Heads up - we're about to introduce a wee (it's really not that big) site update...

[JustineMumsnet]

Morning folks,

As some of you pointed out at the time, the new navigation bar we introduced a little while back on the desktop site sits a little uncomfortably with what goes underneath it, design-wise.

So today we're introducing a little refresh of the rest of Talk. This update is also a bit closer to the mobile version, which it currently clashes with, so those who frequently switch from desktop to mobile will get a less variable experience.

If you use Mumsnet solely on mobile or tablet: as you were! Nothing’s going to change for you.

For desktop users, the functionality is unchanged (except for the addition of a threads I'm on button on the left hand side) but the fonts will look a little different.

We realise that any change can be difficult (and not necessarily welcome!) but please do give it a few days, as very often, we find, things like this just take a little getting used to and soon enough you've moved on and won't remember the difference.

As ever, we’re really keen to have your feedback, though, so do post below with your thoughts (we’re confident that you will ). Also, if anyone fancies getting involved in the testing of this kind of stuff, do shout, we're always looking for volunteers.

We’ll switch everything over in the next hour or so - let us know what you think! We’ll keep this thread stickied in Site Stuff and Active Conversations throughout at the day.

Justine

Going against the grain here, I honestly don't have a problem with it and I'm an old gimmer

I've posted on a couple of threads this morning, read some etc and only remembered it had changed when I looked at TIO. so I'm already used to it.

I'm on a laptop if that makes any difference.

The rending of garments is ridiculous.

So predictable that posters are prepared to flounce over any minor change. MN will live without you.

I'm sure they will. But if you RTFT you will surely understand that it isn't a matter of aesthetics, but actual readability that is the issue. Isn't it the idea that the site should be as accessible to all as is humanly possible?

It's an eyesight problem and your very lucky if it's okay for you.

it's the white background that's causing me the most issues I think - I can't read long posts without feeling headachey and ill, but for eg, Justine's OP with a blue background isn't too bad.

It's slightly easier with my glasses rather than with contacts (short sighted and astigmatism in both eyes corrected with glasses but not with contacts; also in need of reading glasses but trialling monovision lenses - there does seem to be a lot of astigmatism amongst those who find this new font difficult to read); and also on my phone (desktop version on Safari).

But I've had to give up on loads of threads already this morning as I can't read the longer posts. Which is making me .

I take it Arpege isn't VI.

I had to leave yesterday as my head and eyes were hurting so much. I was hoping things might improve today
They haven't
I agree that aesthetically, things look lovely (although not sure why the fonts are different on different bits of the site)
BUT it is sooo difficult to read. I think it is the amount of white space around that makes it hard - especially the big gaps between paragraphs. Trying to read at speed makes the words go blurry and move around.
I do need glasses, but always use them for the PC, and have never had a problem with any other site.
I am using a PC with IE - it's how I MN. My phone is not big enough to read anything on.

Genuinely I don't understand posters saying about the white background. It's always been white and that bit honestly doesn't appear to be any different to me.
Am I missing something?

It's the combination of faint type on white background for me.

I also have an ad blocker so all the areas where there would be colourful ads are white too. But I guess that's my fault. Sea of white v ads-it's a toughie.

I know the background has always been white, but somehow this new font is making the white appear more glarey. I'm short sighted and have always been fine reading the site on a tablet without glasses. Now I feel like I need reading glasses or something.

PPs are absolutely correct, it's very different depending on how you are viewing. Most of the time I use Chrome on my tablet, which is no incredibly hard to read. It's tiny and squished together and makes my head ache. Today I'm using IE on a desktop and it's fine.

I'm not going to get used to this font because when I click over to mumsnet, I groan and click away. I find it very hard to read, all the words squish into each other and I can't just read for fun anymore. :(

Clearly MNHQ wanted to make thing easier for themselves by using a uniform font across tablets, phones, laptops, desktops etc. They chose Roboto which is the Google one used on Android devices. That all makes sense in theory.

However, in pratice it is a disaster because there is no other discussion site, blog or newspaper site that has a site which makes it so hard to read text on so many devices and browsers. It is spidery, it is blurry, it is jarring, it is uncomfortanle and practically unusable for long periods of time or for large amounts of text.

Eventually, someone will understand that people aren't making this up and try to read MN on devices like everyone is talking about and see what the problem is.

Morning everyone, and thanks to all of you who've posted.

Right then: clearly many of you are finding this less than optimal. We're going to have a look at a couple of other possibilities today, which we'll show to you for feedback.

Hope this helps, and thanks again

Thanks SarahMN - could you possibly, pleaseandthanks, return TIO to its previous state in the interim? It's truly unbearable at the moment :(

Thumb's right, Sarah - I have to lean right in towards the screen to have any hope of making out the text, in my TIO - and that's wearing the glasses the optician made me for using when I am on the PC!! It's better on the iPad, but on the PC, it is unreadable.

Oh FGS Arpege. I'm not flouncing. I'm just not hanging about so much today because it's annoying to try and read. Is that so hard to understand?

Hopefully the powers that be might do something about it if we all moan enough, and then I can come back and impart my great insights once more...

I've just carried out a leetle experiment on my laptop.

I am normally on Chrome (and don't particularly mind it). I've just gone on through the new Win10 Edge browser. It's different. The type appears slightly larger and darker than on Chrome.

Tiggy I'm one who can read it on here comfortably but I did have a big eye op a while back, maybe that's made a difference

Hello Thumbwitchesabroad and SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius TIO being tiny sounds like it might be a bug. Would you mind taking a screenshot so we can see what you're seeing?

So predictable that posters are prepared to flounce over any minor change

That's really insulting to people who cant read the threads now without getting eyestrain and/or headaches...hardly a minor change! Or do you think just because its fine for you everyone else is just exaggerating?

Screen shot on the PC? What now?

OK, will do.

Having said that no other newspaper sites make it so hard to read text, I think I am wrong. I just clicked on a link to a newspaper article on another thread and it looks like they may be using the same font. I hope we don't start seeing this problem everywhere on the internet.

www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/14347492.Pizza_Hut_boss_calls_New_Hope_to_apologise_after_Worcester_restaurant_refused_booking/?ref=fbshr

Yeah, the new font is hard to read.

I don't like the design - it's like Edge, which I hate, but have to use on my laptop. I'm not going to flounce over it, but the font! Argh! If the longer posts have become too hard to bother eading, then it's doing us all a grave disservice.

Thanks for letting us know, it doesn't affect me as I almost exclusively use the mobile or the tablet.

Thank you Sarah.

I was just going to post that I find the new font very faint and narrow.

I've been on here about 20 minutes but I feel like I've got motion sickness.

I do wear glasses but I had no issues before.