Magazine Design Tool
This magazine tool utilizes a tangible user interface on a table’s surface. A horizontal surface encourages collaboration and discussion alongside interactive elements. In order to make this concept achievable, a smoke & mirrors prototype was created.
Information
TEAM: Jamie Catt, Jackie Jie
DURATION: 3 weeks, 2018
SOFTWARE: Keynote
KEY ROLES: USER INTERFACE, Animations
Process
Research the existing space
Create flowcharts
Concept building
Smoke & mirrors concept
Key Features
Universal Dial/Secondary Dial
The universal dial for this magazine design tool is the main source of navigation. It acts as a cursor but also a menu where it’s necessary. There is a button on the top of it to ensure users when something is being selected. Once an item such as an image or layout is selected, more options appear circling the dial. Additionally, turning the dial can scale or rotate an image.
The secondary dial is used to assist the dial for additional functionality. When it’s placed at the bottom of the page and slid across, users can flip through pages efficiently while at the same looking at the different layouts. When used with the other dial, users can zoom in/out of pages and layouts. When the layout and spreads are all finished, the dials are stacked on top of each other and the draft is sent to the editor.
Pen Tool
The pen tool is for note taking and feedback. When laid horizontally and slid across, a comment can be created on any page. There are multiple pen tools in different colors to differentiate who wrote which comments. Whether a designer is in edit or preview mode, they can go back and see comments from different members of their team.
Edit/Preview Mode
Edit/Preview mode can be switched by physically flipping the upper right corner. This gives designers a tangible sense of switching modes so they are able to focus on their goal. During edit more, designers and editors can make changes to the spreads in detail. Otherwise, during preview mode, they can view all the layouts along side each other to ensure cohesion.
Research
Before defining the key features and elements this design tool would have, my team and I needed to look at existing design tools. This included both digital and physical tools designers use.
Digital design tools
Google Drive
Behance
Lucid Chart
Adobe Creative Cloud
Keynote
Analog design tools
Storyboarding
Moodboard
Card Sorting
Paper Prototypes
Usability Testing
By looking at a vast spread of different design tools, we could get a sense of what people enjoyed from both the digital and physical experience. With our tangible magazine tool, we tried to combine the best parts of both.
Flow Chart
My team and I explored different flow charts to understand the features we would need to implement in a design tool for magazine development.
By creating a flow chart we got a better understanding of what elements would be on different screens.
Outcomes
Through this project, I learned about the elements that need to be considered for a tangible user interface. Additionally, I have gained more knowledge about how to create a collaborative tool for designers.
In the future, it would have been helpful to have to ability and time to gain research and insight from actual designers working in the magazine design industry. Also, with additional time, user testing would be extremely useful as we could gain insight on how functional and plausible the interactive elements are.