10 Trends Defining New-Age, Avant-Garde Digital Magazines
The digital publishing environment constantly evolves at a really fast pace. And the current trends are something completely different than we had before. Features we previously call interactive are now becoming obsolete and are making way for newer and better ones.
But this isn’t only because of the advancements in technology, people have also evolved gracefully in this craft. Thanks to the multitude of digital publishing solutions / options we have today, enabling us to build modern digital publications that are beautifully immersive and engaging.
Newsstands, for example, have become a showcase of digital magazines built by people who wanted to take it to the next level and create a little bit more than just cross-platform compatible. You’ll also find avant-garde digital magazines crafted by publishers who raise the bar for the rest of the industry.
But how do we keep pace with these ever-refining digital skills and the ever-evolving digital landscape? How can we keep up with next generation digital magazines? What are the latest features to include? And what elements can give one magazine edge over the rest?
Well, Digital consultant and Strategic thinker, Carolyn Morgan, offers some answers. Originally posted on PenMaen Media, below are 10 evolutionary digital magazine trends that you can take note of. You don’t need to employ all of them, but we find that her list will get you started.
1. Covers like movie trailers
Covers are having to work harder to tease the reader into the magazine, and using familiar audio tracks (Grand Designs), full on video (Metal Hammer) animations (National Geographic, Focus) or slideshows (AlJazeera, Empire) to entice an audience. Wired’s October cover encourages the reader to rearrange the cover lines with their fingertips.
2. Free form navigation
Instead of the control freakery of the page plan, most magazines now have visually led contents pages that allow the reader to skip straight to their favourite feature (Elle, BBC History, Focus etc..). And within features, readers can choose their own path to explore the content, tapping on images to read interviews or product reviews and exploring the content in their own preferred order (Edge, History Revealed). The favoured layout is still the “washing line” with features arranged horizontally and readers scrolling down vertically to read all the content.
3. Hidden depth of content
Publishers and designers are getting smarter at packing more content into a single page. The new convention is the small + sign for extra hidden content, revealing captions or extra data, and pull out boxes from bottom or side of the page are also popular, slightly reminiscent of children’s paper pop-up books. And the hard core can go even deeper with PDF downloads (Flight Safety Australia), archive maps, letters & documents (History Revealed) or extra stats (Grand Designs). Easily swiped scrolling text, historical timelines or simply extended picture galleries continue the Tardis-like sensation.
4. Graphics & visualisationsThe ability to pack extra information in each page makes maps, graphics and visualisations an easy way to allow the reader to explore. Elle uses a checkerboard graphic for “shop the drop” and several magazines have a calendar of “what’s on” or a map showing historical sites to visit or locations for a day out. The excellent Kids Discover Ecology extends this to a food web and a water cycle, with popup info for each stage, and History Revealed uses illustrated maps to explain the story behind key battlefields.
5. Video and audio
Video is proven to draw readers attention, and publishers are enhancing more articles with video clips, often streamed to save on download sizes. Kids Discover Ecology uses video very effectively in feature content pages, and Edge includes clips of the games it reviews. As well as including relevant third party video clips, Focus shoots its own explanatory and reviews video content. And more magazines are making use of audio clips to enhance features, whether archive radio (BBC History) or interviews.
6. Animations
Many publishers are going beyond quirky feature animations to grab attention – such as section titles in Edge or Focus, or the London bus in Elle’s London Fashion Week coverage – to create animations that add real depth to the content. For example. Grand Designs has an animated CAD of a new build going up, and National Geographic has amazing animations of river valleys and reservoirs and dinosaur reconstructions.
7. Tactile activitiesMore titles are getting the user’s fingertips involved in the content. Al Jazeera has a cover that reveals new content as the user rubs away the old. Quizzes are nicely rendered in Flight Safety Australia, Focus and BBC History, and the last two also offer a prize crossword puzzle to complete and submit. National Geographic has a nicely built jigsaw puzzle using lush photos to assemble against the clock. But the most appealing is the wordsearch in Kids Discover Ecology, where a finger leaves a thin green trace like a felt pen.
8. Web integration
Tablet magazines are mostly read at home or in a wifi-enabled environment, so readers can explore further detail in a publisher website. Elle has abundant web links for fashion stockists, and e-science provides links from features to teaching and learning resources on its website. Homes and London links from glossy images of developments to its online property catalogue, and National Geographic connects to the instagram posts of its photographers while out on assignment.
9. Reader interaction & sharing
It’s harder to include reader content in interactive magazines on the app store than it is on web-based digital magazines. A real strength of Get the Gloss is its lively reader comments section – and the chance for reads to chat online with their experts. But several titles encourage readers to submit stories, and National Geographic has a section on reader pics, albeit pulled from the website. And Gurgle encourages social sharing for its articles.
10. Native style ads
The majority of ads are clearly just repurposed print ads, although some have interaction added. Focus and Top Gear are developing advertisement features using their editorial platform, which allows advertisers to provide detailed galleries and scrolling text, so the ad sits more comfortably alongside editorial.
This extract is originally posted on PenMaen Media. Read full article here.
Digital magazine is completely different from reading print media, giving readers an enhanced online content experience. This shake-up has already reached publishers’ doors
