Mayo Nissen

Design, etc

The Guardian: Envisioning Media Consumption in 2015

This project took a look at the Guardian and its possible positioning within a ten year timeframe - done just as the iPhone and Kindle had just appeared, and long before the ipad. The concept explores how vast quantities of news and opinion can be interacted with and controlled in a world of information overload - whether readers are after a quick update of the headlines or indepth editorial and comment.

The product uses a flexible e-ink display which dynamically displays content based on the physical form of the scroll. Being controlled by the reader, this is likely to depend on current needs, context, and available time, as well as the content on offer at any one time.

As stated so concisely by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger: "no editor wants to be like the generation of music industry executives who woke up one morning to find the iPod had eaten their business". Although the concept of an e-reader isn't new, none has really threatened ink on paper as the medium of choice for the morning commute or a Saturday afternoon. I wanted to see how a future (and only semi-pragmatic) device tailored specifically for a newspaper might work, as opposed to a book or magazine reader that also does news. With different needs and priorities, I also wanted to see how it might be designed beyond the paradigm of 'a screen with some buttons' that has been with us for so long.

The final design work was based on research carried out as part of a team (see below), investigating the rapidly changing and highly competitive media landscape, and the experience and contexts of reading The Guardian across different media and platforms.



N.B This project was carried out in an academic context, and is not associated with the Guardian Media Group in any way. Nonetheless, it was mentioned in an article in the (real, printed) Guardian, which made me smile!