Obsidian's New Look  ## Metadata - Author: [[Danny Hatcher]] - Full Title: Obsidian's New Look - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #Obsidian - #PKM - #SoftwareUpdates Author: Obsidian Team Source: YouTube Reference: [Obsidian’s New Look – YouTube Transcript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44) date created: 2025-08-22 19:30 --- # Title: Obsidian’s New Look – Website, Icon, and Feature Updates ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: The video explores **Obsidian’s new website redesign, updated icon system, and product pricing clarifications**. The changes focus on improved navigation, a centralized blog for announcements, better visibility for developer documentation, and a new customizable icon generator. Additionally, Obsidian Sync and Publish are now the same price, and educational discounts remain available (though buried in the FAQ). Community resources, updated forums, and early access options are also highlighted. --- ## 📖 Main Content: The update signals a maturation of Obsidian as a product and brand. From website design changes to product transparency, the platform is consolidating information flows while experimenting with branding flexibility. ### 🗒️ Notes - [0:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=1): Website redesigned – cleaner layout, OS-specific downloads shown. - [0:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=25): Developer docs now prominently placed under Obsidian Publish. - [0:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=50): Community spaces – Discord, Forum, Roundup, Plugin Stats, Hub, Talks. - [1:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=66): Forum shows new icon, announcement channel archived → replaced by official blog. - [1:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=84): Blog consolidates updates, events (e.g., Obsidian October). - [1:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=106): Pricing clarified – Obsidian Sync & Publish same price; early access $25 one-time. - [2:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=130): FAQ reveals hidden **40% education/nonprofit discount**. - [2:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=142): Sync and Publish pages more transparent with detailed feature breakdowns. - [2:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=176): Account and billing pages streamlined, cleaner layout, discount applications integrated. - [3:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=203): Changelog highlights Catalyst (insider) vs. public builds. - [3:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=229): Icon redesign launched – customizable colors and shapes. - [4:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&t=251): Icons can be exported as PNG, SVG, ICO and applied system-wide. --- ## 📖 References: - [Obsidian Website](https://obsidian.md) - [Obsidian Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md) - [Obsidian Blog](https://obsidian.md/blog) --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. Original: “They’ve changed the entire website… cleaner, easier navigation, more visible docs.” Paraphrase: The redesigned site emphasizes simplicity, restructured visuals, and easier access to resources, especially for developers. 2. Original: “The new icon generator lets you customize colors and export your chosen design.” Paraphrase: Users can now tailor the Obsidian icon to their preference by adjusting colors and formats, creating a personalized branding experience. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: ✨ Obsidian’s had a facelift! The note-taking giant rolled out a fresh **website redesign**, a **new customizable icon generator**, and clarified its **pricing structure**. 🔹 **Website Refresh**: Cleaner navigation, OS-specific downloads, and centralized docs/blog. 🔹 **Custom Icons**: Pick your colors, export in PNG/SVG/ICO, and brand your vault your way. 🔹 **Pricing Update**: Obsidian Sync & Publish now cost the same. Early access = $25. Educational discounts (40%) are still hidden in the FAQ—worth knowing! 🔹 **Community Moves**: Forum announcements now redirect to the official blog, consolidating updates. 👉 Check it out: [obsidian.md](https://obsidian.md) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - **Educator Use**: Promote hidden educational discounts to WP contributors/students. - **Community Onboarding**: Note how Obsidian consolidates docs/blog—apply to WordPress contributor onboarding flows. - **OSPO Strategy**: Study how pricing transparency and community updates align with sustainable open-source business practices. - **Advocacy Example**: Use Obsidian’s icon customizer as inspiration for WordPress branding flexibility in FSE. