Agreed - I was continuing to look around and I noticed the difference: all sorts of white pages out there but most fonts are bigger and "fatter" and thus take up a larger percentage of the page.

Since I do most of my GWing on the phone and I keep the brightness down (in part to extend battery life) it didn't stand out as much at me.

The area where the text is, is a light grey color surrounded by a lot of white. If the color surrounding the text block had some 'eye soothing' color around a grey text block that was a little darker grey and a font that was bolder and black, that would go a long way to helping make the site more readable. I use a search engine that is completely white, a lot of white, but they provide the option of changing the background to whatever color you want. So does Yahoo. Leaving the white around the text block, I think would be a big mistake. Especially since so many people have complained about it.

Keep in mind that we are the newcomers here. The houzz community is large and has absorbed us like so many little ants scurrying around the desktop. I spent some time this morning looking at their photos, shopping pages, stories, etc. We are truly a minority here.

Oh yeah they're huge, but we must be big enough for them to have wanted to take us over, no?

It's not only the bright white background, but the font isn't quite right - it's too ............... something. Or not enough ............ something.

The format is easy to use.

Wishing the backgrounds were reversed - the light sans serif text is already a bit of an eye-strainer & reading it on the grey background makes it doubly so. I have a large desktop screen & reading this on it makes my eyeballs hurt after awhile...

To me it's not the white background, it's the awful font. Some of us have old eyes, but I guess Houzz is for young people.

Sally

I like using an avatar and wish everyone would use one. That is because there are so many complaints about "all of the white," that the use of colorful avatars help break up all of the white. I do wish the space for the avatar would be increased. Also going to cross post this.

WalnutCreek, that is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that, but you are right. Tell me, since it is such a small photo, how do you choose a photo that will show up in a significant way?

Sally, I agree, I think Houzz is for younger peoplethan me, even though I'm not yet 60 and although it's people our age that actually spend a bunch of money on the items they sell here.

I don't have a cellphone, none of them get reception out here where I live, and I don't have a laptop. I don't participate in any other forums or any social media. I do read the local news on-line, but I go to the website of the local news station. So, I can't tell you what other forums look like, but this one gives me a headache.

I also realize that we are a minority here, and those of us who have participated for 15+ years are an even smaller minority. It's big business now, and we are very small fish. Many of my long time virtual friends are gone from here and we communicate via email instead of CF, which isn't CF anymore, I guess.

Annie

Walnutcreek, I don't know how to use an avatar, I've always felt they are much like the vile "emoticons" that annoy me so much in emails. Heck, I didn't even know what an avatar WAS, until about 3 months ago and still don't quite understand them. I THOUGHT they were supposed to represent me or something about me, but there seem to be thousands and don't have much to do with anything, except that they are a picture that someone liked at some point.

Annie

@annie - One good thing about avatars, is that when you are revisiting a site where you commented, and now it has 150 comments, it does make it easier to find your comment [or someone else's that you are looking for].

OK, I figured it out, but I still don't think it makes a difference. And yes, the picture really is one of me and Elery.

Annie

Mine is a gravy boat full of wine reduction, but made small it also looks like a carnival mask, which I think is a great representation of me. :)

FOAS: "Oh yeah they're huge, but we must be big enough for them to have wanted to take us over, no?"

Well, we used to be owned by NBC. I thought it was nice that we were going to a smaller company that might not use us as a Bikini Atoll for intrusive advertising testing (dancing baby and green underline style).

One thing to remember is that any time you Google a household question, especially for kitchens, bathrooms and appliances, GW dominates the top results. This is new since I joined, and I've only been a member since 2007. They changed some of the ranking criteria. You can't buy that kind of placement. In the last 3-4 years, a trend that started well before that solidified, and people were crossposting between Houzz and GW all over the place. Not in CF (where we don't even seem to cross much with Chowhound), but all over the remodelling forums. It's a natural fit which should drive traffic to Houzz, and give added value to their members. If they can keep the stalwarts after the transition and growing pains, we'll be providing them with tons of top quality content and they only have to pay for the servers and gnomes.

Re the background, it depends on your screen. The light gray reads as white on my monitor and iPad. Additionally, there's a lot more white space for the people who have eliminated ads.

If you're bothered by glare and use ad blockers, you might try allowing ads for this site. :)

Plllog I DID think it was a carnival mask! LOL

Annie, I thought you weren't going to post anything personal. Love the pic of you and Elery!

Different browsers have options for making web pages coloured. Chrome has an extension called Change Colours which I've applied just to GW. I have a purplish page with black type which is so much easier on the eyes.

I have a kindle. There is no gray on my screen, only white with black type in the text and green thread titles, almost the same way it was on the old GW. I can pinch the screen to make the type bigger if I need to. After all the commotion of the first few days, I think things have improved a lot, and I'm glad!

The current font is a sans serif which basically means no horizontal top and bottom edges. It is a fact that serif fonts are easier to read, soooo, why this?

And all that white.

I think they have a bad designer, really. Many designers are focused on being edgy, cool, hip, up-to-date!, trendy, Whatever., the latest greatest is, but forget about the bare bones basics. Can I read it easily?

Oh, and demographics. Many designers are youngish. Not middle aged ( or OLD, with one foot in the grave) THAT MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO EASILY READ A STYLISH FONT.

The big question is: which demo spends the most money on the products advertised on Houzz? Always the bottom line.

Actually, rounded, sans serif fonts are easier to read with poor resolution. That's why Apple used Arial for their early dot matrix printers, and why all these sites that are optimized for phones and phablets are using this kind of font. Websites standardly use sans serif fonts, and have done since the birth of the web. Including the Gardenweb we were using last week. Sorry they made that image from the old homesite blurry. :)

You can set your browser or device to display text in the font of your choice, and you set the background color, too. There are also broswser add-ons that make this easier, and allow you to easily toggle back and forth. Check the threads around here for some of the names.

jasdip, I'm not so much concerned about what I post about myself, but I'm very "iffy" about posting pictures of the grandkids, my house, that kind of thing. It's too bad, I've nearly finished the new pantry and have some great pictures of the Monkey Princess with the brad nailer, helping Elery with trim.

Annie

And now I know what serifs are. Something to be learned here, even when cooking traffic has practically come to a screeching halt!

I have a hunch that the 'designers' of a number of websites these days may have little to no training/education in graphic arts principles. I have a background in advertising art & a degree in fine art & even tho both are from back in the dark ages, I feel that I know more about good graphic design than some of these whippersnappers...

Pairiemoom, just saw your query to me. I just look for images that are bright and colorful, then save them to a folder I have named avatars. When I want an avatar, I just look in that folder. And you are right, Houzz needs to a lot a bit more space for a bit larger avatar, even a square instead of a circle gives a little more room.

Bumblebeez, I agree with you. Houzz needs to change the font to a serif style font, such as Times New Roman, Book Antiqua, Baskerville Old Face, etc. Any serif with a bolder appearance so that our older eyes can easily read them.