Will change the look of the on-screen messages, by using a smaller font and a background texture that is less visible.

It's also possible to alter the look some more, if you open up your prefs file.
To locate your prefs file, please navigate to:

Windows XP (typical): C:\Documents and Settings\<Windows login name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Funcom\Conan\Prefs\<Account name>
\ Windows Vista: <User directory>\AppData\Local\Funcom\Conan\Prefs\<Account name>
\ Then locate the file Prefs_1.xml or Prefs_2.xml in that directory.

In the file you will want to find these lines:

<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_DisplayTime" value="1500000" />
<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_FadeInTime" value="100000" />
<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_FadeOutTime" value="100000" />
<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_LineSpacing" value="1" />
<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_MaxMessageCount" value="8" />
<Value name="FeedbackGUI_FIFO_ScreenPos" value="100" />

They're pretty self-explanatory (you will have different values than mine, since I've already made some changes).
"ScreenPos" is the amount of space between the top of the screen and to where the messages should start displaying.