Taschen Magazine

Taschen required a re-think on their magazine offering for the tablet market. They cited a target audience of 35-65 years who owned a tablet device, which provided a challenge: to design a UI solution which would cater for the wide range of different levels of tech-literacy, while still being an interesting and stimulating experience.

This meant that the end product would have all the sensibilities of a mass-tier proposal, but would still have to evoke Taschen's perceptions of a high-end, high-quality brand...

Publication Insight

The first issue to address was the manner of publication of the magazine. The current mag is published quarterly and features 50 pages of books.

To give the audience something more current and useful, a switch to pushing a number of new items on a daily basis was the logical approach. Also providing access to back catalogue, the user is able to discover new books on a daily basis.

Usage Insight

I extensively interviewed members of Taschen's target market, both those who were avid users of technology, those who weren't, those who read printed magazines, books and those who only read blogs and news websites.

I tried to find out as much as possible about their habits, not just in terms of reading, but also their overall attitudes to technology and perceptions of quality in product.

This helped me draw together a firm knowledge base from which to progress. One of the more important insights was where magazines, and indeed tablets, fit in within people's days. This could be on the train into work, read in bed or the couch, or in cafes at lunch.

Each of these environments has a different atmosphere and this sets the user in a different mood, and presents them with different challenges. I tried to plot on an axis of Length of Use vs. User Focus where I saw my product being used.

That was to be a short usage, which has different levels of involvement, to accommodate the space between printed magazine and web site.

UI Insight

Taschen were aiming for the more mature end of the market in terms of age. It was important to think of the navigation and usage, then, as a mass-tier offering, something very accessible and instantly understandable.

This meant that usability was a premium, staying on top of cognitive ergonomics and apropriate signage to make even users who are new to such technology feel comfortable.

I decided a good route was to create navigation systems which echoed closely those involved with the handling of a physical magazine. Those being such gestures as flicking though pages quickly, folding corners to bookmark a page etc.

UI Solution

I composed an elegant solution to moving through a large number of articles quickly, and in a way familiar to most people.

The user caresses the "Thumb Strip" in the same way they would the edge of a magazine to accellerate through pages. On the contents page this shows featured images and quotations from the article, and In-Article provides the article name. This method of interaction was very natural, and provided a good archetype for discovering new content, by casually scrolling back and forward through articles.

It was also quick and easy enough that time spent navigating was reduced, and time enjoying content increased

Integration

To make the magazine more relevant to the user, the app integrated with Calendar software and Amazon Wishlist to provide a platform for visiting events described in the articles, to building a list of books for later purchase.

A lot of those interviewed suggested that they liked to have their hands on a book and admire the book's tactile qualities, especially before a more dear purchase. To accomodate this, the magazine would make use of the tablet's GPS to provide directions to nearby stores stocking that title, with pricing and availability.

Wireframing

The next stage was to plan and test all of these ideas using wireframes. This helped me refine the Information Architecture and work out the best User Flows through the product with the aid of User-Testing.

Drawing everything out by hand also helped build solid grids for use in the magazine to retain a solid base for the graphics to be applied.

Project Outcome

I created all of the graphics and icons painstakingly crafted to the pixel to ensure that the richness of the Taschen brand was retained and flourished in the final product.

I built all of the intefaces as demonstrations in After Effects and put together a video to effectively communicate the concept.

The project was very well-received, and was deemed to properly communicate the essence of Taschen, as well as effectively address the needs of the target audience.