Small sidebar visual changes coming soon

Ever since the launch of SB Nation United we've heard feedback that the sidebar modules were hard to read and felt too dominant on the page. We've also heard from users at a number of sites that certain communities felt like they lacked identity because of the color scheme limitations. Well, we've taken this feedback and have been working to refine the style of the front page to address these concerns and we're getting ready to release some visual tweaks to the sidebars that we think do just that.

Here is a screenshot of the direction we're going (click to embiggen):

Dropping the color in sidebar modules is obviously a pretty big switch, but the idea is that it puts the weight back on the main content well (a return to some of the SBN 2.0 design) and allows for subtly calling out a secondary color for each blog. Sites will get a subtle new infusion of color without the primary being quite as dominant in the river. This has the added benefit of cleaning up the sidebar modules and making them easier to scan and read, which is a refrain we've heard very often since launch. Dark text on a light background is just a little easier to take in.

This release will also allow us to set a link color on your favorite sites that is separate from the primary color where it makes sense and/or links have been hard to distinguish and read, which should help with some readability issues around the network.

These changes will be rolling out Wednesday of next week. We've got more coming in a follow-up release the next week that I'll post about next week, but I wanted y'all to have plenty of notice on this change. Let us know what you think!