Eyes issues on new UI (prev. using Mavericks)

[Isamilis]

Just curious, do anyone experience the same? Since using El Capitan from Mavericks (I skipped Yosemith) for a month, I feel that my eyes got tired quickly. It still happen even after changing setting in Accessibility. Is this common? If so, how do you overcome this?

thanks.

 

[dianeoforegon]

System Preferences > Display - Adjust brightness level
System Preferences > Accessibility > Display check Increase Contrast
System Preferences > General > check Dark mode

 

[Evren Carven]

Could you tell us how you feel your eyes got tired quickly? Brightness or font(size) or something else?

 

[KALLT]

Just curious, do anyone experience the same? Since using El Capitan from Mavericks (I skipped Yosemith) for a month, I feel that my eyes got tired quickly. It still happen even after changing setting in Accessibility. Is this common? If so, how do you overcome this?

There is not much you can do. I think the fatigue is caused by a combination of small font sizes, more subtle shadows, brighter colours and flatter overall aesthetics. While I am not getting tired by this, I do share a slight unpleasantness when working with El Capitan. I chose to use Mavericks as my daily driver again and it just feels distinctly better to work with.

In addition to the accessibility settings you already mentioned, make sure you select a bigger sidebar font size in System Preferences > General. You might want to consider installing a plugin to change the fonts to something more legible, like the typeface used in Mavericks (e.g. here). It also helps to install f.lux to tone down the brightness and white point. I assume that a higher-resolution display will also help, but you should make sure that you are not sitting too far away from your screen so as to not strain your eyes unnecessarily.

 

[Max(IT)]

I did the same switch, ditching Yosemite entirely, and I didn't notice any difference.

 

[Isamilis]

Thank you KALLT. Really worthy input. I will try it and see how does it help on my situation.

There is not much you can do. I think the fatigue is caused by a combination of small font sizes, more subtle shadows, brighter colours and flatter overall aesthetics. While I am not getting tired by this, I do share a slight unpleasantness when working with El Capitan. I chose to use Mavericks as my daily driver again and it just feels distinctly better to work with.

In addition to the accessibility settings you already mentioned, make sure you select a bigger sidebar font size in System Preferences > General. You might want to consider installing a plugin to change the fonts to something more legible, like the typeface used in Mavericks (e.g. here). It also helps to install f.lux to tone down the brightness and white point. I assume that a higher-resolution display will also help, but you should make sure that you are not sitting too far away from your screen so as to not strain your eyes unnecessarily.

[doublepost=1452524301][/doublepost]I think it's combination of font, colour, very thin line, etc. I got my eyes a bit wet after 1-2 hours work, also feel blurry when I switch looking from the screen. It does happen also with Mavericks, but usually after working whole day in front of screen.

Could you tell us how you feel your eyes got tired quickly? Brightness or font(size) or something else?

 

[Ebenezum]

There is not much you can do. I think the fatigue is caused by a combination of small font sizes, more subtle shadows, brighter colours and flatter overall aesthetics. While I am not getting tired by this, I do share a slight unpleasantness when working with El Capitan. I chose to use Mavericks as my daily driver again and it just feels distinctly better to work with.

In addition to the accessibility settings you already mentioned, make sure you select a bigger sidebar font size in System Preferences > General. You might want to consider installing a plugin to change the fonts to something more legible, like the typeface used in Mavericks (e.g. here). It also helps to install f.lux to tone down the brightness and white point. I assume that a higher-resolution display will also help, but you should make sure that you are not sitting too far away from your screen so as to not strain your eyes unnecessarily.

Agreed.

I went back to Mavericks for similar reasons last month, Yosemite and El Capitan have taken interface into wrong direction and to add insult to injury both contain too many other bugs. I'm much more productive in Mavericks!

 

[Gochugogi]

I agree El Capitan is a notch harder on the eyes than 10.8 and 10.9. What worse, most websites are following a similar bland design and general lack of easier to read serif fonts.

 

[Buggyflayer]

I wasn't a fan of the Yosemite look when it was launched so like you stayed on Mavericks... until 2 weeks before El Capitan was released to the public, I thought running a major version behind would be the best in terms of stability with the fashion for pushed annual releases.

I use a MacBook Air but was using a fairly old SVGA monitor on it when at my office. On the day of the upgrade I felt uncomfortable working on my Mac, felt tiredness and over the following days some nausea. I discovered a huge thread on the 'looks' of Yosemite on this site. For many it was simply aesthetics but for a distinct minority there were genuine issues in Getting Work Done.
Using f.lux as mentioned above helped, I also experimented with the dark mode & similar tweaks.

After 4 days of it I upgraded my external monitor to a Dell U2145 which copes with Display Port, runs natively at 16:10 and can run up to 1920x1080p. The monitor upgrade helped A LOT.

EL Capitan has a better system font than Yosemite (for me) so after 2 weeks of 10.10.5 I was on 10.11.0 and felt better for it.

The other thing that has since helped is that I went and had my eyes tested again & got new glasses. Note that I wasn't aware of struggling with anything else with my previous prescription.

I still have an old Mac Mini at home maxed out on Lion - on an old DVI monitor for family email, browsing & kids homework. Despite using El Capitan for hours daily for months now, I can find (see?) less used things quicker on Lion...