Response: The (harsh) reality of web design

Tuesday's lecture by Kristin Kellogg, digital editor for Vox magazine, caused me to except several true, but harsh realities on the limitations and decision-making when it comes to designing for the web, mobile and tablet. The reality is print, web, phone and tablet design are just not equivalent to one another. Sounds simple enough until you are faced with trying to design a web, mobile or tablet component based off of a print design, just as we are for our magazine prototypes in Advanced Magazine Design.

Kristin explains that as a design, you can't control the context people will be viewing your work in – an idea that designers sometime have a difficult time accepting. She says you must design for the optimum viewing experience and most importantly, "let print be print, and let a webpage be a webpage."

Kristin showed us how this concept plays out in GQ's March 2011 "The People V. Football" feature. See below how the feature design transfers from its beautiful print form into a simple, much less designed format on the website.

"The People V. Football," GQ March 2011 (print design)

Here you have a compelling typography illustration contrasted with this engaging photograph to grab your attention. Kristin pointed that it wasn't the story topic that grabbed her attention, but the illustration, which is a great example of how powerful magazine design in print can be, and how magazine designers can use this to their advantage in print.

"The People V. Football," GQ March 2011 (web design)

I think it's pretty clear looking at the web design of this feature that it is in fact lacking in design, however, Kristin explains that the decision was by no means accidental. Not only would specially design text not be read by a search engine like this text would be, but the website works off of a content management system, giving staff members at the magazine the ability to post content to the website without having to code or design the content and as Kristin puts it: does all of the heavy lifting for them. Although to a print designer, it might seem to be a lack of design, it's truly just designed for a completely separate purpose. People don't look for interesting content to read on a webpage the way they do in print. A compelling design will catch your attention in print, but the way a browser will find your content online will not always be through the same context, so it's the words that have to be flexible in order to optimize the chance that a browser will be interested in viewing the content.

In her lecture, Kristin went on to explain how GQ and several other major publications have adapted their design for both mobile and tablet apps to fit the demand from those platforms as well. After hearing so much from publications on tablet design from the recent iPad conference and from my Magazines Across Platforms course, I found her focus and angle on the subject to be incredibly refreshing. Kristin comes from a design background, so I truly appreciated hearing her perspective on making the leap from print to the less familiar web, mobile and tablet realm.