Update: 32 new avatars available! 😍

I feel like ya'll should've kept backgrounds.. profiles just seem bland now. Too much white. I earned 100k+ energy points JUST for a background I liked. So, guess I wasted my time..

Sure, you have the new avatars. And they're nice! ..for new members. Old members, used to say the leaf collection or Winston (like me) have probably grown attached to their avatar and aren't gonna change.
And saying "it'll make for a more enjoyable experience" is a stretch. It's just an avatar. Matter of fact, for someone who's been around on KA for awhile, seeing these new avatars makes me give them a second glance anytime I'm scrolling through, say, the tips & thanks of a JS program. I'm not used to them.
And removing backgrounds? It doesn't "make for a more enjoyable experience", it doesn't "make the profile more streamlined", it makes profiles look.. well, I won't lie, awful. And the avatars don't make up for it. There is no seperation between the bio of the user and the 'about user' section. And honestly? It hurts my eyes to look at. Especially since KA has no dark mode.

I should bring some attention to comments others have had on this update, since most members will see my comment first. The KA Boysmake a good point that it's too bright for students with eye sensitivity, and thus isn't as accessible as it should be. He also brings up the fact that some students can't use an extension to change the background color, since some students use school-monitered laptops that block extensions like that. Red Arrowhimself has light sensitivity issues, and he says it's too bright. He also brings up that, as most of us say, profiles look terrible now. For members who have at least been on KA for one day before the removal of backgrounds, it looks like the site hasn't fully loaded. I experienced this myself, the first time I saw my background gone, I genuinely refreshed the page, thinking "the site just didn't load, it's fine". Then.. well, it didn't load. So, here I am.
Brad | ₮he ⋐ool ↁudegave us a great analogy. Backgrounds were like a rooms wallpaper. They gave our "room" (profiles) color and life. But one day, we wake up (or, I guess log in) and.. our wallpaper is gone. The room is cold and lifeless. It's just a blank, white wall. Imagine that? You wake up one day and your room looks devoid of life?
To sum this all up, please reconsider the removal of backgrounds. Several users have stated that you can still have backgrounds in Go. VEXCESS #BabyLivesMattermay be unfamiliar with Go (he said this himself) but he still tried to give an example- in code- of how you can add backgrounds. I'm pretty sure people who have years of experience, and may be even more familiar in this new language, can figure out how to add backgrounds if VEXCESS can.

In this essay I will

Or make an option to add our own background.  

I got something ugly assigned to me. I tried to go through the steps to change it back to the closest thing to the slanted leaf that I had before someone made an executive decision to assign me one I don't like. I couldn't do it. I'm going to be submitting through Report a Problem.

The avatar I've been waiting for you to do is not one of the new ones. My old avatar was your former Khan Academy symbol. What I want is your current symbol, which is the green hexagon (almost a circle), with a white design in it that looks like it could be someone reading a book or a plant with two leaves.

I personally prefer the original avatars, But these new ones are pretty good too! The only thing I didn't like was the removal of backgrounds. Can you please bring profile backgrounds back? Maybe even add some more profile backgrounds?

I agree completely with Hydra. The new avatars are a neat addition, but please bring back the backgrounds. The profile page has way too much white now. The backgrounds looked cool, and the contrast from the backgrounds made the whole page look better. Plus I was really hoping to have the 1,000,000 energy points background someday.

Edit: I have read through most of the comments below and have not seen a single person in favor of the removal of backgrounds. I think it would make everyone happy if they simply added the background image back.

Bring back the backgrounds! They not hurting anyone, are they? Most coding sites have black backgrounds to make it easier to code, I would prefer not to wince every time I saw my profile.

I love Khan Academy, but I'm seriously losing patience with all the new desions that kill what made me learn to love it.

The new avatars certainly add more variety to the avatar collection. They are of a totally different feel from any of the other avatars. Even though I have already seen a fair deal of negative talk about the new avatars, I am all for them because KA is adding more options/features, and not taking away anything from any user. If you don't like a particular avatar, don't use it!

