WIRED Digital Magazine #wiredDigitalRebirth #sxsw

The following are my notes from "After Magazines: WIRED's Digital Rebirth" SXSW session

Jeremy Clark - Adobe
Scott Dadich - Wired

Wired: Envisions fully embracing the digital magazine format
Adobe: Envisions offering inDesign as the means to design once and publish everywhere via Adobe Air.

This was a fantastic session on WIRED's digital magazine. Multiple digital magazine formats were demo'd including an Android Tablet, Nexus One mobile App and an iPhone App; all running the same UI. The multiple OS approach to the digital magazine was a big surprise as WIRED is looking to be accesible on multiple platforms.. The WIRED's digital magazine UI has both portrait and landscape views; on rotate photos switched out to landscape appropriate versions; photos also had an internal slideshow interaction. Full screen video, interactive maps and interactive ads are also available. Navigation is done via a "scrubber" at the bottom of screen or vai the "zoom out" button that privces a full browser view of all content. Back magazine issues will also be available for purchase.

Multiple Devices
WIRED demo'd an Adnroid tablet, Nexus One mobile device and iPhone "app" all running the same UI

Design Matters
There are several design issues that need to be addressed when porting over a design to a digital magazine format. Writing, layout, typography and attention to detail are paramount to WIRED and is reflected by its large art department dedicated to it's magazine publication; this is the opposite for it's website as a small team supports this channell. Maintaining a high rigor of typography for ease of reading is also very important for WIRED which makes translating print to web and ulitmately a digital magazine tricky. A magazine's inherintely fluid format is also problematic for translating into rigid resolution formats. Furthermore, building a system that leverages WIRED's existing magazine pipeline is extremely important, which is why they've worked closely with Adobe to develop a process that can can "export" a format to multiple OS'.

Design Fidelity Spectrum by Adobe
The scectrum is an assessment process created by Adobe to determine portability to a digital magazine format. The design spectrum flows from High to Low and maps to frequency, daily through monthly where monthly is on the high end. However, the spectrum varies on an issue basis.

WIRED Design Goals