Hi there.
Here’s what I sent The Dispatch team as a review and critique:
Review of the new “The Dispatch” website and features.
Newsletters:
Consistency is lacking. Nick’s “Boiling Frogs” arrives addressed from “Nick Catoggio,” Klon’s “The Current” is from “The Dispatch,” “The Morning Dispatch” is from “The Morning Dispatch.”
With my iPad in “dark mode,” emails and similar walls of text are supposed to render as white typeface against a black/dark background. For some reason, some dispatch newsletters render in dark mode in iOS, others render in black on white. I have no theory or explanation for this.
The “Newsletters” section of the homepage is a separate page only. This makes some sense as the place where users can control which newsletters they receive as emails. But a “Menu” section that simply listed all newsletters as a direct link to each newsletter’s subsection would be more intuitive. As it is, you get to each newsletter’s subpage through the general newsletter management page. As a user, you go from a “manage newsletters” page to a “latest newsletter” page for the newsletter you’re interested in.
Homepage:
The ordering appears to be original to the Dispatch, but it lacks a familiar logic. The first segment of the homepage below the…very…slowly…scrolling…banner is, uh, what exactly? Some of the latest stuff? But not all of it? Why does this section lack a heading that would provide some sense of what the editors have in mind—for users and editors each to use as guidance. Even though the Dispatch aims to emphasize something other than the latest, trendiest items, the fact remains that users expect a publication to post its most recent public output on top. If users don’t see the latest items at the top of the page, many assume there is nothing new and move along.
As a right-hand sidebar to the top segment, there is “Worth Your Time.” This lists article titles without author names, publication dates, subject category, or any other identifying information. It is also slightly confusing because that heading is a section of The Morning Dispatch that points users to articles outside of the Dispatch website entirely.
The second segment is “Newest Podcast Episodes”—but at least one user prefers to download these from my favorite podcast app as he has done since at least the Remnant podcast came into being before The Dispatch. So why does this section take up so much homepage real estate?
The next segment is “Midterms,” and one user recently discovered at least two articles that he hadn’t seen the day they were published because he expected new articles to appear in the top segment of the homepage. As a category, presumably “Midterms” will disappear sometime after early November, possibly without a trace, since it is not mentioned among the Topics section of the Menu at the top of the homepage.
The final section before the footer and masthead is “Popular with Members,” and isn’t necessarily problematic, other than lacking timestamps and/or some indication (for instance, a different text color) that the user has read the article already.
The masthead is fine, but it would be nice to have a “Sitemap” option so the user has a better idea as to what’s on the site and how the categories work.
The previous Substack version of the site permitted users to “like” articles on the site, which was a convenient way to signal appreciation for the article to the author and editors without having to leave a comment to accomplish this. Such a feature—or perhaps a different font color—helps readers see at a glance which articles they have perused.
Comments:
The notifications of replies work nicely now, as do the notifications of “likes.” That helps facilitate debate and argument, making the experience far more interactive and friendly.
Some things are missing and/or askew:
Clickable user/member bios on the author screen name for a given comment.
The long-desired, hard-fought edit button (Edith Burton) from this year’s Substack comment improvements.
Collapsable threads—a nice feature that is sorely missed, especially in heavily commented pages like The Morning Dispatch.
An invisible wall to comment threads keeps them going beyond four.
It would be nice to see the heart icon or word “Like” light up or change color once it’s been clicked.
The ability to post links to comments that are clickable is convenient; having to copy and paste or mark, drag, and drop is more cumbersome.
This particular user isn’t wild about the preset font for comments, finding the sans serif font of Substack’s comments easier to read.
Written and/or endorsed by users Angie, Aylene Wright, C C Writer, CynthiaW, Jack, MarqueG68, Seth B, and the original Optimum.net (alphabetically).
Although a day late I just wanted to cosign your letter. I really appreciate the charitable way you phrased your critiques, and am happy that The Dispatch Powers That Be are paying heed.
Thanks for sending that document of suggestions, Marque! I hope the Dispatch people realize we're trying to be, pardon the expression, helpful!