That said, I do not agree with the decision to remove the customizable bio-area background on the profile page. It takes away from some users and adds nothing. To put it simply, I don't like the lack of that colored background on the profile pages. There is too much white; it is too bland; and it hurts some people's eyes. Even though it wasn't all that much color, it really helped to break up the monotony of the profile page. I've attached a picture that I happened to have of my profile page a few months ago, and placed it side-by-side with a new screenshot of my profile. The new one sure looks a lot more boring, bland, and might I say, not as professional? The other thing is, the background around the bio area split the profile up into two parts; 1: The top part said who the user was, and 2: The bottom part that said what the user has accomplished.Recent times have seen some big changes in the KA website. One was the removal of the daily streak feature. From the screenshot of my profile, one can tell that I had a pretty good streak going, and thus was very disappointed in the removal. However, I was in favor of the removal because it would simplify the transition from Python to Go (since they removed it, it sounds like it would simplify it significantly). The streak widget was buggy anyway. With the removal of customizable profile backgrounds, it sounds like it was purely an aesthetic decision; the original post said "...our design team also simplified the profile background...". Since some people apparently think that the lack of the backgrounds looks better, why not have the backgrounds as an option? Have the old backgrounds, but also have just the white space as an option.

Overall, I am happy with the addition of new avatars; those have been requested for years. But I am disappointed with the backgrounds being removed. Perhaps the Khan Team isn't being fully transparent with the users? Was this somehow related to the Python->Go transition? More information on the decision to remove the backgrounds would be very much appreciated by me, and I'm sure by many other people.

I honestly don't like the new avatars.  They just don't match up with the old ones and the backgrounds removed looked really nice.  It kind of felt like Khan switched to a less professional designer/developer a while ago.

Khan, at first, was supposed to be a fun way for learning by earning energy points for different badges, avatars, and backgrounds.  First badges were taken away which made things quite bad.  Next, backgrounds are taken away, and new avatars lacking the old style are added.  What next?  Are energy points going to be removed next?

Please don't take any words of mine as an offense, just my opinion (sorry if I was a bit harsh)

I think the new avatars are a great addition as well... for the younger learners. Now if KA approached some of the well made avatars popularly seen in user held contests, I believe that would have a greater appeal to the more mature users as well as symbolizing how KA listens to its community.

That being said, I don’t want to look the gift horse in the mouth. The KA community is, I’m sure, very happy to new avatars!

As for the profile background images, why? I just don’t get the rationale here.

"To make these avatars more engaging, our design team also simplified the profile background"

How does removing a fun addition to the profile that made peoples' profiles stand out more make avatars more engaging? This just makes the profile look more dull. In addition, with the removal of the millionaire badge, there's not much of a reason to get 1 million eps and most people will stop at 250k to unlock all the ultimate avatars.

As for the avatars, I'm not a big fan of the new style but I'm completely fine if someone else wants to use them. It would be nice if they could be used as images in CS.

Removing the backgrounds makes the profile look like it hasn't completely loaded.

What about the people who don't use the new avatars?  To me the plain background is too distracting. I'm fine with the new avatars, but I don't see how removing the background is going to make them look better. We want the backgrounds back.

I do find the new update nice, but what was the use of removing backgrounds? Was it a plan to stop people from running for energy points and make them actually learn? I like the new avatars though.

It's obvious considering the fact they removed so many badges, then the streak, and now this. Are they looking to now removing something again? Energy points? Q&A? Tips And Thanks? Or some random 'missed' stuff?

This is so bland. Is this considered to be the new future of KA? Or are they about to consider changing our profile into a couple of HTML lines?

A good recommendation for the new 2D avatars is a translucent background that matches the current avatar's colour. This is a harsh update. People who aren't very technically experienced will think it's a glitch and might as well leave KA, considering the false fact that KA has broken. I don't find it very satisfying now. The (now) KA profiles have nothing that shows fame and glory(even though we know we aren't present for that on KA). I hope KA thinks about our thoughts too. Everyone's opinions should be considered. 

New KA users will obviously think this is the new appeal of KA, which is false. KA was beautiful and still should be. The new update isn't simplifying. It's, to be honest, a bad update, or a useless one.

