Real Simple Tablet Concept
Time, Inc.
The editors at Time, Inc. asked Smart Design to take one of their magazines, Real Simple, and bring it to life on a tablet. What would make it uniquely Real Simple, yet different from both the web and print mediums? And could the digital experience be rich enough that subscribers would pay for it, when they were used to getting it for free?
Our point of view was that the tablet magazine experience could bring back some of the editorial voice that had been lost in the web free-for-all. The experience should be linear, have a start and a finish, and be heavily curated. Real Simple's editors told us that the average user spends over 40 minutes with each issue, and reads it cover to cover, a ton of time for a busy mom. It was critical to us that reading the magazine on the tablet was just as relaxing and personally indulgent as the original experience.
This project was pre-iPad, but designed with the rumored device in mind, and took about a month. The end result was 3 short concept videos illustrating key moments in the magazine experience: arrival, dinnertime, and evening.
Credits
Work by Mike Jones for Smart Design, in collaboration with Jason Short, Ryan Devenish, Ben Chao, Anna Shaw, Noriko Ohori, and Matt Barthelemy.