New Update in RE is aesthetically hard to see/read

Carly Karten

The new update for Raiser's Edge made the regular blue colored tool bar into a light blue. It is extremely hard to continue to look at without having to squint your eyes. The font on the tool bar has a shadow to it and makes it hard to read and see as well. For those of you including myself who are in Raiser's Edge most of the day it makes it really hard to continue looking at the screen for long periods of time. 


Please comment if you feel the same way or know how to change the light blue color.


Thanks!!

Natalie Washnieski

SAME. Very frustrating and very hard on the eyes. NOT a good change at all. 

Anna Zimmerman

Yes! I had a hard time. Ended up calling support. I found that if I played with the resolution and display settings on my computer desktop, it was better. Also using RE in workspace app, not receiver, is supposed to work better too. 

Tonya Hahne

Thank you for this post! I am working remotely and thought the resolution had changed because of the app that I am using to connect to our server.

Amanda Mogridge

Yes! Yesterday the text within RE databaseview looked blurry and I wondered if it was just my eyes, but my web browser and other documents looked clear. The fuzziness of the text in RE gave me a eye fatigue and a headache, especially since I am not working on a smaller screen laptop from home! I can't believe it wasn't just me! I hope they fix it soon.

Crystal Bruce

There is an idea in the ideas bank, you can add your vote. https://community.blackbaud.com/products/raisersedge7/ideas Thanks!

Kelly Webster

Did anyone also lose their settings? It looks like everything went back to the original defaults? Recently accessed records are gone and my columns in the gift records look different.

Deb Dressely

Could this be combined with Re: New updates? Screens have turned blidning white. by Phillip Bicknell in General Discussions in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge?  They seem to be discussing the same issue.

Crystal Bruce

It is, but I can't combine discussion threads. We can combine the ideas in the ideas bank! I reached out to the Product Manager to get the ideas merged.

Serena Livingston

what is the name of the idea in the idea bank? I'll add my vote but couldn't find it ... thanks

Aparna Chidambaram

Carley, we had the same complaints when the update took effect in our system. It was bad the first 2 weeks and I have voted to restore the previous visual... to what it was before the update. And YES, the update removes all settings. BOO!


On a positive note, the new look isn't bothering me anymore. Not that I wouldn't prefer going back to what it used to be for the sake of my eyes!

Hillary Murphy

I did lose all my settings and the resolution is awful.

Francine Brown

The new upgrade with white print on bright colors is hard to see.  Also, the resolution is awful, it is blurred and hard to read.  My eyes hurt after a while in RE.

Grace Melendrez

Great! Thank you
Francine.

 

Rachael Walker

We just got this update today. The new colors really are terrible, it really is harder to read, and we ALL lost our user preferences. This is a real pain.

Catherine Zimmerman

Yes, I have always struggled with eye strain when working in RE for long periods of time. It has become worse working remotely off a small laptop and this update is awful. I hope they change it - soon!


 

Tammy Stander

I agree.  It is much harder to read now.  

Becky Jones

I wonder how many people are going to have to complain about it before Blackbaud fixes what they messed up.  What was wrong with the old settings? Don't fix it if it's not broken!

Has anyone submitted this to the voting section (although I know someone from BB monitors these groups as well).  BB rep, would you give us status on when it will be changed back and if not why?  Thank you!

Becky Jones

Lance Melton

Hello, all. I'm replying here as a representative of Blackbaud's engineering teams. Thank you for strongly voicing your concerns on this update; I understand eye strain issues all too well.


The font and tool bar color changes in Database View occurred during necessary server upgrades, and was caused by the way that Citrix inherits color values from the Operating System’s default “themes.” We are actively testing options for overriding these themes and color values for our Hosted customers, aiming to even improve upon the contrast from the original state (while remaining faithful) based on recommendations from our User Experience & Design staff.

As this is a broad change that encompasses overrides on several dozen inherited color keys across a deep product, we are testing thoroughly before we deliver further, potential updates to impacted environments.


Should efforts to override these values be successful, we'll post a KB article with instructions, as our early understanding is that there may be user action ("log off and log back on," for example) in order for the changes to be applied.

Kelley Jain

I felt the same way and wondered if it was the difference between my age (even my glasses don't help) and the developer's.  ?  

Keri Barnhart

Lance Melton:
Hello, all. I'm replying here as a representative of Blackbaud's engineering teams. Thank you for strongly voicing your concerns on this update; I understand eye strain issues all too well.


The font and tool bar color changes in Database View occurred during necessary server upgrades, and was caused by the way that Citrix inherits color values from the Operating System’s default “themes.” ...

Thank you for this response, Lance!


I noticed when we got the upgrade to the hosting environment that the interface reverted to the version I used when we were self-hosting. This explanation makes so much sense - we self-hosted on a more modern server config (circa Windows 7) than Blackbaud was using via Citrix (circa...before Windows 7), and when the server switched to the Windows 10 version, the RE interface matched what we had before.


If there's any way to make it possible to adjust the font size of the interface for low-vision users or high-def/PPI displays, please look into that, too! When I was training new RE users, I had a few staff who had to squint to see the button and field labels because we couldn't get the interface to zoom in as easily as their regular desktops. We also used a hi-def tv screen monitor in several of our smaller meeting rooms for training, and it was absolutely impossible to make out the text from the back of the table a mere 10 feet away. (I forced an override on the screen resolution so RE would be easier to see, but then I'd have to switch back when I wanted to demonstrate something in NXT or on a PDF or excel, etc., and ultimately it was easier to use the windows zoom key combination to highlight specific fields or buttons.)

Mark Guncheon

Great request, Keri! The font readability has been a challenge from various users over the years.


Thank you!

Lance Melton

Hi, all. I just wanted to drop in a quick update that we're near the end of testing for an option for users to be able to modify certain RE7 Database View colors (beyond what exists today in Tools > User Options > Color), along with providing a more pleasing default.


We're likely to start "small" (the left panel) and grow the configuration options from there. The main considerations we're taking in are 1) we don't want these new "user settings" to get reset with server upgrades and 2) we want to actually improve upon our adoption of Web Accessibility guidelines, rather than selecting colors that are simply aesthetically pleasing.


While this first round isn't live yet, our final decisions on approach and default values are nearly complete and we have a working prototype in a test environment.


 

Keri Barnhart

Lance Melton‍ Thank you so much for continuing to work on this and letting us know!


Also, fwiw, my biggest accessibility need is for the text size in the grids and fields to be larger, and next for better contrast on the button labels in the record headers (Save & Close, New Note, etc). I have worked with a few people with low vision who needed a magnifying glass to use the RE database view - they always said that the labels and buttons were doable because they learned what each part was supposed to be, but the variable data in grids (unique to each record or sort or filter) was the most difficult and time consuming to figure out. They, and even others who don't have as poor vision but still require bifocals, would avoid doing work in the database that required them to do a lot of referencing or looking up in the grids. One work-around was to always export the grid to excel - but that was, again, time-consuming and not possible with the data fields. Other times, they would just have an admin do the work, or request a data pull in excel and use that instead of live data...


Definitely contrast and color all over are important, and more flexibility with the layouts in response to larger text sizes, etc., but consistently the central issue across the board was the inability to adjust the size of text in the fields and grids.


Thanks again

Rose Kelly

Hope to see the update soon. Our org just got changed over to this new look now - it's really hard no the eyes.  Members of my team are complaining!


Thank you.