[cityofsound] The redesign feels caught somewhat between the celeb-fuelled world of the weekly glossies and the clean, stately repose of the European newspaper. If it's the former they're after, again, I'd suggest there's a few, cleverly appealing design cues in Grazia, Heat and the tabloids they'd be looking at; but ultimately that doesn't feel to match their brand, apparent mission, and certainly the values of the paper. I'd rather they'd taken on a reinvention of the latter - to create that new sense of what a newspaper could be, could feel like, look like. That would include properly taking and integrating the website and other media, given that's where people increasingly consume news.

[guardian.co.uk] New-look Guardian unveiled.
More on Newsdesigner.com

All in all, I would rather keep the highlighting. And considering that my real hyperlinks are clearly marked as though (different colour *with underline), I have nontheless modified my CSS to use a more neutral colour (light grey instead of light blue) and tried to simulate a (gimmicky) marker effect by having a slightly darker vertical band before the highlight (where you put down the highliner).
Test the effect on this entry, and let me know what you think back here.

[if:book] Wallace is well-known for his copious use of footnotes & endnotes, and this article is no exception. However, either Wallace or The Atlantic's art director have decided to treat his digressions differently in this case: words or phrases in the main text that signal a jumping-off point have lightly colored boxes drawn around them, rather than a superscripted numeral after them. In the print edition, boxes in the margins - one immediately thinks of windows - with notes in them appear, color-coded to match the set-off phrases. Some of the notes have notes; they get more boxes of their own. It's subtle and well thought out, and considerably more inviting to read over 23 pages than footnotes or endnotes would be. Most interesting is how the aesthetic draws inspiration from the web: the boxed notes suggest pop-up windows (or the electronic - not so much the paper - version of Post-It notes), especially when they're layered. And the boxed phrases suggest nothing so much as the underlining that the Web has taught us signifies a hyperlink. The HTML version (preview) on their website follows this exactly, presenting the notes as pop-up windows (some of which pop up their own windows).

Click image for bigger version. Image originally from the if:book website. Reposted here under similar Creative Commons License.

If you have seen some kind of web-like layout in other publications, please let us know by sending us an email using the link at the top left of this site. Thank you.

[csmonitor.com] In Chile, instant Web feedback creates the next day's paper. This revolution has occurred, says the paper's publisher Augustine Edwards, thanks to his decision to listen to "the people." Three years ago, under Mr. Edwards's guidance, LUN installed a system whereby all clicks onto its website (www.lun.com) were recorded for all in the newsroom to see. Those clicks - and the changing tastes and desires they represent - drive the entire print content of LUN. If a certain story gets a lot of clicks, for example, that is a signal to Edwards and his team that the story should be followed up, and similar ones should be sought for the next day. If a story gets only a few clicks, it is killed. The system offers a direct barometer of public opinion, much like the TV rating system - but unique to print media.

Every 4 pages, a double spread (on white background) introduces one of the courses offered by the college; every following double spread (on photographic background) introduces one student or work produced in that previously mentioned course.

On the right edge of page 3 in the 2002 edition runs an evenly-spaced list from top to bottom with the title and page number of each following double spread related to the courses; starting with Foundation 08 at the top and finishing with Research 92 at the bottom. On page 5 runs a similar list giving access to the student work-related pages' titles and names. The two lists shown next to each other give a perfect index of the book and moreover hint that we are looking at a kind of map of the book: the BA (Honours) Textile Design 44 page is obviously half way thought the book (when thinking in terms of page numbers) but it is visibly so too being in the middle of the list and at the vertical center of the page.
Therefore, should I be looking for page 44, I would not have to flip randomly though the book staring at the page number with no sense of where it could be but instead, looking at the thickness of the book and splitting the page number in half would probably get me very close to that page, or and this is where it gets exciting, I could put my right hand thumb at the level of that tab and let the pages flip through my finger until the page number would run from the top of the page at the beginning of the book (following the index map) down to the middle of the page in the middle of the book and would easily be able to intercept the right page (do I make sense here?). What an exciting and efficient way to navigate through a book!
This reminds me of the elevator (scroll) bar you see on the left of a website window; it lets you know, just by being here, that the page is longer than one screen and that you will need to scroll to see the rest of the page, but it also hints at how much of the page you can/cannot see: a long scroll bar gives away a short page, a miniscule scroll bar prepares you for a scrolling fest.

The designers didn't stop here though; as each double spread has some text on it and an elaborate structure of boxes and lines link each relevant word found in those texts to any related double spread on other pages. The taxonomy has been carefully chosen so as not to overlink, and each page doesn't link to more than 5-6 other pages. The (double-hit) green (in 2001) and pink (in 2002) lines are discreet, they do not disturb the reading or clutter the pages, and graphic enough to bring some excitement and experimental rythm to an otherwise rather uneventful layout.
On page 48, the words performer and spectator are boxed and linked on the edge of the page to 2 boxes sending you to follow on to page 12 BA (Honours) Acting and page 18 A Venetian Merchant. Not only are you made aware of the presence of related content in the book but also, by seeing the links on the left side of the double spread are you informed that this content is further back in the book and that you'll need to scroll/flip back in order to read it.

