TAKEAWAY: Have 30 minutes to kill between meetings? Get into your laboratory and try fantasizing what an iPad newspaper would look like? After all, Murdoch and Jobs are working on a real one. We try it, and will continue to explore the possibilities.
TheMarioBlog will take a break during the Thanksgiving holiday. Next post will be Monday, an exclusive interview with Cyrus Highsmith, a senior designer at Boston’s Font Bureau who teaches typography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Cyrus is a type craftsman and is by all definitions one of the truly original new voices in American type design. Cyrus talks to us about his favorite fonts, the typographers who influence him and about designing type for the screen, and, particularly, for tablets. Coming up Monday.
Ok, one must have a logo, but it must be economical to maximize navigational space on the landing screen
Show me the stories through images, the more the better
Very visual, very multimedia
What would an iPad-only newspaper look like?
This is a question that people in the industry are asking these days, following the announcement that Murdoch and Jobs are working together on an iPad newspaper.
Notice we did not say an iPad app. The new project, called Daily, will not have a print nor online edition.
It is straight to the tablet.
As we know, the first of anything creates the template. Others will frame it, save it and copy it.
We, too, wonder about the iPad newspaper, complete with the word paper as part of it, although no ink will touch paper.
This morning in Hong Kong, as we reviewed iPad sketches for the next version of the South China Morning Post iPad app, the theme came up again.
How would you do an iPad newspaper that is not an app based on an existing printed product?
The platform is the same but if one is not restricted to basing the app on what already is there, then the possibilities are tremendous.
No better way to explore these thoughts——if one has 35 minutes to spare while sipping that very energizing Iron Bhudda hot tea——than to try to do it.
We return to the Mario laboratory during a break between meetings. I share my thinking with you.
First, the landing page: maximize space. Think big. Think very small. Think headlines (great navigators always). Think color. Forget text.
Text can come later. Here I want to look at the biggest Sunday brunch spread I can afford on the space available. Then I take what I want. Mix the topics, don’t describe the categories. Images serve to tell the user what the topics are about.
I believe strongly that an iPad newspaper must separate the “seeing and experiencing” from the “reading” modes. Two tracks. Two different activities.
Once inside, as in a Life section, land on the three main topics—or more. Headlines and pictures do the rest.
A fun, simple exercise. As I see my grandchildren playing and using the iPad, I know that curiosity and tactile sensation go hand in hand. When these kids grow up, and if they are reading a tablet newspaper, these two qualities will be very present. Hierarchty will be in groups of three: the very large, the small square, the very small visual cue.
I keep my iPad laboratory open several hours a day, studying, analyzing, and doing.
Remember, training to do iPad design is like playing the piano or riding the bycicle. Just do it.
Of special interest
Rupert Murdoch creates ‘iNewspaper’ – with the help of Steve Jobs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/21/ipad-newspaper-steve-jobs-rupert-murdoch
It was bound to happen, the alliance between two giants: Murdoch and Jobs. What their product will look like?
Well, even though I have tried hard to get an idea, it has not been possible. Like all things involving Apple, this is a major secret.
My former student and friend, Al Triviño, the creative director for News Corp, is very involved and spending considerable time in New York City these days, where the project is incubated.
But other than friendly exchanges about life on the road, Al is not telling me, or anyone, much about what he is doing.
We will have to wait and see. We know it will be a digital daily, and will be called Daily. What I find fascinating about the information made public is that this new digital publication will not have print NOR online editions. It is tablet only. Enough about multiplatforms for this one.
And because it is created in the world of Murdoch, but in the city where two very distinct members of the News Corp empire live—-The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal—-this new product will
display “a tabloid sensibility with a broadsheet intelligence”, This means that my Daily may bring me video clips of the Cher/Christina Aguilera new movie Burlesque, while at the same time offering me an analysis of the economic drama in Ireland. Why not?
In fact, the venerable New York Times has just done that for me in the past few days, and I imagine readers of the Times do not resent that their newspaper has moved into that blurred circling which involves the coverage of popular culture and substantial more serious news fare.
Of related interest:
What should an iPad newspaper look like?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/238081-what-should-an-ipad-newspaper-look-like?source=yahoo
– Why the Daily, Murdoch’s “tablet newspaper,” will be DOA
http://www.wordyard.com/2010/11/21/why-the-daily-murdochs-tablet-newspaper-will-be-doa/
Other iPad design discussions in TheMarioBlog
iPad: the design discussions begin
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/ipad_the_design_discussions_begin/
iPad design for news: Primer 1
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/ipad_design_for_news_primer_1
Basic ingredients for iPad design: stay close to the basics
https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/basic_ingredients_for_ipad_design_stay_close_to_the_basics_plus_more_times_