It would be way cooler if they have animated backgrounds. _lOoOl_

Bring back the backgrounds!

I just don't like the new avatars because they just don't fit in with the rest of the other avatars and the removal of backgrounds just makes it even worse. I also don't like them because they look like they were made for kids. They look like things a 5 year old drew. But I still appreciate the effort the KA staff made into making new avatars.  And if you're not going to bring the backgrounds back then at least make it so that you could take away the white background because it makes your profile look very blank.

I'm going to be honest here, I don't like the new avatars at all. They have such a different style than the old ones, they don't seem to fit in because of the bright and pastel colors. They also don't look 3d like the rest of the avatars. But the worst part is that the backgrounds were removed because of them. It makes the design of the whole page seem off and I don't think it's worth it just to have new avatars. Everything on the dashboard already has a white background so there should be at least one area with more color, and that's the background. I also earned lots of energy points to get a new background and now that it's gone I feel like I wasted my time. Please don't take any of what I said as offensive, I just think that the new avatars ruin the overall feel of Khan Academy. That being said, I wouldn't mind if the new avatars and backgrounds were there. If you could do that, I would highly suggest doing that, it will make the dashboard look more put together.

Wow, not even 24 hours and you have all of this feedback! It seems that the khan academy community has spoken. But here is an idea no one else thought of: adding the new background as an option. Anyway, wasn't khan academy all about helping kids worldwide? So one way of doing that is by allowing a little bit of customization, something that really helps when deciding how to build a site for millions of people.

If this site acts like so many others and goes of one path saying "For the good of the community" while the community yells the opposite at it, I will take my business elsewhere.

I completely agree with mbonka and ag_sucour572. This is a pointless update, and I miss the backgrounds. Maybe don't get rid of the new avatars, but please bring back the old backgrounds.

Thank you, Khan Academy, for your consideration of user interests.

In light of recent changes, I have a request.

Can we please have the backgrounds back?

I have not seen any positive feedback about the removal of backgrounds. I strongly believe that the KA community is against the plain grey backgrounds now issued.

I would, however, like to state that if the Khan Administration would not like to restore backgrounds, I will continue to be thankful for this resource.

I just want the backgrounds back. I got 1 mil points just for the galaxy background and now its gone. Or add a dark mode please!

Credits to Hydra

I've gotten my energy points for a good background. I did math for it, and learned so that I could have a welcoming background I liked. I was proud of my streak, and I really loved my background, since it looked like a good place for my tree piceratops. And when you take away the backgrounds just for some new avatars, take away streaks, I feel like my profile is losing the very beauty it still has left. Are you going to remove badges next?

Let us have a competition for us to make our own backgrounds for users to have. Let us choose what we want. We can choose what we want, right? And I think the majority of us agrees with me. Hydra, VEXCESS, John, and everyone here. If we can make good backgrounds that satisfy you, can't we use it? The majority of us do want it, anyway.

I didn't read all the comments here, but there seems to be a general theme – avatars are kind of cool, but backgrounds should not have been removed. And I have to agree.

Let's be honest, profiles look terrible now! It looks like the site has glitched and graphics aren't loading, and having some light sensitivity issues myself, it's just too white. I wish KA offered a dark mode, but no.

What was wrong with the previous backgrounds? They were aesthetically pleasing, and contrasted well with the rest of the site. The 'new and improved' background, on the other hand, is less aesthetically pleasing than the Comic Sans font.

You said that  "To make these avatars more engaging, our design team also simplified the profile background." I don't think what you did should be called 'simplifying', it should be called 'deleting.' Loll, all that is left is an ugly whitish color.

Why the change??

Side note: Concerning the avatars, I think they're cool, but they don't fit well the the style of the the original avatars. Still, I have to admit that I love the orange cacteye :)

Reading through these comments, I haven't seen a single person say that they appreciate the plain grey backgrounds. They're just boring and dull and I can't really understand why they're considered to be "more enjoyable and streamlined." When I first came to Khan Academy, I had a different account, and that was where I completed most of Intro to JS. When I made this account, I rewatched videos and redid challenges like the simple snowman, just so I could get enough energy points to unlock a cool background, but I found it really boring because it was so easy. Now it feels like that was just a big waste of time.

