New update, new - what? – The Boston Globe ePaper Review

So, now the update to the Globe app, “completely redesigned”. Which means, what? The ability to go forward a page and now (wait for it) the ability to skip forward to the end of the paper? And we need that function at the top of every page? Crashes less? Wow. Yes, great; don’t call fixing what has been broken for a year “progress”, ok? The fundamental design flaw is the assumption that the most important function in the reader is presenting the simplified version of an article: if I just wanted plain-text, why wouldn’t I just read the web version? What I want, on an iPad, when I tap on article text is to zoom in on the text (and graphics, and page presentation). Why am I downloading a high-res rendering if you think all I want to do is see the web version of an article? Have you ever tried to pinch-open something while riding a bus? Or holding a device with one hand while using the other to hold on while on the Green Line? How about maybe I want a way - again, we’re talking about a facsimile edition - to follow a page one article inside the edition. Why isn’t there a way to tap the “Continued” text to get to that page? If I do want to share, or print, or read a simplified version, why can’t I do that with a long-tap? Why do I have to describe features that were in the App four years ago and somehow removed? All of these were functions that were disappeared. Why? And, finally, why isn’t there any intelligence in the app around combining hundreds of years of design, typography, and organizational knowledge into something that is “better” than what came before? I use the apps from NYT, The Post, and WSJ; they’re all good but I can’t believe the value of the page design just gets dropped on the floor. So dispiriting to get my hopes up that “new” might mean actually “improved”. Too bad we don’t have something like a “media lab” in the area to work on this. And, honestly, too bad for all that really good work that went into the “Web 2.0” website that now just seems to exist to “serve” advertising there occasionally interspersed with what used to be called news.
Review by K. M. Peterson on The Boston Globe ePaper.