TAKEAWAY: Planning an iPad app for your publication; start with good information architecture strategies. The rest is the easy, fun part. ALSO: Last day to apply for Poynter conference, The Power of the Tablet, June 14-15
If you and your team are planning to develop an iPad app (or any other tablet, for that matter), your first stop has to be a good session on information architecture.
Start with the DNA of your newspaper or magazine: how can it be reflected on the tablet. After all, it is THAT which will make potential users come to you on the iPad. Search for this element of identity and translate it as well as you can.
But, remmeber, an iPad edition of your publication is NOT print, and it is not online, although it must echo elements of both.
Pretend, at the start, that you are gathering your team to start a new publication, one which does not exist in any other form: how would you create a tablet edition? What are the elements that tablets can offer, which you could not find in print or online editions? In my view, the tablet is made to be a companion with which one can relax, as we do with paper.
It does not have the sense of urgency that we attach to reading online, or the tediousness of it. After all, whatever focus groups or research we do these days, we hear that reading online is equated to work, while reading on paper is more of a leisure activity. In that sense, tablets are akin to print.
However, you must provide the visual enhancements that the tablet edition allows.
My tip from the trenches: Do a good planning session on information architecture before you do anything else. Visual dynamics are important on the tablet, but the design process itself must be heavily templated. You got it: the tablet relies on good storytelling and magnificent photographic choices for its impact. Nothing new here as far as I am concerned.
It will, however, required very sharp editors and photographers, something that is never in ample supply in many newsrooms.
TheMarioBlog post #557