As a designer, do you want your creativity to enthral your readers or a publication that promotes your clients’ organizations to its best? Do you want to deliver the best Return on Investment (ROI) from your work? A silly question!, as all designers want to excel in their design so that their customers’ brands are continuously in the limelight. Then, all the publications you create need to be responsive. A responsive publication is a digital edition of your magazine(brochure, report, handbook etc) that renders perfectly on all devices without pinching and zooming.
Your customers’ readers are no longer willing to accept any old PDF, they want an experience. Users want a great content experience, an experience of accessing, consuming, engaging and responding to streams of brand content. They want to feel part of a brand and in order to really engage with the brand, they (the publication, not the reader) need to be responsive. They no longer want to zoom in & out or pinch the screen, they want to simply scroll up and down. The modern user has moved on from technology that seemed innovative ten years ago.
Back in 2006, the .mobi domain was the start of trying to ensure that a mobile user had a better web experience, a perfect experience might be strong but it did try to ensure that websites were built for users of mobiles. The .mobi domain, however, meant that you had two sites and this could be time-consuming and resource-intensive as 2 sites had to be maintained. The challenge for digital magazine publishers is similar in that responsive content can be very costly, time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Web design tools have moved on significantly and now most website builders are responsive, but where does that leave magazine publishing? Magazines have become more and more dynamic and no longer are readers willing to accept a PDF, they want the same experience as with the print edition. Flipbook technology gives them a relatively good experience on any device but they are not responsive and the content does not render perfectly on all devices, zooming in and out is necessary.
The Experios Team surveyed 4000 people (in the area of digital design) in February 2022. Responsiveness is high on the priority list for creators, with 62% saying it is extremely important to their content and organization. Surprisingly, it should be 100%. All organizations should have all their digital publications responsive, as Google will only rank, content that is mobile centric. Flipbook technology undoubtedly still has a place as some organizations want to have both print and digital. But the perception for some organizations is that the cost, the time and the resources required to build a responsive publication are too great.
As a designer and with an in-depth understanding of branding, you understand the whole concept of engagement with your audience and you understand about creating brand experiences, therefore the move to responsive design for publications is your only choice.
Over the last few years, some responsive platforms have been launched. The move from static to responsive can be a challenge for many designers but if you choose a content experience platform that is intuitive to use and with a well-thought-out onboarding, the move will be seamless. The Experios platform allows you to build one template for all devices. As it works on percentages, it automatically adjusts to the device.
Making all your publications responsive ensures that your users have the best possible experience (assuming that your content is engaging!) and strengthens your brand. Having your website responsive and then your publications within that site not responsive is utter madness!
Responsive design is also about ensuring that everybody can access your content. Using a responsive platform does not ensure that your publication will comply with certain specification and legislation such as the WCAG specifications but it is a step in the right direction. Choosing a platform such as the Experios Platform, which allows you to build WCAG compliant publications, means that you can create responsive publications that are accessible to all, thus ensuring a more inclusive society.
Responsive design is a creative discipline but it is also a way of thinking. By using responsive design, you are much more in tune with the requirements of your audience or your clients’ audiences. By thinking responsive, you will be able to create beautiful content experiences and see the return on investment as now you have created publications that are easy to read, accessible to all and stress-free for your clients’ people (whatever department they are in) to input their content and enthral their audience.
If you are a designer that is utilizing responsive design, none of this is new but you should want more than just a responsive platform. You will want to be able to give each of your clients, their own portal with their unique and branded templates, and finding a low cost, low risk platform that can be White Labelled is the best way to do this. Let the Power of Experios be your power to design beautiful content experiences.
