A New Look for the Newsletter

I have experimented a bit with style sheets and have given the newsletter's web pages a "new look." I think I like it better than the old one but would appreciate feedback. What is your opinion of the new look versus the old? Thanks!

Comments

[Nan]

The old look was fine, but the new is really classy!

[theKiwi]

I like it more than the olde version - if for no other reason than that the content starts higher up the page - it doesn't seem to be as far down the page as it used to be by that big bright header.

The colours are also a bit less garish - they look less like a page for ATT/Cingular.

Cheers

Roger

[Daniel Vincent]

I like the new look a lot better.

[Richard Bourcier]

I love the new look. It has a "vintage" feel, the way a genealogy site should look. It reminds me of a sepia photo.

[Sandra C. Tye]

I much prefer the "look-before-last", the one with all the blues and greens in it. Those are soothing colors, but the bright orange hurt my eyes. This is better, and I too like the smaller top banner, but the background yellow mustard color doesn't contrast with the type enough... It is harder to read. Perhaps lighten it by one-half, at least?

[Roe Linzee]

I like the new one much better. I agree that the orange was hard on the eyes.

[Russ]

Excellent. Great change. Thank you.

[Diane]

Much much easier to read on a BlackBerry -- thank you!

[Neal Carrier]

Nice, seems to load faster than the old one did.

1 vote for change.

[Jeanne Wall]

I really like the change - time well spent! Thanks

[Louis Kessler]

I like the overall look much better.

You might just want to tweak your header section at the top of each page. The quill and the ink mark is a really nice distintive feature that makes your look unique and memorable. But the ink bottle looks amateurish. You need a better graphic for that, and do you really want your site "logo" to be an ink bottle? The quill is nicer.

Plus the top section is a bit scrambled with all those words. Get a designer to take the top part and do something nice with it. Maybe the designer might get a nice logo to use, integrated with your EOGN title, instead of writing out EOGN as plain text. The quill isn't a bad logo if it's done correctly.

But stick with it. Overall it's a really nice look.

[Ruth Stephens]

Looks nice! I like!

[Carole Riley]

Much easier on the eyes, thank you!

[Debi]

Looks great! It's a keeper!

[Margaret Harris]

It's nice to have a change; I'm not sure this one is a keeper, though. I personally preferred the previous format.

[Michael John Neill]

I definitely like the change!

[Sue Wilson]

I like this better. The colors are better on the eyes. And you don't have to scroll down to begin reading the message.

[Gary Harwood]

Thank God the orange is gone. I love the new look. Real class.

[Bonnie Elsten]

I was never a fan of the bright orange. This is more subtle.

[Michael Fearn]

Much less garish. Excellent! However, I am finding the grey text a bit harder to read. Would you be able to darken this, or provide a choice between regular and higher contrast stylesheets?

[Carol Brassfield]

Great change all round. Much easier on the eye though I do agree text might be hard to read for some people. Re comment on changing the ink bottle. I think a more antique looking one would match better the quill, although you could try something like a keyboard and quill for linking old and new communications and documents.

[BIll Bienia]

Much better, in my opinion. The colors are subdued and earthy, and easy on the eyes early in the morning. The graphics at the top are subtle as well. Nice all around.

[Mike More]

A bit more contrast between the text and the background would be better, darker text or lighter background. Otherwise looks great.

[Diane]

I love the quill pen graphic!
Diane

[Jeff Hodge]

I like the new look, but I agree with the comments about lightening the background a bit for better contrast with the text.

[Bob Quinn]

Thank you. I can finally read the text without magnification.

[Dae Powell]

I agree with Carol in that increasing the font size would be beneficial. Or you could add a small javascript widget to allow reader to size the font. I see the colour a bit more like London mustard. Tasty.

Happy Dae.
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Bonnie]

Before the page fully loaded, I thought the ink bottle was a pill bottle. I was puzzled until I saw the quill. A more sophisticated graphic would convey the ink bottle-and-quill theme more clearly.

[Bebe Brovk]

I like the new look, more like old parchment,
Bebe

[Lib Gordon]

I like it much better. Not so flashy. But I'd really prefer a white background for my old eyes.

[Dick Eastman]

---> increasing the font size would be beneficial.

On this web site and almost every other web site in existence, YOU can increase or decrease the font size instantly. That is a function of your web browser. There is no way to create one web page that has perfect font sizes for all sizes of monitors and all video cards, so web browser programmers put that functionality into your browser.

The exact instructions may vary from one web browser to another but most of them involve holding down that Control key (or the Macintosh Command key) and then pressing the plus and minus keys on the numeric keypad.

I'd suggest that you try that right now. It is simple and very effective. I use it several times a day as I go from web site to web site.

- Dick Eastman

[Gwen McCullagh]

Darker text AND brighter background would be helpful for older or vision impaired readers.
The less "stuff" the better especially on the top of the page so I definitely like this change.
Personally,I'd now like to see a smoother transition to the paid version developed
Thank you

[Laura Meyer]

really like the new look. some one else mentioned that the old style looked like ATT/cingular, I thought it was just me ha ha guess not.

[Steve in Florida]

I agree with Mike More. Site needs a lighter background.

[Concetta]

I like the new look! Its much better in terms of color and contrast (the orange bothered me, too).

I also agree you need a better ink bottle - this one looks a little too old-school computer graphics. I'm sure you cand find one that looks like an MS Word 98 clip art piece.

