Digital Magazine Experiences: My iPhone Case Study

Sunday mornings are my reading mornings. I love to sit down with a book or magazine and sink into it. This morning, I decided to read my one my favorite magazines, dwell. Having worked in architecture and architectural publishing for a decade, design for the built environment brings me joy.

One of our longtime publications has recently decided to go entirely digital. So, weeks ago I embarked upon a personal case study to try to engage fully with a digital magazine. dwell was my choice as it was available on Libby (my absolute favorite app for reading books) and would come straight to the app on my iPhone with every new issue from the Austin Public Library. Great! 

This morning, I opened it up with enthusiasm. And to my surprise, I was immediately drawn into the cover, not because it was beautiful. It was, of course; but because it was inclusive—a topic that has been a part of my every thought lately as I design and edit, and especially as I source photography. The cover of dwell this month unassumingly features a full-figured woman, and she is enjoying her gorgeous backyard pool. Bliss! 

My case study is off to a terrific start. I sink in. But, I quickly realize, I can’t “walk into” the photos the way I usually can in print. In print design for architecture, it’s common to play up to the photos by placing them as large as possible so the reader can experience the space fully and see the details. I clicked to read the cover story article. While the text flow worked great, the photos were static. On my phone, the small photos were not doing it for me, and I was not able to enlarge them in the article view. Going back to the layout view, I was able to enlarge and move around the page. But in doing so my view was segmented, not comfortably global as it is in print. Disappointed but curious, I read on. I found that my enjoyment of the content was diminished drastically because of how much of the article I could not see. It was a much narrower view than I was used to. Now, I suppose this could be because of my day job! And reading about design does entice you to want to see it ALL at once. Overall, I spent much less time on the magazine, and I didn’t read in detail when I wasn’t able to really “walk into” the photos. 

So, I will continue my case study with more of my favorite magazines. Perhaps long-form journalism is more well-suited to my iPhone screen? I’ll be sure to let you know. And for now, I’ll renew my dwell print-only subscription and pay the $1.66/month or $9.96/year for the experience I truly enjoy. 

It is worth mentioning that Libby had the newest issue first for non-subscribers. Print-and-online subscriptions ($27.48/year) I’m sure get you that early access too. But I’ll stick to print-only for this one and get excited for Sunday morning when it hits my mailbox! 

– Andrea Exter, cofounder of Monarch Media