Secrets & Happiness of Digital Publishing

via The Story of Christoph Niemann’s Petting Zoo App

frischmilch — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 09:45:24 +0200

via The Story of Christoph Niemann’s Petting Zoo App

Size Matters for Connected Devices. Phablets Don’t.

frischmilch — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:07:30 +0200

Size Matters for Connected Devices. Phablets Don’t.:

Numbers that show how bad »Phablets« (Big Phones / Small Tablets, 5”—6.9” screens) perform.

via The Digital Publishing Explosion: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

frischmilch — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:46:45 +0100

via The Digital Publishing Explosion: INFOGRAPHIC - GalleyCat

Taking note: basil.js //

frischmilch — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:11:37 +0100

Taking note: basil.js //:

With basil.js you can generate designs like processing.org but using InDesign as output. This is a great extension to InDesign and makes scripting available to designers and artists.

via Haeme Ulrich

BULLETT Interactive for iPad- The Surreal and Romance...

frischmilch — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:08:54 +0100

BULLETT Interactive for iPad- The Surreal and Romance Issues

wonderful magazine design and creative ideas

Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Release 25 Last week, Adobe...

frischmilch — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 03:25:34 +0100

Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Release 25

Last week, Adobe released a new version of the Digital Publishing Suite, Release 25, wich has some big impact on the experience of digital magazine readers.

I am particularly excited about this release, because it is the first release since I joined the Experience Design Team at Adobe.

When you look at the screen above, you immediately notice a big difference in the way the Library displays Issues of the Magazine. We worked hard to simplify to UI and make sure the publisher’s content stands out.

I highly recommend you to read through the complete release notes to get a know of what shipped in this release, while I will focus on the changes on the user experience with this post.

For all publishers that use DPS as their digital magazine workflow, I highly recommend checking out what is new and what is applicable for their Magazine.

New Library Layout

We wanted to bring the publisher’s content to the front and keep the overall experience where simple, unlike in the previous releases, the Library UI more felt a place to manage magazines, rather than explore content.

We redesigned the Library using some swiss-style design. Not for the holes in the UI, but because we used Helvetica and a Grid. That helped us a lot in defining a invisible rhythm, although it is hard to keep that up all the time.

We have thrown out all the buttons and simplified the interactions on each cover. To remove issues form the device, there is now a separate place in the App that lists all issues on the device and also displays the size, making it very easy to remove multiple issues at once or choose the ones that occupy the most space.

Promo HTML Area

Our new Library displays a full size HTML Banner at the top of the Library Portion (for Enterprise Customers). Although this place was a little bit smaller before and called »Entitlement Banner« I would love to see publishers using that prominent space to engage with the reader.

Like you see in the example of »The Pluralist Mag«, publishers could promote articles, include content from their websites or have messaging depending on the reader’s status (subscriber, regular reader, logged in). Instead of just displaying the same (annoying) subscription message all the time, I would love to see some creative examples on how to use this space and turn more users into readers or even subscribers by promoting the magazine’s content and use this space dynamically.

First Free Folio

The other feature I am excited about is the possibility to give new users the latest issue for free. When a new reader installs the Magazine’s App for the first time, they can receive the latest issue for free (if the publisher enabled that feature) — and the best part: it automatically starts downloading when the app is launched for the first time.

That makes it very easy for new readers to get into the magazine’s content and a publisher can use this as a marketing tool to attract new readers. There are more options to it, that allow the publisher to send a message to readers of a free issue (in an HTML article).

Background Downloading (Release 24)

This is a feature that actually came into DPS as part of release 24, but I think it is a necessary improvement to the user experience that every publisher should use. It allows a running download to finish while the app is closed. That means a user can easily start the download and continue to use their iPads how they want and the download will finish in the background (actually, Apple allows for 10 more minutes of download time in the background, but it should be enough).

Improvements to the Reading Experience

There are a couple of changes to the look once the reader is inside a Folio. The most important change is the treatment of the scrubber. The little dragger at the bottom of the screen is now the focal point to navigate through the magazine quickly. Touching and Moving it now automatically opens into Browse Mode (similar to how the iPhone behaves).

You may have also noticed that there is no button in the top right corner anymore that previously evoked Browse Mode. A reader can also just tap on the scrubber dragger to Open Browse into Browse Mode.

——

There are lot of things that changed in the last few releases and we continue to develop, listen to feedback and improve.

I would be happy to hear your ideas in the comments, and I am interested to see how publishers develop to our new approach. I think the first one that released with the new UI is The Red Bulletin — congratulations!

—Johannes

PaperTab: Revolutionary paper tablet reveals future tablets to...

frischmilch — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:26:07 +0100

PaperTab: Revolutionary paper tablet reveals future tablets to be thin and flexible as paper. (von humanmedialab)

frischmilch: Since the iPad mini I switch on my big iPad only...

frischmilch — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:20:43 +0100

frischmilch:

Since the iPad mini I switch on my big iPad only occasionally. Feels too chunky and heavy! (at Adobe Systems)

News Corp to close iPad newspaper »The Daily«

frischmilch — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:14:11 +0100

News Corp to close iPad newspaper »The Daily«:

Rupert Murdoch’s online subscription venture was losing $30m a year and failed to win enough subscribers

Having an iPad newspaper app seems not to be the answer …

National Geographic for iPhone

frischmilch — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 19:10:57 +0100

National Geographic for iPhone:

I’m a little bit late for this …

But if you want to see a great digital magazine on a very small screen, check out Joe Zeff’s newest studio production for National Geographic on the iPhone.

