Rock Vault

With the widespread use of e-readers and tablets, almost every magazine now has a digital version. Some magazines have published PDFs, while others allow users to flip through the digital version as if it were real. The goal of this project was to design and create a magazine for an e-reader or tablet. It would be based on an article from a published magazine. It would also have interactive touch and swipe controls.

To begin, I found a fascinating interview with RUSH singer/bassist, Geddy Lee. In the article, he broke down their 1976 album "2112" track-by-track. Aside from me, the only known female fan of RUSH, I knew my audience was generally males in their 40's-60's. Therefore, I wanted to keep the interactive part of this e-magazine simple and intuitive. To do this, I kept the user controls consistent on each page.

While the project focused on one article, the idea was to have a full theme for the magazine that could be used for future publications. I chose to create a magazine that would dissect classic rock songs, much like the featured article. That is how I chose "Rock Vault" for the name.

Each page has a similar design. There is a featured photo with a pull quote at the top, followed by the short synopsis of each track below. The controls at the bottom are clear and consistent as well. I polled people in my targeted audience and found this to be the most successful layout.

To enhance the interactive experience, I included a RUSH Spotify playlist at the end of the article. This social engagement works, because after reading about the album, who wouldn’t want to listen to it? Giving readers something extra would also entice them to read future digital articles. This feature was intended to be a standard addition at the end of each future article.