[Marilyn H]

Sorry for the post about this change on the other item. I was reading from top to bottom and didn't see this post. Anyway . . . . That is an ink bottle?? At first glance I thought it was a computer monitor, so I guess better graphics are in order, as suggested previously. Like the softer colors, but the header needs to be cleaned up a bit--font and justification tweaked a bit to look more "professional". Like the dark blue printing.

[Gerald Eberwein]

Way more better!
("Member this phrase from when you were a kid?)
I couldn't think of one that says it more appropriately. The new design is so much better and classyit is simply that.

[Martin Tolley]

Generally a good thing, and for me no bother with the new colours - works fine on my regular laptop. I too like being able to get at the news quicker and without scrolling (again very useful on my mini-laptop - wide screen but not much depth.
I must agree with the comments about the ink bottle. In fact it wasn't until someone point out that it was an inkbottle that I realised what it was - I actually saw it as a computer monitor first off. Either a better quality graphic or something different.
Good to see innovation.

[Earl Pike]

I like the very professional "new look".

[Jeannette]

I LOVE IT!!!! Much easier to read.

[Liz]

I stopped visiting this blog altogether because of the brash orange, so it's very nice to see a more tasteful and appealing color combination. However, I agree that the text is not easy to read (insufficient contrast), and that the header needs more work -- too cluttered and the images do not coordinate with the attractive "vintage" feel of the rest of the page. You're on the right track, just not there yet. Thanks for asking our opinions!

[dorisw]

Much better. The old red/orange was hard to take first thing in the morning and jarred me awake at night.:-) I really like this.
Doris

[Susan Petersen]

I agree with everything said earlier. Especially the colors. The orange assaulted my eyes. I am sooo happy to see it is gone!

I like the quill. Don't like this ink bottle. A better graphic would be good. Think the keyboard/quill idea is interesting. Agree-need more contrast between print and background.

All-in-all-MUCH improved!

[Marge Vallazza]

I agree with Sandra Tye and Louis Kessler but not entirely. Like Sandra, I personally find blues and greens much more soothing and think a tweak of a slightly lighter color for the background would work. Louis Kessler was right on target and very constructive in his comments about the graphic for the ink bottle and the quill. Thanks for caring about our opinion! :)

[Suzanne]

I like this design better, but definitely think there should be more contrast between the type and the background--maybe more of a parchment color?

[Don Capes]

Better

[Joan Lince]

Pleasant color scheme and attractive design. I find the text completely readable.

[dorothy norland]

Love the new look
Dorothy Sabo Norland

[MHD]

Great improvement! Yes, adjusting the contrast so that the text is darker would be even better.

[Gloria Vanterpool]

definitely a plus, has a class look. Gloria

[Minipats]

The new colors and simpler layout is easier to read and a classier look. I like the change!

[Cedric Wyndham]

Richard Bourcier has encapsulated my immediate reaction - well done.

[Schelly Talalay Dardashti]

This is a very nice new look! However, a slightly lighter background for more text contrast would make it just about perfect!

[Barbara]

I really like this look. A light colored background is so much easier on the eyes than white background. Keep up the good work. Also enjoy your videos.

[Sammy]

I like the new look. The color is much more pleasing to my eye.

[Sandy Coulter]

I like the new look! It is much easier to read.

[Donna]

It is not to bad looking, a little hard to read. Header could use some more work but is looking good.

Sometime back you talked about a free virus program you were using... are you still using it and is it still working like you want? What was it called? I looked thru some back issues of your newsletter but can not seem to find it. Thank you.

[Carla]

Much better! Looks old-fashioned as well which I think fits genealogy.

[Barbara Graser]

I really like it, like the person above I think it looks more sepia and genealogical. It's pretty classy too!!

[Jeanne O]

I like the new classy look and the quill pen graphic. I like the gray but agree the text might be difficult for some.

[Joy]

Like it much better, except I think think the black text needs to be a bit darker.
Joy

[B. Luckham]

Being a senior citizen, I find it more difficult to read. Lightening the background may help. Otherwise the new look is great.

[Brad Seabury]

I like the new look, overeall, but I have to agree that I would enjoyu having more contrast to make the text darker for my aged eyes. I guess my sum reaction as that this seems more professional than what you had before, and I envy your capability (or willingness?) to manipulate these things in your constant search for a better appearance.

[Alan Stewart]

Hi Dick, I like the new look generally, but I do find it harder to read because of the lack of contrast between the text and background colors. I suspect this may affect those of us who are older more than it does your younger readers. I notice that the boxes at the bottom of the page for commenters' details have a much better contrast.

[Aaron Keys]

The new look swings! I like it.

[Lorelee]

I really like the new look. Much easier on the eyes.

[Lois]

This granny is finding it much harder to read than the previous version. Perhaps darker print and/or greater contrast between background & text would help. But, as my kids say, "You're young, you'll get over it!"

[John Carlson]

I Like bright orange so that did not bother me.
The new look is better. Has a more classy yet serious look about it. It does seem a more easy on the eyes, too.

[Robert E Pentecost]

Dick,

The new look is a vast improvement over that "gore-ange-lue" look. The smaller header is great because it lets the good stuff(articles) be seen right away. I am not a graphic artist but the new graphics probably could be improved on in the future. I am not old yet but when my eyes get tired from too much good stuff probably a darker or different font would stand out better or maybe even a slightly lighter background would help along with the darker/different font. Thanks for the change. The blue/orange was always an shocker for the senses when it would pop up.

Bob