The Globe and Mail iPad app, photo gallery presentation.The Globe and Mail
Earlier this month, after a good number of late nights and a few grey hairs, we launched The Globe and Mail for iPad.
The goal of the product was to offer a clean, elegant browsing experience on a rock-solid foundation. We also used the app to highlight a couple of The Globe's strengths that we felt would particularly appeal to iPad users: Our daily gallery of the best photography from around the world, and a special "featured" section devoted to analytical pieces and long-form writing.
In many ways, this application is an experiment. It's our first foray into a space where the rules of design and user experience have yet to be written. The tablet is not a computer in a standard sense, nor is it a newspaper. It demands that we completely rethink how we deliver content to you.
But the most important part of an experiment like this is that we open it up to as many people as possible. We can learn more in a day of putting an application in front of Globe readers - they happen to be a pretty smart bunch - than in months spent hypothesizing about what Canadians want.
We will make mistakes - as media companies tend to do. But as we get your feedback on the application and see how and when our readers use the device, our hope is to evolve Globe and Mail for iPad into something truly great. A way of reading and interacting with the news that is more immersive than a newspaper and more fulfilling than the Web. I don't know if that's possible, but that's my goal.
So let us know what you think. All comments and criticisms (and even compliments) are welcome.
- Matt Frehner, mobile editor