The recent “Design Days” held here in East Lansing at Michigan State University saw Liam Keating, a tablet designer for Condé Nast in the United Kingdom, as a featured speaker at the College of Arts and Letters. Keating works in London on tablet versions of WIRED UK, British Vogue, British GQ and Vanity Fair.
Keating led a tutorial workshop for creating a tablet version of a publication, using as an example MUSES magazine (designed by BCP), the annual publication of the MSU College of Arts and Letters. Using a PDF of the magazine, he “cut it up” to enable him to reorganize the information in a tablet-friendly manner.
Unfortunately, a number of the laptops that were provided to participants had various software and access issues so many participants were not able to follow along. However, much was still learned from observing Keating at work and listening to his tips and techniques.
Keating emphasized the importance of designing a layout that is appropriate to the subject matter and readership. Some publications are best designed with an emphasis on images, with copy being available as a secondary “button,” while others may function better by giving priority to text.
He also emphasized the importance of providing a clear and well-designed how-to-use navigation section at the beginning of a publication.
Keating said that while tablet and other forms of electronic publications are most definitely on the rise, he believes it will be many years before we see the end of printed versions of most of them.