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My name is Stéphane and I'm a designer at Stack Exchange, you may have noticed some updates to the design lately.

The updates are part of a SE network-wide update which allows us to:

  • Have sharper / more beautiful design on high definition displays
  • Fix old layout bugs
  • to fix any layout bugs more easily (and faster)
  • More easily add new features to all of our sites in the future

If you see any bugs please let us know.

Thanks!

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for this update, I really like the new design. $\endgroup$
    – Surb
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:08
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    $\begingroup$ Ugh! That's horrible. :( I don't like change! $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:09
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila It's probably just a matter of getting used :). $\endgroup$
    – Surb
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:10
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    $\begingroup$ @Surb: Yes, probably. Still pretty horrible. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:11
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila I completely agree. This change is horrible. Also, the blue bounty indicators are really annoying me. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:18
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    $\begingroup$ If it ain't broke, don't fix it. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:20
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila Do not worry, I will provide you with more cheese that you can place at your sole discretion, which shall never be moved by anyone other than you :P (Please give it a bit of time, and then come back with any specific things that still really stick out at you). I know you don't like change, but please allow a bit of time to acclimate, and let us know what still bothers you. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Post
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:24
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    $\begingroup$ General note to all Feedback is good, we love it, we need it, but we need it in the form of answers that illustrate one particular thing at a time that you find suboptimal with a constructive note as to why :) We understand 'horrible', but that's kind of broad and difficult to process. Thanks for bearing with us :) $\endgroup$
    – Tim Post
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Tim: For starters that this is something which just appears. Some warning would have been nice to have. E.g. in the form of a meta announcement that there will be an upcoming change in a day or two. I came to meta to report a bug in the CSS and found an announcement that a change had been made. Maybe I would have felt less visually offended if I'd know it's coming. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:29
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila Fair and valid point, duly noted and taken. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Post
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:31
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    $\begingroup$ (-1) The choice of new font face is horrible. it is much thinner than before. Instead of much sharper image as what one naively think, it make it one much harder to read (especially for those with poor eyesight). $\endgroup$
    – achille hui
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:57
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    $\begingroup$ @achillehui, could you make your comment an answer? $\endgroup$
    – Antonio Vargas
    Mar 26, 2015 at 15:23
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    $\begingroup$ Wow - I'm amazed at all the detailed and specific criticisms. Thank you for your work on the site. What I really think these criticisms indicate is that people have come to really like the iconic feel of the site, which is entirely due to you (and the others involved in the design process). Thank you! $\endgroup$
    – davidlowryduda Mod
    Mar 27, 2015 at 5:46
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    $\begingroup$ I have to say, I dislike the changes in general. The text is smaller and lighter and this makes reading the site a lot more straining to my eyes. It also just seems a lot less aesthetically pleasing to me. Then again, I always dislike change. $\endgroup$
    – Seth
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:41
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    $\begingroup$ Can we have all of the soft gray changed to black and perhaps the font slightly thicker(and darker if possible, it may be the thickness), since the text hurts my eyes now, and unless I suddenly need glasses, this seems to be due to the update. $\endgroup$
    – user142198
    Mar 28, 2015 at 22:58

33 Answers 33

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  1. It's impossible to click "edit tags" if the element causes a line break. Moving from downwards will let it disappear again. enter image description here

  2. A very related issue is with the same question, the editing box shows only two tags: enter image description here
    To see this layout bug, try to edit the first revision. If the box showed half of another tag, it would be more obvious, that these are not the only tags: enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ I think both have nothing to do with the new layout (or at least it is tangential to it). In any case I was aware of both general phenomena since a long time; it's the same on other sites (MO and MESE). $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Mar 27, 2015 at 15:47
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Per Tim Post's comment about providing feedback "in the form of answers that illustrate one particular thing at a time that you find suboptimal":

I really do not like the blue bounty indicators. I find them to be literally suboptimal compared to the previous red bounty indicators.

Elaboration: What is generally the main reason that people give to explain a bounty? It's to $\color{red}{\mathbf{\text{draw attention}}}$ to a question. People give up their "precious reputation points" to draw attention to a question or other questions of interest to the bounty giver. To $\color{#08F}{\mathbf{\text{draw attention}}}$ with the blue color does not seem as effective. In terms of red being "aggressive" in the context of a bounty--it's meant to be aggressive in the sense of "STOP! Look and read." The red is much more vibrant, as it should be in the case of bounties where users are effectively "paying with reputation" for more aggressive attention-calling to questions.

