Flipboard: A beautiful union of graphic design and social media
Flipboard is still relatively new to the world of apps and for those unfamiliar, it is a free iTunes download that lets users amalgamate news feeds and social media into a unified, magazine viewing experience. It connects to all your social media accounts - Facebook and Twitter primarily, and utilizes all that information to create a user-friendly familiar interface similar to a magazine. The result is a beautifully laid out webpage, that is fun to browse and fun to read.
“We love magazines. There’s something great in terms of graphic design, typography and emphasis on the visual side. And there’s also the fact you have editorial – someone filtering down the new stuff, telling you what’s important, interesting and worthwhile. Both those things we wanted to marry with social.”– Evan Doll, ex Apple engineer and co-founder of Flipboard.
“… the beauty and timeless graphic design principals of print. We wanted to create something that was much more visually beautiful than what we’ve seen with web pages.”– Mike McCue, co-founder and CEO of Flipboard.
By incorporating your own content to build the interface, Flipboard allows you to flip through photos, the news, your Facebook updates, Twitter and most recently Google Reader in a way that mimics magazines, which we have seen remains an incredibly popular format with readers.
In December of 2010, Apple announced “Flipboard” as iPad’s App of the Year and was also named as one of TIME magazine’s Top 50 Innovations of 2010. The same week Flipboard also joined forces with several media outlets including The Washington Post and Bon Appetit.
Have you seen it? Have you tried it? Do you like it?
For those of you who are not familiar with this app, you can view a Flipboard demo here: www.flipboard.com. To learn how Flipboard becomes your own personal magazine, filled only with content you’re interested in and that is constantly updated every time you turn it on. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vpvEDS00o&feature=player_embedded
We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Until next time,
Michelle