As for the new avatars, they're kind of cute, but I agree with everyone else; they look like things a six year old drew, and are definitely not worth losing the backgrounds. They are super different from the style of the other avatars, and look strange next to them.  I'm not against them, but I'm not exactly a fan of them either.

All in all, I think this is a pointless update. Please bring back the backgrounds.

This is completely pointless. Missions, streaks, and now backgrounds. All of these actually defined KA for being fun AND educational. Adding avatars that look like some six year old movie character is POINTLESS. Please bring backgrounds, remove the new avatars, and listen to everyone who commented.   

Guys, just downvote this post.  A post with -20 votes and more is bound to be looked at.

-_- haha i meant the original post

Yes, PLEASE bring back background! The avatars are only really appealing to a young audience, not usually older people like me. 

Also, another request, can you at least allow the Primaverra avatars to be used? The Terratrice, Buzzaw, Pyroach, and now the Lappa, Frostine, Vortan, and all the other well-created ones?

I can't agree with Red Arrow ✝ more.

The new avatars don't match KA, they are off-themed, and worst, we lost background because of them. They really aren't worth the bland profiles now have. And now there is no incentive to work to get a cool background. Please bring back backgrounds and 3D avatars that actually look good, like perhaps those awesome Primaverra avatars from this year and last year. I am sure we would all like that.

Is KA going to start acting like all the others who do the exact opposite of what their costumers want? This update is doing more bad then good(if any).

I'm disappointed with the removal of backgrounds. I was actually hoping they'd add some new ones. 

If backgrounds aren't coming back, please change the solid colour background to something a bit darker. I often study or code late at night and the off-white is very hard on my eyes. It's a pain to switch the brightness settings on my computer just for my dashboard. It doesn't look that great and professional either. My dashboard is something I look at almost every day multiple times, and I really appreciated the ability to customize it.

Please don't remove the old avatars. I've become quite attached to mine. :)

Sorry to complain when you're just trying to improve things, I don't mean to be rude. Thanks for everything you guys do to make that Khan Academy so awesome.

Hey everyone - first of all, thanks for all your thoughtful feedback on this update so far. It’s clear that this is a part of the site that’s meaningful for a lot of people so I wanted to get more info straight from the teams involved in these changes to give you further context.

First, on the decision to change the backgrounds from multiple options to one - as 🐿️Professor Squirrel🐿️ alluded to, this was another change driven in large part by Khan Academy's code migration project. Every day, behind the scenes, various parts of the site are being rewritten in Go and published, and the team has been looking for opportunities to simplify the overall experience as part of this. We found that, even though some people loved the different profile backgrounds, very few learners were engaging with them. This made it a logical choice for simplifying as part of this project. That said, we could have been more transparent about that rationale in the announcement and I apologize for that miss.

Second, on the style of the new avatars - you’re all right that these new avatars are very different than our previous ones, but that’s intentional. You might have noticed that various parts of the site (including this Help Center) have been getting a design update over the last year+, and that’s to better align with Khan Academy’s current modern visual language. For example:

These new avatars are more consistent with that design style, and you can expect to see additional design updates over time that brings more of Khan Academy into alignment with it. That said, feedback is always welcome and valued on these changes.

Third, on the new light background. This is was chosen as the profile background color with the goal of reducing the distraction of the Learner home, giving it a more open feel and providing a greater contrast and focus for the colorful avatars. In general, the team wants as little as possible to distract students from learning, and the Learner home is where their assignments live and where the vast majority start working from.

Finally - thanks again for your energy and feedback around this topic, and around Khan Academy in general. Design decisions will always have their detractors but I hope this at least helps better explain the rationales behind this one. Feedback continues to be very welcome, the team reads it all.

Well, I believe that the community thinks that the background to their profile is akin to the wallpaper of their room. Now imagine that one day, you wake up, and the walls of your room are just a solid gray.

That's it.

It feels like our proud, colorful room that reflects us has been invaded.

I know many people on the KA community are proud to be able to personalize their background. I think a good option would to at least let us pick the color of our "room".