Flipboard, representative of the electronic magazine client

With the launch of Apple's ipad, the use of electronic magazine Lines has been well-received and demand for electronic reading is growing. The good visual effect of traditional paper publications, the huge information resource library of the Internet, the combination of these two will be born very good magazine client application. The best representative of this type of magazine client application is Flipboard.

Flipboard is a collection of Facebook and Twitter-driven content, complemented by formatting, giving users an unlimited amount of good resources and a good reading experience.

There are also a number of excellent magazine-type client applications emerging in the country. Including weekend pictorial, Waitan Pictorial, Flipboard Chinese version--zaker and so on. The following will be a summary of the characteristics of these applications, analysis of its design highlights, hoping to similar products in the design of a certain reference role.

Information sources

Magazine-type client information is updated through the network, some of which directly integrate various information sites, while the other part of the traditional magazine authoring and editing methods to provide content.

1, collecting information from sources such as Weibo and so on

Flipboard's message comes from the most popular sources of information today, such as Facebook and Twitter. This kind of resources can be said to be infinitely abundant, the daily update quantity is huge, for the user is very abundant.

As the Chinese version of the Flipboard Zaker, the information is from the most popular Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo and other sources of information.

Microblogging-oriented information sources have become the fastest and most diversified information distribution center on the internet in China today.

2, Automatic Update settings

A weekend pictorial with traditional editors also uses the Web for content updates. Weekly updates, the iOS main interface will have updated article number hints, and the App Store update prompts in the same way.

3, refresh Settings

This type of refresh setting is not common in magazine class clients, because the magazine client is basically updated in a certain period of time, and the refresh does not work very much.

4, Offline reading

Unlike most online-updated clients, weekend illustrated provides a way to view offline, and provides a very simple and fast way to get back to the background, allowing the user to complete a new update without realizing it. and color design update progress bar, at a glance.

Second, interactive function

Electronic client is different from the traditional paper magazine, it has the characteristics of electronic and network. Use these characteristics to create a unique electronic client interaction experience, is the client application of the greatest advantage.

1, comments and exchanges in the Web2.0 era

The Southern Weekend ipad reader is added to the comments and can be updated in real time, similar to web news reviews. This interactive exchange brings more information to readers.

The weekend pictorial sharing function is more representative, can be directly shared to the fixed microblogging, you can save pictures to albums.

2, animation, games and other interactive experience

BMW's promotional electronic magazine, an image that can be shaken, has fairly good interactivity. This is just a game to play, but considering the hardware performance of the electronic magazine client, adding some meaningful interactive design, can bring the effect that the traditional paper magazine can't achieve.

3, audio, video and other multimedia means

Southern Weekend Magazine clients added video capabilities. This method is more common in the magazine client, and it is the most distinguishing feature of the traditional Paper magazine.

Third, layout design

1, ipad End

The size of the ipad is large, so the layout design basically follows the simultaneous display of multiple content. Layout of the page according to the left and right, basically all with pictures, to obtain a visual sense of unity and pleasure.

2, iphone end

The iphone side because of the small screen size, layout generally to the vertical screen width as a list, with small map, rich picture. And you can show the recommended content at the top of the big picture. The weekend pictorial also offers a large picture of horizontal drag, providing more recommended bit content.

Four interactive experiences

For electronic magazines, an excellent interactive experience is a great attraction for users.

Some of these applications use the Imitative method to imitate the traditional magazine page-turning effect, while others use the electronic display method completely.

1, turn the page

Flipboard's unique Flip page is folded from the middle, much like a traditional magazine page. In contrast, the iphone client page page typically uses the iphone's native space, providing an analog paper-volume effect.

The weekend pictorial offers the simplest way to slide the page horizontally, without simulating the real effect, providing the simplest. For users, it will not cause any use of trouble.

2, the content is aware

So that users can not leave the current page and know other page content and choose to jump, a variety of magazine clients provide content knowledge of the function. You can open a small window in the current page to see the contents of other pages.

This weekend pictorial is displayed as a thumbnail, while Flipboard is displayed as a caption. This is partly the result of two different product attributes. The weekend pictorial is content-oriented, with a fixed amount of content per period. and Flipboard to crawl content, content is not fixed, very easy to exceed a considerable number, if all with thumbnail display, it is easy to load too slow, slow reaction, thereby weakening the experience.

3, Picture view

For the unique reading needs of mobile Internet, the magazine client will highlight the image. There are also special photographic magazine applications for picture design.

In the picture reading mode, all are indexed by small graphs, click to expand the large image, and provide save and sharing options.

Summary：

Magazine-type electronic clients, through the iphone and the ipad and other hardware platforms emerged. Different from the traditional paper magazines, they have their own special advantages and characteristics. Reasonable use of these advantages, optimize the experience, you can create a very good product.

To understand the user's reading habits, understand the unique properties of the electronic platform, through the combination and balance to get the best application results, is every designer must try to learn and practice.