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    $\begingroup$ I downvote as I consider it as an improvement. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ @quid To each his own, but I think there is a reason people almost exclusively use the red color in answers to provide clarity (with other colors after having already used red)--in my opinion, red stands out much more than blue just in terms of optics. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:44
  • $\begingroup$ I do not feel like discussing this a lot; I only commented as I thought the purpose of the dv might not be clear. (I disagree in several ways though.) $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 13:48
  • $\begingroup$ @crash Not sure about you, but I usually use maroon (because it's less aggressive and more readable than plain red) and blue, then green. The blue bounty icon however, doesn't bother me, since it's always in the same place I feel no need for it to be colored in an outstanding way. $\endgroup$
    – AlexR
    Mar 26, 2015 at 14:06
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    $\begingroup$ @G-man: Possible duplicate of I think I'm the target of a rude joke in chat. $\endgroup$
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Mar 26, 2015 at 14:25
  • $\begingroup$ @HenningMakholm Oh okay that clears it up, I'll just delete that comment. $\endgroup$
    – najayaz
    Mar 26, 2015 at 14:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Henning: Assuming G-man commented about the link in crash's profile, it is much trickier because the URL is hidden. $\endgroup$
    – Jonas Meyer
    Mar 26, 2015 at 14:44
  • $\begingroup$ @Jonas: Yes, that was the original comment. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 26, 2015 at 18:13
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexR Please see my modified question; maybe it will clear things up. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 26, 2015 at 19:21
  • $\begingroup$ @G-man You're not as special as you think ;) Shhhh. You guys are giving away the fun of it :( [For anyone interested, Henning Makholm was right, but I used the Google URL shortener to prevent users from seeing the direct source] $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 26, 2015 at 19:23
  • $\begingroup$ @crash I understand your point, but I disagree. The incentive for answering bounty questions is the awarded rep (simplified), not the red icon next to the question. $\endgroup$
    – AlexR
    Mar 26, 2015 at 19:25
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    $\begingroup$ @crash Yes. Peeking at the vote count, this one seems particularly controversial ;) $\endgroup$
    – AlexR
    Mar 26, 2015 at 19:30
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    $\begingroup$ Maybe exchanging the blue of bounties and the orange of meta could be a solution,. $\endgroup$
    – Surb
    Mar 27, 2015 at 0:12
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    $\begingroup$ Blue always gets my attention. :) $\endgroup$
    – Blue
    Mar 27, 2015 at 11:29
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    $\begingroup$ @Blue Fair point. Probably even more so when there's a little "@" in front of it eh? ;) $\endgroup$
    – Daniel W. Farlow
    Mar 27, 2015 at 17:39
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When picking a suggested duplicate with many answers, there is no separation between the answers in the duplicate selection dialog.

On the main site, where answers can be longer, this is even more confusing, since the score does not appear so close to the top, so it's even harder to say where one answer ends and another begins.

enter image description here

The problem is when there are many long answers, and you want to quickly scan through them and see if you can find some relevant keywords. Since the line stretches through the entire dialog, you can just scan the left and middle parts of the dialog.

Currently in order to find out when an answer ends and a new one begins you have to move your eyes constantly and look for the user symbol and whatnot. This means that the focus shifts all over the dialog, instead of being focused at one area, and that's tiresome and distracting.

So please bring back that separator line! It was helpful!

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    $\begingroup$ Ugh, fine, I'll post a screenshot. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 29, 2015 at 19:28
  • $\begingroup$ I did not dv but the visual separation with the block for the user-info and the acompanying withe space seems good enough to me. Even more so as which info is in which answer is not even that relevant at that point. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Mar 29, 2015 at 19:59
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, but if you roll down quickly, to review the answers and see if one of them matches the one you want to close, you might skip this and it means that you can't just scan real quickly and look for sharp visual cues around the area where the text is, you have to focus on two opposite sides of the dialog. This is just bad design. I agree it would have been fine if the site were in Hebrew, and the text was reversed. But it's not in Hebrew. So it's not as fine. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 29, 2015 at 20:05
  • $\begingroup$ I cannot really follow. But since I would not mind having a line, and you think it will help you. So there, I endorse your proposal. (With you update I also understand the point better; this was why I added the "whitespace" as the issue that it is on the wrong side occured to me too.) $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Mar 29, 2015 at 20:07
  • $\begingroup$ quid, I've also added (and a bit expanded) this reason to my post, to help and sell this point to other people too. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 29, 2015 at 20:13
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