They packed a great magazine with amazing pictures and storytelling into this small device while truly embracing the possibilities of one-handed uses on the very go.

Well Done, Joe Zeff Design!

whenever an iPad App does this flip transition in front of my...

frischmilch — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:18:19 +0100

whenever an iPad App does this flip transition in front of my eyes — I am shocked. What do I see here? The edge of the universe? The inside of my iPad? Yesterday?

Announcement: I am now part of the Experience Design Team for Digital Publishing Suite at Adobe

frischmilch — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:47:33 +0100

First of all, I want to apologize to my loyal readers for the recent slowness in writing for this blog. Second, I want to thank you for your tremendous feedback, support and commenting over the past two years of the existence of this blog.

It all started out as a a blog to follow along the research I made for my bachelor thesis while graduating from Graphic Design School. At the end of that, I created the DONE magazine wich reached quite good attention and received the Adobe MAX 2011 Award — thanks to all your votes! I am very grateful for everything that came out of this blog and the DONE app.

This summer, Adobe contacted me and we started working on things around Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite. Recently, I joined the Experience Design (XD) Team that works on all tools and workflows involved while creating, publishing and viewing editorial content on mobile devices. In that team, we create experiences for Designers, Authors and Viewers in a exciting environment that’s always in motion.

We are working hard to get you, the designers and creators, great tools to create your content and give the readers the best user experience while they view your carefully edited and designed content.

Don’t be worried, I will continue this blog. I will keep you updated on developments in the industry, the environment and on Adobe’s Tools. I will express my personal opinion and will continue to give you my thoughts on Digital Publishing (and by that join colleagues like John Nack, Andre Jay Meissner and Mike Chambers, who also run their personal blogs while being an Adobe Employee).

Also, this blog is an excellent way for myself in staying in touch with you, the community and with what happens out there.

Thank you again for all your feedback and being loyal readers to this blog. It’s fun. And it’s all just the beginning.

—Johannes

"My conclusion: the iPad Mini will be for literary snobs, and the Kindle Fire will be for dumb-dumbs..."

frischmilch — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 13:39:20 +0200

“My conclusion: the iPad Mini will be for literary snobs, and the Kindle Fire will be for dumb-dumbs who read airport garbage books. Kindle Fire owners will read E.L. James, and iPad Mini owners will read E.L. Doctorow.”

- The iPad Mini Is For Snobs, The Kindle Fire Is For Dumb-Dumbs

via Popular Science

"The smaller the screen, the smaller the attention span."

frischmilch — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:45:01 +0200

“The smaller the screen, the smaller the attention span.”

- Why Small Is Big | Joe Zeff Design

Google’s Research Shows Tablets Are For Games And Email, Mostly...

frischmilch — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:52:47 +0200

Google’s Research Shows Tablets Are For Games And Email, Mostly Used On Couch & In Bed

"We are announcing this morning […] Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013...."

frischmilch — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:49:05 +0200

“We are announcing this morning […] Newsweek will transition to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be our Dec. 31 issue.”

- A Turn of the Page for Newsweek - The Daily Beast

Readymag give a first look of their browser-only design and...

frischmilch — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:31:32 +0200

Readymag give a first look of their browser-only design and creation tools.

10 Heuristics for User Interface Design

frischmilch — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:21:43 +0200

10 Heuristics for User Interface Design

Your magazine has a website? Directly promote your magazine with a Smart App Banner in iOS Safari

frischmilch — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:29:00 +0200

Apple introduced »smart app banners« in iOS6 Safari that can directly link to your Magazine either in the App Store or open it directly if the app is installed.

To enable this banner, simply put a

<meta name="apple-itunes-app" content="app-id=myAppStoreID">

into the <head> section of your website, where the myAppStoreID is the ID of your app in the App Store URL.

If you have a multi-issue viewer it is also should be possible to open up a specific page in your magazine with additional parameters. See full documentation in the iOS Developer Library.

—Johannes

BUST magazine from MAZ publishing is one of the first magazines...

frischmilch — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:02:00 +0200

BUST magazine from MAZ publishing is one of the first magazines to enable sharing to pinterest.

Although MAZ publishing apps are just PDF readers with the same nasty issues (too small text, non fitting layout, wrong user experience), they introduced a very clever way of doing clipping, where you essentially cut out a piece from the screen that can be shared.

The clipping can be shared to Pinterest. Pinterest is not offering a public API yet. So they use a workaround: You can share any image on the web you want on using pinterest’s bookmarklet URL. Upon clipping, they upload the clipped part of the screen to a secret location on the web that pinterest can be referred to. That is simply displayed in the centeres UIWebView. Very clever.

A press article stated that MAZ wants to patent this clipping feature. No news: the great TRVL magazine (woodwing) has this feature already since a long time (clipping, not pinterest).

—Johannes