Mike Haney joined us via Skype at our weekly Vox staff meeting on Monday to show the staff how Mag+ uses Adobe InDesign to create magazine layouts for the iPad. Haney is the deputy director of research and development for Popular Science and who oversees iPad work for both Popular Science and other Bonnier titles. Essentially, Mag+ allows you to not only use what is designed directly in InDesign for your iPad app, but it also uses a technique called "pinning," which allows you to have your design automatically reorient itself based on the way the tablet is oriented, rather than having to design for both orientations. His demonstration took us through the entire process of designing the app, with even a preview in InDesign of what the final design will look like on the iPad.
Although the idea seems so foreign to me now, the idea of being able to design magazine spread for the iPad is fascinating to me, and something I could see myself eventually designing exclusively at a publication. Haney pointed out during his presentation that with these tablets, you are reading with your hands just as much as you are with your eyes, and designers are given the challenge to find ways to engage their readers on an entirely new level. The possibilities are truly endless with tablet design, and I'm realizing the degree to which this is true the more I take the time to explore them.
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