Megan Taylor

front-end dev, volunteacher, news & data junkie, bibliophile, Flyers fan, sci-fi geek and kitteh servant

Please stop making flash magazines

or pdf ‘zine/news readers.

I checked out the Times Reader when it first came out. And today I looked at Idio, a flash music ‘zine.

Come on people, pages are for print. This is slow, cumbersome, inefficient, and for all the page-turning, not interactive.

Not that I mind at all seeing articles about my favorite musicians. But with all the RSS readers, filters and aggregators around, there are much better and more creative ways to provide that service. Especially now that readers are supporting video and music files.

Russell

I’m a senior web designer at SEGA and also own an online magazine going live this year.

As a designer of both print and web I appreciate both formats and either one can have its benefits. I’ve also seen Idio Magazine and thought that was an excellent use of Flash, giving the ability to the user to actually create their own magazine I thought was very good.

The integration into Facebook I also felt was a strong point. I do find page turning annoying but Idio have limted that to a corner lifting up with the additional menu at the bottom of the page.

I never found it cumbersome but very creative. I do believe online magazines are here to stay as long as they are created effectively.
Russell

I’m a senior web designer at SEGA and also own an online magazine going live this year.

As a designer of both print and web I appreciate both formats and either one can have its benefits. I’ve also seen Idio Magazine and thought that was an excellent use of Flash, giving the ability to the user to actually create their own magazine I thought was very good.

The integration into Facebook I also felt was a strong point. I do find page turning annoying but Idio have limted that to a corner lifting up with the additional menu at the bottom of the page.

I never found it cumbersome but very creative. I do believe online magazines are here to stay as long as they are created effectively.
Russell

I’m a senior web designer at SEGA and also own an online magazine going live this year.

As a designer of both print and web I appreciate both formats and either one can have its benefits. I’ve also seen Idio Magazine and thought that was an excellent use of Flash, giving the ability to the user to actually create their own magazine I thought was very good.

The integration into Facebook I also felt was a strong point. I do find page turning annoying but Idio have limted that to a corner lifting up with the additional menu at the bottom of the page.

I never found it cumbersome but very creative. I do believe online magazines are here to stay as long as they are created effectively.