September 30: Redesigned Website Launch
Hello Everyone! It's been a long time coming! Our new site is finally here!
Please take your time and explore the site!
You can file feedback & bug reports here!
Additionally, later today @krinkthemellowunicorn will be giving a guided tour of the new site! Stay tuned for more information!
Now it's lot better, but colors are still too bright. But hey, well done!
@alexlove
thanks. we're still working on issues of contrast and jarring color effects, brightness, legibility, so the feedback is very helpful, even to let us know it's not yet dialed in for everyone yet.
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
My two cents...
I agree with @nothing14 and @thethirteenhour. Everything looks well done and fine even I think the old format was great and probably just needed incremental improvements. But there are just a few game breaking issues for me.
The display pictures in general on the profile, on the top of home page, in the browse listener search, and forum posts should be bigger and most definitely should be put back into chat and chatrooms where i can see not only everyone else but myself as well. You lose a sense of warmth and expression and feel minimized overall.
The brightness and colors are a bit jarring and im not sure why. Its a bit harsh on the eyes. While it looks more sleek and smoother, it just lack that welcoming touch that the old format had from the brewing cup of tea, to the sky and water on the connect page and the display pictures of listeners and members able to express their strength, humor, encouragement, and message. Its too small to read. All of these things to me created a more welcoming and warm atmosphere. And more depth. I think it would be more effective than just bright colors.
And the speech bubble in chat I will never be able to get used to but oh well. lol.
Great job overall and the mood boost is a nice touch!
great feedback! thanks @SariannaMoon. we will keep plugging away and I think your points about the personal human touch are well taken.
we will keep improving.
I usually have two or three chats going on simultaneously. In the old design it was very easy to keep track of each chat by looking at the sidebar on the chat screen. Now the font is smaller and hard to read and there is no way to delete chats from the prior few weeks, and to have only the current chats displayed. This change is making keeping track of my chats, and sending replies in a timely fashion, much more difficult for me.
@Harry53
Sorry about that! We'll fix it.
We are restoring the missing delete button. and working on cleaning up the legibility of the conversation box.
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Thanks! 
@Harry53
you bet!
thanks for your patience
The new update, is great. There used to be this feature that, you could delete the chat and when, they would reply, the conversation would appear again, where is that feauture? could anyone please help? thank you.
@YourSupergirl - Thanks for the feedback...a number of people have been missing that one and it is on the list and on its way back! Give Krink and team a bit of time to get caught up with all the requests, but this one will happen. :)
I have to say, the new design is simple, which is great, but it's executed pretty poorly.
First of all, the site seems to have lost some of its fun identity.
The font is far too thin in the side bars, it's uncomfortable to read. The social icons don't quite work; the facebook and twitter icons are flat designs whilst tumblr's isn't, which is a shame because they're are flat tumblr vectors out there. Also don't think these icons are retina, they are somewhat blurred.
The 'about us' box flickers occasionally. Can't tell why that is.
Although the site does work responsively quite well, although it does reflect how simple and somewhat lifeless the content now looks on the site.
@thegirlintheredcoat
thanks for the feedback. We will try not to take it personally that you feel we executed this design poorly.
Please also submit your feedback in the new design feedback form so we factor it in.
> The font is far too thin in the side bars, it's uncomfortable to read.
We are still working on improving the legibility. Please share the details of your setup (operating system, browser, etc.) to help us calibrate.
> The social icons don't quite work; the facebook and twitter icons are flat designs whilst tumblr's isn't, which is a shame because they're are flat tumblr vectors out there. Also don't think these icons are retina, they are somewhat blurred.
Thanks for that catch. As you know that's an easy fix (and by far less important than many any other things we are currently fixing.)
> The 'about us' box flickers occasionally. Can't tell why that is.
Which screen are you talking about here?
Thanks also for the subjective (if negative feedback). I don't have specific responses to those comments.
Bud the feed box takes us to the old design.Hope you can sort it out
And how can I change the theme
@beastandthebest
who is Bud the feed box?
and more seriously which box are you saying takes us to the old design? There are still a few old broken pages out there so if you explain this we can fix it.
There are not set themes in the design right now (maybe later). To override the current design most people choose custom stylesheet in their browser or use programs that help customize stylesheets for websites.
