PURPOSE

Create an online cover story article for Wired Magazine. Wired Magazine has often been known for its incredible conceptual design, however, in recent years their online presence has not been as visionary. This project will refresh the visual concept of Wired Magazine's cover story by presenting a new design for their recent article on Wikipedia. 

ARTICLE

The online article is titled Wikipedia is the last best place on the internet and is located at https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-online-encyclopedia-best-place-internet/. I downloaded the article and used the original illustrations by Michael Haddad. 

TARGET AUDIENCE

Young male and females ages 20-40. These individuals are interested in reading online articles and like the topics offered by Wired Magazine. Many of their target audience are tech-savvy people who enjoy staying up to date. They are both new readers and past readers. 

DESIGN ITERATIONS

I began this project with researching multiple print copies of Wired Magazine. Wire Magazine has multiple styles in one article including titles, subtitles, main content, captions, pull quote text, page numbers, and so on. After concluding this, I conducted a typographic audition in which I experimented with different fonts, weights, styles, sizes, spacing, and other relevant adjustments. I drafted out several versions to capture the hierarchy of the article. 

DESIGN SOLUTIONS

After a few iterations of designing the type, I added variety to the article by including images from the original article. I took it to a few members of the target audience and received feedback that the article felt too long and there wasn't enough to keep them interested in reading the entire article. I knew from the feedback I needed to add more hierarchy, variety, space, and visual interest into the design. To do this, I created more striking pull quotes using color and typography. I added more prominent subtitles. Instead of having images take up a small amount of space, I made them full width to give the reader a break from words and to peak their interest in the art. I also added cloud visuals taken from the illustration to add a theme throughout the article.

KEY LEARNINGS

Online articles can often be long and filled with a lot of text. I learned that many members of the target audience want to read the whole article, but they often get distracted or bored half way through. By making the design more conceptually pleasing for the reader, they were motived to continue reading and look at other relevant articles. They wanted to spend more time on the site. I learned that by adding elements of design, a simple article can be transformed into something that adds value to members of the target audience. 

Link to full interactive mockup