JimDeWind's profile

22 Messages

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368 Points

Wednesday, March 1st, 2023 5:31 AM

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The new designmakes imdb difficult to use for everybody

imdb changed the background color of a movie from dark to the color of the cover itself which makes it very hard to read the text properly because the background simply distracts. I hope imdb will change it back soon and realize the mistake of this change.

Employee

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7.2K Messages

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178.3K Points

2 years ago

@JimDeWind  Thanks for the feedback.  Please see https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/common-issues/why-is-imdb-displaying-differently-on-my-browser/GF2ZAR69V859XLHF and let us know what happens.  It sounds like a local problem and something is interfering with your web browser.  

We do occasionally run title take-overs for advertisers on a limited number of titles where the page is themed to match the poster, but this is not a new change (we have been doing this for 10+ years). It sounds like you are reporting a more general problem across all titles? 

Hope this helps. 

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

2 years ago

I have this too on Chrome (Android) and Firefox (Computer) on title and name pages, i thought this is a default view after last rededign, isn't it?

Agree with JimDeWind, it makes text (mainly plot outline/summary) much harder to read, background can be any color (depends on main photo) which is also not pleasing to eyes. Simple black color/background was much better.

Also, font size is reduced after last update, I need to use zoom every time to read plot outline/summary on my phone, and it is made more difficult becuse of aforementioned color backgrounds.

Please, remove this color changing effect, it's unnecessary.

Several examples:

(edited)

Employee

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7.2K Messages

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178.3K Points

@plur62​ Thanks for the examples.  This is part of a display experiment.  Once all of the pages have been migrated to the new design and the new technology, we will be able to offer light/dark mode settings which will give customers better control here. 

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

@Col_Needham​ Thanks for reply, I hope this display experiment is really temporary, too distracting, dark mode is perfect.

22 Messages

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368 Points

@Col_Needham​ I also hope the experiment is just a very short one. Because the normal black background was great. Please don't always change things that were good and nobody ever complained about.

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

2 years ago

Oh no, color experiment is back again. Everything was normal for about a week (perfect dark mode), and now again with this... 🙁

2 Messages

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70 Points

2 years ago

My laptop is having hard times dealing with this new blurry background on any title page (see screenshot below). Page loads slower than before, scrolling is not smooth, and any action is being delayed. Though it happens only on title pages, and only with blurred part visible on my screen, it completely ruins experience of using whole website.

I use latest Firefox on Win 11, but with Edge it is also bad. I've never experienced such bad lags on any other website, besides Youtube in 'ambient mode', which creates similar blurry background effect, but at least on YT it can be switched off easily. So I blame this (CSS?) effect. Is there any way to disable it?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled Low performance because of blurry background

Employee

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729 Messages

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8K Points

Hello @whyjpg​,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this problem. Please refer to our Help page, Why is IMDb displaying differently on my browser?.

Please let us know if this does not resolve your issue.

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

2 years ago

This color change "experiment" is one of the very few things on IMDb that I will probably never get used to.

It looks cheap, ugly and definitely too distracting, it HIDES the content, plot outline is practically unreadable, those colors should be more neutral, like on streaming sites, they need to be "behind" the content, not to hide it. I really hope this is not the final version.

(edited)

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

1 year ago

Still terrible and totally unnecessary experiment, definitely ruined my IMDb experience.

22 Messages

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368 Points

1 year ago

I don't know what the designers of imdb think. Even though it was good they had to change it to make it worse. They always go from good to bad to worse. Can't they just leave things alone. Or at least answer here in the community why they changed this background color.

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

1 year ago

Theseus' Paradox

"If the ship on which Theseus sailed has been so heavily repaired and nearly every part replaced, is it still the same ship - and, if not, at what point did it stop being the same ship?"

Same goes to IMDb.

22 Messages

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368 Points

@plur62​ I agree

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

1 year ago

I still hope that this experiment with colors is really temporary and that at least by the end of this year things will improve, i.e. that the colors will be more moderate, more subtle, so that the content can be read without straining the eyes. 

This doesn't look any better five months later, unfortunately.

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

9 months ago

I'm not a fan of this new hazy effect that appeared a few days ago, I still miss the clean, simple dark mode.

Employee

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7.2K Messages

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178.3K Points

@plur62​ We are not aware of launching a new hazy effect. Do you have URLs and screenshots to illustrate? 

267 Messages

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5.9K Points

@Col_Needham​ Visible below the plot, sometimes in the area of ​​the rate button and this one for popularity. It only appears when the title has a trailer, it looks like a reflection of the title name from the poster, you can see the title letters there, it did not appear before

Employee

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7.2K Messages

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178.3K Points

@plur62​ We have recently made some changes here to address the issues you raised.  The problem was a complicated interaction between the gradients in the background at the top of the page and the way in which Safari on iOS handles certain CSS elements.  Everything should be behaving as expected now.  The reason for these changes was improved accessibility and they have been tested upon a large sample of IMDb customers. The following is from a member of the IMDb design team who worked on this: 

The change was deliberate. The design rationale is 2-pronged: 1) To respond to the feedback that the dark grey and white was too stark. Adding the a % transparency of the poster with a blur, softens that contrast and edge 2) The addition of subtle theme from the poster brings that product forward more than the flat dark grey. 

Hope this helps.