they're meant to be at all (confused and mad being the worst).
1. The colours need tweaked. The dark grey text on light grey is better than it was on white, bit it is still a bit headache inducing and can be difficult to read.
I'm sure you're hearing this from loads of people but the new format is awful!
Most important problem IMO:
-Bright white background and colour contrasts - extremely hard on the eyes compared to your old site and eats battery life like nobody's business
Totally agree. Please sort the colours, I can live with the style change but the colours make it really hard to use comfortably. And white numbers on grey are all but unreadable.
Apologies, you're correct. We'll look into it as a matter of urgency in the morning.
We'll look into all of the feedback tomorrow and discuss what we can do.
To be honest, I wasn't that bothered about the changes until you removed the old emoticons, which were brilliant, distinctive and really helped make threads fun.
The white space would be sorted out by using the percentage formatting option as opposed to the fixed pixel width they currently use. The previous version used a percentage width, as it would reformat itself if you changed device, browser and/or screen resolution.
I haven't used the smilies panel yet so cannot comment on it.
If my 11 year old wasn't in bed, I'd ask him where they went wrong with the coding and stuff, but if you hang on 5 minutes, the dog might wake up and she is probably more upto speed than whoever did this abomination. I won't wink because I am not being ironic.
Using adblock edit out the digitalspy logo from the top left corner as if it were an advert. If it works the magnifying glass on the right hand side should jump to being in line with the Tech | Forums etc menus. This will reveal the breadcrumbs
Home > Forums > General Discussion Forums > General Discussion >
NB I use adblock (not adblockplus) on chrome so the method of editing may be different. What you should be able to see in your manual entries is something akin to this:
So the bright red obviously mad smilie has now been replaced by :mad:
In what brainless world does that look like anything?
And the old bright green big smile has been replaced with a bland
Hardly any difference between them. Bland smilies to go with the bland layout.
And nothing of what the members of this site want. But they don't give a flying ****!
This!
I wasn't sure about the extra emoticons, but the new ones aren't as colourful and expressive as the old ones. I miss the green grin and red mad. The rod-up-my-bum blue eek was my personal favourite, alongside the sleep similie for a wholeload of expressions such as 'meh'.
The new ones are yellow sick and bland. Lots of other forums use them, and I don't particularly care for them.
Comments
Since I came online earlier this evening, the font colour was light grey, which everyone hated. Now it's darkened, which helps a bit. There are other minor amendments, too. The background colour has darkened slightly (not enough, imo), for instance.
It's almost midnight, so I suspect they will carry on addressing issues by making improvements tomorrow and next few days
They do need to address the accessibility issue ASAP, though, as it can't be good for those with sight impairments. How can a screen reader read text when there's a tabbed banner in the way, for instance?
Hehe
The white space would be sorted out by using the percentage formatting option as opposed to the fixed pixel width they currently use. The previous version used a percentage width, as it would reformat itself if you changed device, browser and/or screen resolution.
I haven't used the smilies panel yet so cannot comment on it.
Judging by the look of this, I think they rely on a messenger pigeon, powered by a man with an ear-trumpet, pedalling an old exercise bike.
I'd have laughed this off the internet in 1997.
The top one looks like the sad face newspaper photos of an allergic reaction to hair dye
Must be some record.
Hurrah! Don't let DS become mocked around the world as Digital Snowblindness. You're rotting eyes here!
C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera\styles\user\contrastwb.css
Copy that somewhere else and add an extra line to it -
body {font-size:120% !important;
}
then set it as the forum's stylesheet. I now have black background with largish font in white. It's better than the original.
You want more feedback? GIVE US BACK OUR SMILIES! I really don't know why you have changed them, the old ones were fine, you could have added the new ones in without altering the old ones. Please change them back, the old ones were much easier to differentiate between, these look mostly the same and some don't look like what they're meant to be at all (confused and mad being the worst). I doubt they will give them back to us.
Totally agree. Please sort the colours, I can live with the style change but the colours make it really hard to use comfortably. And white numbers on grey are all but unreadable.
To be honest, I wasn't that bothered about the changes until you removed the old emoticons, which were brilliant, distinctive and really helped make threads fun.
This is the mark > -
You overstepped it.
I know what you can do now : reset to how it used to be.
Do any changes in a proper beta testing across the ranges of browsers and devices and only inflict it on us again when it is fit for purpose ?
If my 11 year old wasn't in bed, I'd ask him where they went wrong with the coding and stuff, but if you hang on 5 minutes, the dog might wake up and she is probably more upto speed than whoever did this abomination. I won't wink because I am not being ironic.
Dont forget the tins with the piece of string attached.
Mine keeps switching back.
Edit: found it
Using adblock edit out the digitalspy logo from the top left corner as if it were an advert. If it works the magnifying glass on the right hand side should jump to being in line with the Tech | Forums etc menus. This will reveal the breadcrumbs
Home > Forums > General Discussion Forums > General Discussion >
NB I use adblock (not adblockplus) on chrome so the method of editing may be different. What you should be able to see in your manual entries is something akin to this:
forums.digitalspy.co.uk##A[href="http://www.digitalspy.co.uk"]
I haven't visited AVForums in a while, but by god that is disgusting. It looks like a spam website, used to fill in an unregistered domain name.
This!
I wasn't sure about the extra emoticons, but the new ones aren't as colourful and expressive as the old ones. I miss the green grin and red mad. The rod-up-my-bum blue eek was my personal favourite, alongside the sleep similie for a wholeload of expressions such as 'meh'.
The new ones are yellow sick and bland. Lots of other forums use them, and I don't particularly care for them.
Oh god! I miss the Green smilie!