Toronto Standard
A digital reading experience
Toronto Standard came to us looking to build a media brand with a strong and exclusively digital presence. At the time the popular conventions to achieve these goals were: a website as well as native applications for a vast number of mobile and tablet devices. We thought that we could do one better by building a multi-platform experience that was more efficient to construct and simple to manage.
UX and Design
We had been hearing all the racket about 'Responsive Web Design' and felt like this was the perfect opportunity to ask our clients to be brave and try something new. To give some perspective on how forward thinking we were asking the client to be on this project: 'the book' on Responsive Web Design was published June 7, 2011, about 60 days after the launch of The Standard.
One of our mantras while building the site was; an interface doesn't have to 'feel' like an interface. We wanted the site to feel like an old newspaper, to stay true to some of the brand's heritage and hold on to the values of being primarily a type-driven experience. We loved the juxtaposition of something that was visually simple yet extremely complex in how it behaved. Simply put, if a feature or function wasn't essential to the core experience, it didn't make the cut.
Mobile
The challenge to build a single experience that was tailored to many devices required a significant philosophical departure from the traditional way our company and many others tackled digital publishing. At the time the popular conventions to achieve these goals were: a website as well as native applications for a vast number of mobile and tablet devices. We thought that we could do one better by building a multi-platform experience that was more efficient to construct and simple to manage.
