The New Tumblr UI Update garners a negative response. Tumblr seems not to be able to catch a break since they announced the removal of adult content from their website. And this action of Tumblr easily convinced it’s loyal users to leave its platform for another alternative available on the web.
Here is how all went wrong with the removal of adult content. Tumblr deployed an AI program to filter all the pornographic contents from its platform. However, things took a different turn when it was found that the AI program along with the pornographic contents also started flagging the cleanest pictures as adult content for the same. Overall it turned out to be an initial fiasco for them. And which leads to a lot of annoyance among its users.
Post that debacle, Tumblr decided to reinvent their platform by bringing in a new look and feel with a User Interface Update. This was also done to stay in line with the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. This initiative aims to make menus more accessible, fix poorly described elements, and improve overall readability.
According to the Tumblr official release,
Part of making Tumblr more accessible involved upping the color contrast in our UI, most notably on the dashboard and everywhere else that familiar blue touches. The light grays and muted blues had a contrast ratio of 2.02:1. What does that mean? Bad. It was bad, and we needed to do better by people with visual impairments
On paper, it all sounds good, but the ground reality has been quite the opposite for Tumblr users. And in some way or the other, the whole thing has created a hindrance for its users. Instead of providing a smoother user experience the new UI have Tumblr users in an uproar as more and more people are complaining of the color contrast hurting their eyes. The new blue color scheme has gotten the thumbs down from the majority of the users as the blue does not go well with the color contrast
According to the Tumblr official statement regarding the color contrast change,
That color scheme does hurt the eyes and the public outcry of being forced to use it seems to be quite substantial for Tumblr to ignore it. From a technical perspective, bright colors do strain the eyes during prolonged usage, and the lack of a setting option to toggle this UI scheme in Tumblr points to an ill-executed move on their part.
@tumblr The new color change is causing many people eye strain, some to the point where they are struggling to use the site at all because it hurts to look at. Please make it Optional! pic.twitter.com/g5p1ZtefnO
— ????????Harper StarFright???????? (@StarlightHarper) January 31, 2019
aahhhh wtf happened to tumblr's layout? my eye hurt
— فاطمہ (@fairystcle) January 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/encxant/status/1091022636904267777?s=20
Tumblr update made my eyes hurt.
— Seventus (@Seventuss) January 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/herligisak/status/1090934484508266496?s=20
that one second after you've reloaded tumblr for dashboard and see that new blue before the xkit old blue extension kicks in pic.twitter.com/SBOYwXopaj
— vibeke. (@flintsjames) January 31, 2019
Right -_- tires my eyes to look at it
There's a xkit extension that makes you revert back to the old blue— ???? no brain lin (@qiliin) January 31, 2019
You can dowload the "Old blue" plugin for XKit
— ???????????? (@SpyzViridian) January 31, 2019
However, all is not lost as users can resolve this issue by using Xkit – a small extension framework for tweaks on Tumblr, to revert to the ‘old blue’ look and feel of Tumblr and keep their eyesight safe. Xkit is the only solution to Tumblr launches an official update to fix the situation. You can download it for Chrome, Firefox and Safari by clicking the links at the top of their Tumblr blog.