This is just pure genious!

My remarks:
I would not have used page numbers at all so as to make the navigation device completely standalone and easier to understand. If anything, the page numbers here are confusing; only the left page of a double spread gets the current page number and title (placed at its corresponding vertical spot along the page to echo its position in the book)... I would have put it on both sides of the double spread since people flip though a book in both directions. I think that the designers wanted the book to be cut up in spreads rather than individual pages. I understand, but that crippled half their navigation idea as it is impossible to flip foward though the book, since there is no way to know where we are in the book on the right hand side.
Now, what if the index was too long to fit on the edge of one page and you had to have 2-3 indexes... How would you then make the distinction between links to content from another index?
How would you go about linking a word to another one in another book (and don't answer a Bibliography at the end of the book...)?
How would you link a picture in a book to a related bit of text on another page?

I have a few other examples like this coming soon-ish, but if you came accross a book or magazines that used some similar concepts, please let me know, we should feature them here. Thanks.

Credits for the designs:

2001 Edition concept, design and production: Jannuzzi London. Designers at Jannuzzi Smith (former staff and students f the college): Ross Cooper, Michele Jannuzzi, Robbie Mahoney, Stina Nordquist and Richard Smith.
Printed by M&TJ Printers, London

2002 Edition designed and produced by Jannuzzi Smith. All the designers who worked on this project are associated with the College as lecturers or former students: Sebastian Campos, Edoardo Cecchin, Ross Cooper, Michele Jannuzzi, Robbie Mahoney, Stina Nordquist, Richard Smith, Kira Trowell.
The fonts used are Mies, for headlines, created by Jannuzzi Smith for use on the web; Jo, for body text, interpolated from the outlines of Joanna by Eric Gill, who taught at the college in the 1920s; and Bliss, for captions, designed by Jeremy Tankard, who graduated from CSM in 1910.

This essay explores issues that arise in composing a long argumentative hypertext that is connected with a book on the same subject.
It concerns not the old navigation problem for the lost reader, but the construction problem for the uncertain author who worries about readers.
It reports on a practical experiment, and deals with issues in hypertext rhetoric and link structure that arise in the construction of a hypertext under pressure from a book version.
Although the situation of the hypertext being discussed is somewhat unique, in fact hypertext structure is always under pressure from print habits of reading and writing, especially in scholarly writing, so the issues discussed here are widely relevant.

[ArtSeoul.net] Suh described Paratrooper-1 as being a kind of self-portrait, describing his experience of going to the United States for the first time. A shiny, metallic soldier pulls 3,000 taut, pink strings linked to the signatures of different people, sewn into a kind of parachute on the wall.
"If there's no parachute, then the soldier dies. He has to use it. But when he finally lands, he has to fight in a completely unknown territory. That's something I felt when I went to the United States. It's a parachute that is directly tied into your life," he said.

I've just discovered Do-Ho Suh's work in an art magazine and was really touched by it. I was interested to see that my interpretation of his work was different from his own.
Firstly, I never did my military service in France as it was scrapped just before I was due to enter. It is now a professional-only activity. This opens up a big gap between myself and my South Korean friends who all had to serve for 3 years.
Secondly, I interpreted this piece as being a (dark) metaphore of how the military service draws people in regardless of their will and how violent and mentally & physically disturbing this can be on someone; as if the parachute was a draftee's skin and his name had been successively stitched in his arm and then slowly ripped off.
Thirdly, I was really excited by the graphic power of those names stitched and then pulled by the G.I's statue. I could imagine seeing in a flash all the names unstitch at the same time and leave the surface of the parachute completely clean with a G.I falling from his tower.

What made me want to write about it here is that the magazine had an interview of him with pink lines linked to some of the words. A subtle (if somewhat gimmicky) way to link the art work to the interview.
It also reminded me of a Central Saint Martin Art degree graduation show book that was using a similar trick to link keywords to a ruler on the side edge of the page that was being used as a navigation device between the different chapters of the book. More on this in a forthcoming entry.

[TextArc.org] A TextArc is a visual representation of a text—the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer's eye to help uncover meaning. Here are more detailed overviews of the interactive work and the prints.
TextArc is a tool designed to help people discover patterns and concepts in any text by leveraging a powerful, underused resource: human visual processing.
TextArc exposes the nature and style of a document's content, not by algorithmic winnowing but by arranging and showing every word. It taps into our pre-attentive ability to scan for brighter (here, more frequent) words, compare them, and let the eye read those words in a balancing act between them . The eye and mind scan for ideas, then follow the ideas down to where and how they appear in the text.

