Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo. [hat tip Michael Sippey]
With the creation of iPad, Apple is making new media publishing sexy again -- and helping the industry rethink how it proposes content through simplification. If you watched this short video, you will see an example of how a magazine translates to the new medium.
It's not just about design, as many Web sites still tend to be. The new editorial and production workflow make the publication happen in the app so that the user can have the proper experience. It turns out that comments and co-creation are not the only kind of interaction possible.
In fact, the biggest interaction people have with content, and with a brand, is up close and personal. However, while the experience is very personal, the ability to bring this experience to you highlights one of the trends in the future of work: collaboration.
Popular Science+ app was developed by Bonnier's Research and Development Team with BERG, a design consultancy.
What about brands?
BHH Labs introduced an iPad app for Cadillac with Cool Hunting and Front Ended. Their goal was to encourage readers to interact with the content instead of just looking at it and reading. Gavin Heaton makes an astute observation about Apple building a system that appeals to the rest of the none percenters -- those who wants to consume content instead of creating it.
Regardless of whether you agree with him or not, Apple has built a new context for content, one that is inspiring magazine publishers and brands alike to rethink how they present information in favor of the many ways in which we behave online and digital media.
Bullet points don't make content easier to scan if they carry less meaningful information. Links are an improvement, but how many organizations' sites want to keep you on their page without making the experience of getting their content compelling?
Karen Swim comments that before digital, we didn't evangelize people to create music or books but to consume them. Essentially Apple is closing the loop that has often alluded many content creators. And it helps simplify digital content again.
I invite the skeptics on the value and necessity of simplification to read Clay Shirky's thought-provoking piece on the collapse of complex business models [hat tip Tom Peters].
Building a community, opening an idea site, crowdsourcing are activities that brands with a following earn relatively quickly if they're willing to put skin in the game, facilitate conversations, use the ideas, give customers a return on investment. Yes, we're really good at calculating ROI as customers.
The iPad opens up new opportunities for brands and publishing. Break out
of the invented constrains of best practices and rethink interaction. How will you rethink the way you present content and build context inspired by this new tool?
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© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.