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - H1: The website redesign reduces user friction in accessing developer docs. - H2: Custom icon personalization increases user emotional attachment to the tool. - H3: Transparency in pricing builds long-term trust and adoption. ### 📊 Methodology: - Conduct A/B testing comparing old vs. new site navigation. - Survey users on icon usage and branding satisfaction. - Track adoption rates post-pricing simplification. ### ❓ Questions: - Will hiding discounts in FAQ hurt perception of transparency? - Does icon customization matter for retention or is it novelty? - How will consolidation of updates into a blog affect forum engagement? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore impact of personalization features (icons, themes) on retention in PKM apps. - Assess cross-platform adoption trends post-redesign. - Study balance between monetization and open documentation access. ### 💡 Implications: - Stronger UX practices in PKM tools may influence open-source communities. - Clearer onboarding flows improve inclusivity for non-technical contributors. - Transparent pricing strengthens long-term sustainability models. --- ## 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment: - **Visual**: Website redesign + icon generator strongly support visual learners. - **Aural**: No audio support—consider podcast/blog audio versions. - **Verbal**: Blog + FAQs rich in text, good for linguistic learners. - **Kinesthetic**: Icon generator provides hands-on engagement. - **Logical**: Pricing breakdown + changelog support analytical learners. - **Social**: Forum/Discord create collaborative opportunities. - **Solitary**: Blog & changelog support self-directed exploration. - **Naturalistic**: No nature metaphors—could tie branding to ecosystem concepts. --- ## 📊 Accessibility Assessment: - Strong contrast in site redesign, cleaner layout. - Missing alt-text verification for images/icons. - Keyboard navigation usability not discussed. - FAQ discounts could be surfaced more clearly for accessibility. --- ## 🌍 DEIB Assessment: - Cultural: Global community but English-dominant—multilingual docs needed. - Inclusive Language: Neutral, professional. - Neurodiversity: FAQ burying discounts increases cognitive load—should surface upfront. - Representation: Forums/community highlight diversity but not visible in official site. - Psychological Safety: Encourages user choice (custom icons), but transparency gaps may impact trust. --- ## ✅ Logical Validity: - **Strengths**: - Deductive: Pricing simplification improves clarity. - Inductive: Cleaner design → better usability. - Evidence: Blog + changelog centralization supports claims. - **Weaknesses**: - Hidden discounts may create perception of inconsistency. - Assumes personalization (icons) → retention without evidence. --- ## 🔍 DARVO Ana - Summary: Obsidian has made changes to its website, including a new icon, easier-to-find developer documentation, and a blog section for updates and announcements. The platform also offers an ecommerce solution through a partnership with wholesaler Ingram, supports small independent bookstores, and offers an alternative to Amazon's dominant presence in the book market. Obsidian plans to expand into ebooks and establish partnerships with other small businesses in the future. - URL: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6rYV32jku44&feature=share while obsidians come out with a coupleof changes the first one really obviousthe icon lovingness but one of thebiggest changes is they they've changedlike the entire website so let's gothrough it on the home page you can seeget obsidian for Windows that's becauseI'm on Windows if you're on Mac it wouldbe for Mac Etc so it's it's operatingsystem specific I believe then when youclick on more platforms you've got thenew icon showing and then download forWindows and then all the other platformsit's available on scrolling down westill have all of the previous imagesjust rearranged in a cleaner way I feeland you scroll down to the bottom you get another download for free but thenyou've got join the Discord discussionon the Forum and then the developer docsso developers there's there's your docsright here when we click in it takes youto an obsidian published website butdeveloper documentation and this iswhere you can look through all thedocumentation which is really nice tosee it's easier to find on the websiteI'm not a developer so I won't look atthat and then we go to the top rightnullcon Community there's the Discordchat there's the Forum and someCommunity places as well you've got theRoundup in here you've got the pluginstats the community Hub and thecommunity talks now when we visit the Forum you can see there's the new iconinside the form as well theannouncements channel has a bigannouncement you can see they'rearchiving it so they're archiving thisentire announcement channel for the newobsidian blog coming back to theirwebsite if you scroll all the way downto the bottom you can see somenavigation down the bottom you can seelearn you've got the help documentationbut the