Positioning: Covering every news item from a financial perspective pays, because the target readerships knows the value of timely news, and ponies up for online subscriptions. Many people who read the WSJ read it online first. The paper becomes merely a record of the state of the newsroom's reporting efforts at the end of the day. In line with this thinking, it has now included online subscribers in the circulation numbers.

Design: The WSJ front page has long been designed like a news website, before such things even existed. Two columns of news headlines "link" (manually) to the full articles inside — it's ideal for scanning. And then there is the New Yorker-esque piece, the A-hed, which is hewn for days if not weeks into a compelling, quirky read, teased with punny headlines. The subject matter is topical, but not breaking; unlike the NYT, the WSJ does not make the mistake of trying to rush this.

This segregation of stories gives you various ins into the paper, depending on your mood, and in that it is similar to The Economist, which can be attacked head-on via its opinionated leaders or slipped into via the more urbane back pages.

The Economist is in a sweet spot. It smudges the line between informing and opining in ways American media should emulate. Reading the editorial pieces in the WSJ and NYT, caged as they are on that one page, I get a sense that they are more strident than they should be, having to abstain as they do from contributing to the rest of the paper.

So my free advice to the NYT: For your longer pieces, try to poach some of those editors at The New Yorker or Wall Street Journal. And then flaunt your colors.

The report examines new compact editions, the front page revolution and other format and design changes, both editorially and in advertising, that are occurring all over the world.
Palmer and Watson contribute a chapter called "the secrets of good design". But there are no secrets, they say:
"All the cards are on the table, in the shape of newspapers from around the world, available to everyone in the industry every day." To illustrate this point, WAN asked 14 designers to choose a favourite page and explain what makes it a success.
Four leading designers -- Mario Garcia, Terry Watson, Lucie Lacava and Juan Antonio Giner -- in addition give their views on how newspapers will change over the next decade, how reading behaviour will change, and how newspaper content management and production will change.
"The newspaper of the future is more direct and visually focused, with fewer unnecessary elements to distract the reader," says Mr Garcia. "We are, in a sense, returning to our roots. We have abandoned these formulas of the 'too much' for the more accessible and faster to consume philosophy of the 'less is more.'"
Says Mr Watson: "Newspapers will be less inclined to follow web trends as they come to accept their role as a complementary media alongside the internet. They will see the need to present themselves as a distinctive information outlet to the web, because they cannot compete with the web in terms of immediacy."
Mr Giner sees the future this way: "Compact and compelling daily newsmagazine newspapers. Multi-section tabloids and broadsheets will be dead: classified, TV and stock market listings will be gone (moving from print to online editions of newspapers and to non-newspaper sites).
Ms Lacava adds another perspective. "As more titles move into the hands of fewer media proprietors, there will inevitably be fewer regional differences, set quality standards, and universal sharing of sources of information. We will buy the same international edition, navigate the same popular sites, watch the same movies and buy the same magazines. In addition, we designers will enter the same international design competitions. It is inevitable that we will move toward an international standard of design."
"New Designs, New Formats" is a report with a lot of ideas on successful newspaper design, written for newspaper designers, editors and publishers seeking guidance on one of the fastest changing elements of newspapers today. The report is one of six SFN strategy reports published by WAN in 2004. The others are "The Mobile Opportunity", "New Classified Models", "Circulation Winners", "Emerging Markets", and "Media Landscapes." They are available by subscription through the SFN project, which identifies, analyses and publicises all important breakthroughs and opportunities that can benefit newspapers all over the world.
Source: WAN/France July 22, 2004

"Unlocking the Newspaper's Value for Young Adult Readers," the latest strategic report from INMA, was released today. The report examines the decline in young adult readership, explores the underlying trends, and identifies key strategies that can help newspapers better engage young adults.

The loss of young readers is a long-term challenge that will continue to
plague our industry. Without action, it will only worsen as younger
generations age. Reading this report is a valuable step in understanding the
complexity of this issue, and it outlines the many opportunities newspapers
have to innovate and redefine themselves in order to turn this negative
trend in a positive direction.

The digital report is available to INMA members for US$65 and to non-members
for US$195. Orders may be placed at the INMA.org bookstore by clicking here
We hope this report is a valuable addition to the newspaper industry's study
of the young adult market.

[C-2-C Project] Within this volume we look specifically at the changing definition of a book. A book is no longer a tangible thing; a book is what a book does. It is an information architecture. We examine the various manifestations of electronic book readers and imminent technologies, such electronic ink, including a case study on the use of ebook reading devices by a lending library, and speculate about other uses of such devices. We see the convergence of print and etext - manifestations of the same thing - electronically stored text, with the difference demonstrated only in their final rendering. We look at changes in print technologies and the shift in mindset necessary to accommodate emergent forms of digital text - as information services within a product-service system, the changing shape of digital design and changes in printing technologies from letterpress to the rise of digital printing.