I think @iara maybe know more about how people are doing this today.
I am having a lot of trouble with this new design and prefer the other one. It is very difficult to see a Personal Request. It does not refresh like the other one and seems to be incompatible with some of my browsers. The font is hard to read. I also preferred the other way we wrote as it seemed to be more professional. This texting back and forth just makes it feel like a regular telephone conversation - not as formal as the other way. Perhaps that is how it is meant but I just don't like it.
@plushTouch35
thanks for the feedback. please say more about "It is very difficult to see a Personal Request." What makes it difficult to see right now?
If personal requests are not refreshing, that's a bug, please report it on the new design feedback form.
> I also preferred the other way we wrote as it seemed to be more professional. This texting back and forth just makes it feel like a regular telephone conversation - not as formal as the other way.
I'm afraid I'm not sure what you're referring to. The chat functionality hasn't changed so can you tell me what it is about "the other way we wrote" that was different from now and what makes it seems like it's just "texting back and forth" now but wasn't before?
And what made it more professional or formal? If I understand this it can help us improve and make it more the way you preferred, but you need to help me understand.
Thanks!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
It is difficult to see the personal request because it is orange, which is the same color as the bar on the bottom of the website.
The chat functionality has changed. Instead of dialogue showing up right in front of me in a square, it is harder to follow the chat due to the text bubbles on the far right and left. Even though it is just texting back and forth, the way it was presented before seemed to be easier to follow. That is what I mean about being professional versus informal. It is hard to explain via a post.
@plushTouch35
got it, yes we are working on the appearance of the bottom bar for listeners. We will fix it.
I know it's hard to communicate these things so I appreciate your trying.
In the old design the messages also came from alternate sides depending on the speaker, but we allowed the box to be much wider (probably a mistake) which led to this issue of too much horizontal space between short messages.
It sounds like that it the main thing making it read more like chat. We will come up with a maximum natural width for the chat area and that should help.
Functionally and contentwise, chat is the same (with a few bugs fixed and a few new bugs to fix).
I am not sure that I like this new design. I came back after a few weeks absent from the site. I was not feeling too well so I was off for a while. The design scared me a bit. I thought I was on my blackberry.( I was so confused). I do not like the chat design most of all.It seems like regular texting. However, I had so many issues with the old chat (my messages occasionally got scrambled up). For me this is still an improvement in functionality.
Either way, change can be good. Hopefully when I get used to it, I can come back with a better view of the changes.
@SnowyCocoaEarth
thanks for letting us know. we're still trying to perfect the design and I'm glad you noticed that @ezraBC solved the messages-out-of-order bug.
Eternal thanks to @ezraBC for solving the messages-out-of-order problem! It was a real issue for me and the fix has made life a lot easier when I'm running two or three chats at a time.
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
Just want to say thanks to all the hard work you and others put in. This is your vision of what a better 7Cups experience is for everyone and we all have to accept change regardless. I can pine on about wanting bigger display pictures and other things I will miss that made this place feel like home but the goal and reasoning behind the changes im sure were meant to make the site simpler, more accessible and a overall better experience.
@SariannaMoon
thank you, it all helps.
design is largely about balance, balancing various competing good things that are in tension with each other and balancing various forces that push against each other.
This means all changes effect the gestalt whole and so if we just made every change in isolation it would end up frankenstein-like and harder for more people.
That being said, in the example of avatar size, there is a seesaw with less visual clutter, more focus on what people say, less focus on visual presentation of self, and ability to see more messages in a vertical stack; all good things on one side.
And then on the other end of the teeter-totter, there is ease of spotting who is talking at a glance, the more human or personal feel of customized avatars that are bigger and easy to see, the self-esteem boost of being able to admire one's own reflection or presentation of self to other; also all good things!
The trick is to balance it as best we can, and the answer may be to increase profile images in some place, but perhaps not to as large as they used to be.
At the same time larger avatars might really spoil the design in some places, throwing off other visual harmonies and balance.
So we'll keep seeking the happy medium.
I wish this were in beta first. :(
@StarFlower
easier said than done
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn That is unfortunate. :( Wonderful job on the updates though! This site looks great now. :)
@StarFlower
thanks. the good news is that some of the changes made under the hood will make it easier to test updates more gradually in the future.
