Applications on Tablet: Publishing and Relevance

by Judith Dinowitz, Master Editor-in-Chief, House of Fusion

In the newly released Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe has retooled many of its products — Flash Builder, Flex and Photoshop — to allow for easier development of mobile applications. And many of you may be jumping into developing new applications, or translating your current web applications, for use on mobile devices such as the iPad or Android tablet. But when you do plan out your applications, bear in mind the central question of any application on a tablet: relevance. This may sound obvious, but publishers and developers often forget that any application or service they develop must pass the "So What?" test.

In the early 1990's, I took a course in writing with John Ordover, who was then the editor of the Star Trek line of Pocket Books. John introduced me to the concept of the "So What?" test. Any piece of writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, must pass it. Look at the story or essay and ask yourself, "So what?" Does this piece fill some need? Can you tell me why this piece is necessary to your readership? If you don't care about the story and no one else will, don't bother creating it. If it doesn't pass the "So What" test, chuck it in the garbage and focus on something that does.

I imagine that Khoi Vinh, former designer of the New York Times website and creator of the book Ordering Disorder: Grid Design for the New World, would agree that the "So What?" test applies equally to applications produced for the tablet market. I've been reading his blog avidly and he's been known to criticize print publishers for offering big or bloated tablet applications that simply copied their print publications. He feels that publishers should think of the best or most efficient way to use the tablet, the needs of their audience and the specs of the tablet when planning out their applications. More recently, he looked at two iPad applications, Flipboard and Tweetmag, which both compile social media content into a magazine-type publication. While he enjoys the content, Vinh feels they do not go far enough. He calls Flipboard a "first step" on the road towards a new way of "interfacing with written content." He says he doesn't find Tweetmag quite the breakthrough that this type of software is looking for, calling it an attractive refinement rather than a second step on the road. Where do these applications fall short? He says,

"In their automated layouts, they frequently give higher priority or larger placement to insubstantial or just plain inane content; meanwhile more newsworthy, more important or more relevant content is often relegated to awkwardly subordinate regions of the page."

In this review, Khoi Vinh says that relevance is the key. He looks forward to an offering that will not just echo the content that's already out there but will add value to it. He says,

"The apps could then become more than just a reader for links found in my Twitter stream. They could let me see which stories my friends are reading, sharing, or tweeting the most, and it could prioritize what I see based on that information. They could help me form and access communities around topics, or contribute content of my own, or add associations with other, similar content."

I like Khoi's vision of applications that really give something back to the readers, that let them participate, control their own content and create new content. I think that just translating an already-existing web application to the tablet is not necessarily enough. To create real value, we should look at what users could do on the tablet or what they would want to do that they're not doing now. Some real thought — and the use of Adobe's new mobile tools — could lead to some sweet publications.

Additional Resources

Subtraction.com (Khoi Vinh's Website)

Ordering Disorder: Grid Design for the New World

Judith Dinowitz is the Master Editor-in-Chief of the House of Fusion magazines and journals, where she enjoys serving up ColdFusion and Flex goodness on a weekly and quarterly basis.

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