2017

Mistakes to avoid
Digital publishing is an extremely flexible medium. This flexibility means it's possible
to do amazing things, but it also means there are pitfalls that you may not be aware
of.
For example, just because you can use multimedia elements such as movies, slideshows,
and audio in a digital publication, that doesn't mean you should do so on every page.
Generally speaking, multimedia elements should be used only when they introduce
value that could not otherwise be harvested from the content. An audio sample in an
article about a band might be appropriate, where an audio sample from an interview
with a dull-sounding subject might not.
When you do use multimedia elements, make sure the control of those multimedia
elements is squarely in the hands of your users. A movie that plays when users first
view a page might be fine in a publication where the user is unlikely to visit that page
again, but could become tiresome if the user has to sit through the movie each time
he or she returns to the page. Instead of having such multimedia elements start
automatically, consider providing clear visual indicators of their presence and allowing
the user to decide whether he/she wants to view and/or listen to them. Just as
importantly, make sure the user always has an obvious way to stop the playback of a
multimedia element, in case he or she decides against viewing or listening to it.
In situations where you provide visual indicators of the presence of multimedia
elements, it may be tempting to get creative, but your users will probably be happiest
if you use industry-standard visual cues. For example, if you want to indicate that a
box contains a video snippet, a right-facing triangle in the center of the window is
probably the clearest way you can indicate this. Similarly, a horizontal bar with a play
button is the preferable way to indicate the presence of an audio clip.
It's also important to adhere to industry standards when it comes to navigation. As of
this writing, the standard way to navigate from one page to the next on a handheld
device is to use a horizontal swipe of the finger. On multi-touch screens, the current
standard for zooming in and out is to use pinch-in and pinch-out gestures. On devices
that do not support such gestures, arrow icons work well for page turning, and
magnifying glass icons work well for zooming. (This may seem obvious, but it's still
important enough to mention.)
If you want to create a high-end digital publication, one of the most important mistakes
you might want to avoid is creating something that looks like it was created by
mindlessly shoving content into a template. There's nothing wrong with starting from
a template, but if you don't use some of the design features that are offered by high-end
tools such as QuarkXPress, you may be leaving money on the table.
18 | DIGITAL PUBLISHING WITH QUARKXPRESS 2017
MISTAKES TO AVOID