So far I’ve had the opportunity to try out DK5 on various different platforms, browsers, and internet connections.
Results are mixed, to say the least. I will try to stick to what works and doesn’t work on a given platform. And without further ado:
SPEED
Comcast Cable (home) — iOS 9.1/iPad Air (Safari); OS X Mavericks/Mac Pro desktop (Firefox 42.0).
DK5 loads slowly on my Comcast Cable connection at home. Since DK5 has been billed as loading faster, this point bears repeating: at ordinary cable speeds DK5 loads slowly. Each thumbnail that now graces the sidebar takes a moment to load. Each scroll of half a page or so causes a hiccup. Scroll too fast and DK5 quickly falls behind, leaving only blank screen for a few seconds until it catches up. Often it appears to have caught up, except it takes another few moments for the button or link functionality to appear, leading to failed attempts to activate buttons or links, leading to more frustration. It’s maddening. The experience is nearly as bad as Huffington Post has become. The site has become impossible to use.
Verizon 4G LTE, iOS 9.1/iPad Air (Safari), iPhone 5S (Safari).
At my location at work (which has good LTE reception), the site renders slowly and choppily over iOS on Verizon LTE, even worse than it does on my home Comcast digital cable. The site is completely unusable.
Comcast Cable (commercial) — iOS 9.1/iPad Air (Safari), OS X Yosemite/13” Retina MacBook Pro (Firefox 42.0, Safari), Windows 7/Desktop PC/Firefox 42.0, IE 11.0.14, Chrome 46.0.2490.80 m.
At my office, where we have some kind of maximum speed commercial version of Comcast, one can understand why the designer believed the new, faster-loading site would allow use of all the added bells and whistles. DK5 loads super-fast on iOS and OS X. Scrolling is seamless. On Windows 7, using any of the three major browsers and the same fast Comcast connection, the experience is nearly as good, except there are a couple of seconds of delay on the initial page load (less on Chrome than Firefox or IE). Once the home page is fully loaded DK5 scrolls seamlessly. If I had a screaming internet connection everywhere the speed of the new site would easily support the new format. Unfortunately, I don’t.
USABILITY
iPad Air (Retina), iOS 9.1, Safari.
A majority of my browsing takes place via an iPad. (Note to Kos: Literally tens of millions of people use iPads or other tablets to browse the internet. Do not give short shrift to these users!)
As many others have noted, there is too much white space on DK5 in general:
- Main text headlines appear to have unnecessary line breaks that make them take up an extra line, which not only looks bad but is precious wasted space.
- The main text appears to be double-spaced or space-and-a-half, with triple spacing between paragraphs. Again, too much wasted space.
- The sidebar only shows about 5 diary headlines at a time.
- Comments generally have the same spacing problems as the main text. I like the feature where you can see who someone is replying to. But when you touch the link, the parent comment gains a large expanse of white space between the last line and the sig line.
The white space problems are particularly bothersome on an iPad, which has a 4:3 aspect ratio. But make no mistake, there is till too much white space on the other platforms!
An aside: by “white space” I mean empty space, not the fact that DK5 main text is black (brown? gray?) text on white background. I work all day on computer screens using black text on white background. It’s the same as paper, people! It’s fine.
Reader View on DK5 is broken. Headlines do not appear at all. The white space and spacing problems are all still there.
The main text font is gorgeous on my iPad retina screen. Contrast is plenty good enough for my 55-year old eyes.
The new link-to-the-parent-of-reply-comments feature is very useful.
The New Comment notifications are obnoxious, but Kos already said they’re going away so enough said.
iPhone 5S, iOS 9.1, Safari.
The new font sizes up nicely when embiggened in landscape view on my iPhone 5S, at which point it looks as good as it does on the iPad. In portrait view, however, the font is too thin even when embiggened. The font is most readable in Reader View, but the headlines are still broken in Reader View on my iPhone.
MacBook Pro Retina 13”, 2560x 1600, OS X Yosemite, Firefox 42.0, Safari.
DK5 looks simply marvelous on my MB Pro.
As I recall the MB Pro Retina screen is 2560 x 1600 (double 800p). DK5 renders very nicely on this screen, as if it had been designed on a 13” MB Pro. All the elements fit. When you enlarge the window to full screen or go to full screen view, everything remains nicely proportioned.
That said, the headline spacing and excess line spacing problems in main text and comments section are present here, too. These problems are less bothersome here mainly because the main text section is now wider because the site adapts to the wider screen aspect ratio as compared to the iPad.
Font readability and contrast is excellent.
Mac Pro, 24” 1920 x 1200, OSX Mavericks, Firefox 42.0.
Full screen view simply creates a huge expanse of wasted white space on either side rather than enlarging the readable area of main text and/or sidebar. The main text box and sidebar won’t extend horizontally past some arbitrary limit, so there’s no point going to full-screen. The navigation bar at the top extends to whatever size you make the window, but the main text and sidebar stay the same.
The same problems with headline spacing in main text and the excess line spacing in main text and comments are present here.
On my 5 year-old 24” 1920 x 1200 Dell monitor, the font readability and contrast is, again, fine. I’m not seeing the problems reported by some with respect to non-Retina level screen resolutions.
Desktop PC, 21.5” 1920x 1080, Windows 7, Firefox 42.0, Internet Explorer 11.0.14, Chrome 46.0.2490.80 m.
Again with the useless white space! Similar to the Mac Pro desktop, when you enlarge the browser window to go to full screen, you get a huge expanse of wasted white space on either side, with no horizontal enlargement of the readable area.
Headline spacing and excess line spacing problems repeat as in the other examples.
Font readability is not quite as good as on the Mac Pro, but I’m guessing that’s because the monitor I use at work isn’t quite as good as the one I have at home.
UPDATE:
BUGS
When you type th you get a superscript.
Try to type “watch” without the quotes. It deletes itself.