blog is right here so going intothe blog we've got the most recent blogwhich is the new icon I'll go in in aminute and then you have all of theprevious blogs or announcements so thisis I would imagine where all the updates are going to happen and anything elsethey want to talk about so you can seethe 2020 gems of the year and I wouldimagine obsidian October will also beinside of the blog which you can seerssv Twitter Boston Etc there is anotherbutton at the top for the download thenthere is the pricing so when we go intopricing obviously it takes us to thepricing and then shows the commercialuse and when you scroll down you thenget the two add-ons obsidian sync andobsidian publish for those that don'tknow are now the exact same price andfor those of you like myself that wantearly access to new builds and thingslike that you can get Early Access for a one-time payment of 25 dollars plus andsomething I do want to note you've gotall the FAQs down here but when you comedown you can see do you offer discountsfor educational nonprofits in othergroups yes they still offer the 40discount it's just hidden in the FAQsection so don't be afraid it it isstill there when you go up to the topand click on Sync It's got the sync pagethat shows you everything about syncwhich is very nice start syncing andthen you go to publish it's got theexact same thing for all the publishedinformation I have a published site so when you have a look down here you seeexplore publish sites for obsidianCommunity it currently has these eightsites up here if you're curious if yougo to the about page of my website youcan see down here public notes and clickon that you can see the voltcraftpublished website that I use with Johnso myself and John use voltcraft andthis is all of my notes so my publishsite is also available but it's notinside this list here so if you want toknow what my stuff is you can have alook that way but these are all reallycool sites then as we go over to theaccounts at the top right this has allbeen updated so even though you can see the menu there it's all one page youjust scroll up and down and go throughbut all the information is here and itjust looks nicer it feels cleaner andyou can see everything else is going onand going into the billing section youcan see discounts you can then apply forthat discount inside of the accountsettings going to whatever other partthat you want I'm going to go back tothe main site going all the way down tothe bottom you can see in the learnsection we've got the help docs which isstill the same and then we have thechange log and this shows obviously allof the changes so you can see these arepublic changes and as you scroll downthis is a catalyst change so that's the Insiders so the Early Access build sothis is only available for those withthe catalyst so when we scroll up thisone is public this one is catalyst etcetc so some of these recent updates areonly available for the Catalyst like thenew PDF viewer I think that may be goinglive soon though if it hasn't donealready then going to the blog we havethe new icon I think because I'm so usedto the old obsidian icon it's going totake me some time to get used to it butit still looks pretty cool then as youscroll down you get some different looksof the icon but was really nice eyes is this right here so when you click into acolor you can then pick any color thatyou want and obviously it changes thecolor so let's go over here and it'sgreen and then we can change thebackground to Red that's a really oddcombination we can Shuffle so shufflethrough different color combinations andthey all look way better than what Ijust made but once you've foundsomething that you like you can thensave it as a PNG SVG or Ico now beforesaving this I do recommend downloadingthe most recent version of obsidian soyou get the new updated installer which you should be doing anywayum but it also gives you the icon thenew icon inside of obsidian so when yougo to the Vault switcher it looks likethis not the older version but onceyou've found a combination that lookskind of nice so let's use this one ifyou're on Mac or Linux I believe youwant to save it as a PNG or SVG I'm onWindows I'm going to save it as an Icoand you can see I've now saved theobsidian icon then if I go into Windowsgo to obsidian and then open filelocation you can see I've got myobsidian in here I've actually alreadychanged the icon but when I right click I then go properties it then gives methe option to change icon I can thenbrowse and then find the icon I'vealready found my icon and once you'vefound it click on OK apply and then okaynow when I come out if I go down to myDock and windows you can see the iconhas changed into the orange obsidianwhich I quite like this was just a quickupdate but let me know what yourthoughts are on the new icon and the newwebsite in the comment section below, Obsidian's New Look, Danny Hatcher, 01h1y0gqrdqtvesvbm05fj9gq7.