Saturday, October 30, 2010

iPad-based magazines are bloated and user-unfriendly

Khoi Vinh, who worked as Design Director of nytimes.com, is not happy with the current state of iPad-based magazines, which he thinks,

...they run counter to how people use tablets today and, unless something changes, will remain at odds with the way people will use tablets as the medium matures. They're bloated, user-unfriendly and map to a tired pattern of mass media brands trying vainly to establish beachheads on new platforms without really understanding the platforms at all.

Khoi thinks magazine-mode is dead:
...a magazine represents is a mode that people are decreasingly interested in, that is making less and less sense as we forge further into this century, and that makes almost no sense on a tablet. As usual, these publishers require users to dive into environments that only negligibly acknowledge the world outside of their brand, if at all - a problem that's abetted and exacerbated by the full-screen, single-window posture of all iPad software. In a media world that looks increasingly like the busy downtown heart of a city - with innumerable activities, events and alternative sources of distraction around you - these apps demand that you confine yourself to a remote, suburban cul-de-sac.


Via Kottke.org

Also read this:
Are iPad News Applications Merely Glorified CD ROMs?

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