Variation of "Tropospherical" Site Scheme

[faevii]

Title:
Variation of "Tropospherical" Site Scheme

Area:
site schemes

Summary:
I'd like a variation of the "Tropospherical" site scheme in colours that are easier on the eyes.

Description:
As it happens, the default site scheme has always been the one that I liked best. However, "best" in this case means "just about bearable" because I absolutely can't stand the colours. I love everything else about it, but those particular shades of red and purple both make me cringe - especially in combination with that light grey background.

Vertical navigation confuses me to no end, so switching to Celerity is not an option for me. I really like the colours of that one, though. A plain, white background and a shade of green that's easy on the eyes - awesome!

It would be neat if there was a version of Tropospherical that had a white background as well, maybe combined with a similarly muted colour as Celerity - it doesn't have to be green; I'd suggest blue or brown, for example. Even the default red would look better without the grey.

I'm curious - does anybody actually *like* these schemes as they are?? Could one of them perhaps be replaced? If not, what do you think about adding a third option? I know I'm not the only one who has a problem with the colours; I've come across several comments by random people complaining about them off-handedly.

Poll #4244 Variation of "Tropospherical" Site Scheme

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
28 (56.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
8 (16.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
0 (0.0%)

(I have no opinion)
13 (26.0%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (2.0%)

Comments

[melannen]

Okay, so what precipated me asking for this is two posts fluffyllama made about how she'd like to use DW more but the colors literally hurt her.

Here's her LJ post on trying DW again which doesn't go into detail, but has three other people in comments describing similar problems.

Here's the thread on her DW post about layouts and site schemes, in which she and trobadora gave me a little more detail on what exactly their difficulties are.

I've seen complaints about the default site scheme, on the level of "this is why I can't move there", come up before; those were just the ones I could easily link to. (I personally have grown quite fond of Tropo Red, but I have to confess that if there was a more boring scheme I would probably jump on it.)

ETA: and I agree about visited links, too - I keep a special bookmarklet just so I can strip out all the styling when I'm working through a long list of links, but it would be really nice if I didn't have to.

[noracharles]

Yes, seconding this. I often see people comment that they hate reading fic on dw because "the red" hurts their eyes, and they would never get a journal here.

I try telling people that if they set up an OpenID they can view all journal pages in their own style without having a regular account, but honestly that is a huge barrier to participation. Only very few people think setting up their own style is fun.

[denise]

We will not be changing the default site scheme, sorry.

[noracharles]

It's no problem for me, I have an account and can view the pages however I like :-)

[faevii]

I hope we're not getting on your nerves yet ... might I ask why? I understand that black on white is out of the question, but I'm sure there are options that would neither trigger migraines nor drive potential new users away. Somebody suggested cream as a background colour the other day and I thought it was a great idea. I'm really sorry that we're basically all telling you your design is ugly! (And I started it! Augh!) I know it's subjective and one can never please everyone at once, but what if there's a solution that would bother less people than it would please?

I'm mostly asking out of a desire to get more people to join DW by now. :) Personally I'm planning to experiment with the bookmarklets that somebody linked to for a while, and maybe I'll even give Stylish a go one of these days ...

[denise]

The default site scheme in those colors is part of DW's identity! The logo's used on our business cards, elsewhere on the 'net for promotional purposes, etc. Changing the colors of the default scheme just isn't an option.

Adding more colors, sure, although we want to minimize the number of choices people have to make; more options are generally bad UI. We do already have a few other site schemes, available under the Display tab of Account Settings.

[trobadora]

Oh yes, the visited links are an excellent point!