MAGNET

Jan 1

Collaborative journalism.

MAGNET is both the title of my bachelor’s degree research and the name of the app concept which I developed within this project. MAGNET brings together traditional journalism and citizen journalism, allowing the collaboration between amateurs and professionals in the task of redacting, editing and distributing news to benefit society.

The idea

MAGNET was born due to a personal interest for the enormous opportunities that Internet offers, together with the motivation of using design as a tool to answer the real needs of people.

Thus, having in mind the premise that the access to reliable and updated information is one of the basic needs of citizens, I decided to develop a proposal that could help to assure that in an era of crisis for the journalism business. For a part of the society, traditional media have lost credibility because, among other reasons, they have been ruled by economical interests that affect the quality and transparency of the information they offer. But with the expansion of Internet and the growth of social media an alternative has won strength in front of traditional media: citizen journalism.

This project studies both types of journalism and tries to find a way that allows the collaboration between amateurs and professionals in the task of creating news.

The application

This idea was brought to life in the form of a mobile phone app that acts as a meeting point for citizens as well as for the media. This medium was chosen because a telephone with Internet connection guarantees an immediate transmission of news: with a smartphone media like pictures, sound or video and even GPS locations can be sent from almost everywhere and at any moment so we can inform quickly about what happens around us.

MAGNET wants that its users inform other people and keep themselves informed about those topics that concern them and, in order to be able to adapt to the needs of each person, the app offers a wide range of options that allow them to customize a lot of its features.

News section

Community section

Widget for home screen

The naming

A magnet is a material capable of attracting several elements towards him. The same function does the invented app: it attracts news and people. At the same time, a magnet sends waves around him, and that's a metaphor of the function that the program has as a broadcaster of information.

For this project, I chose the English nomenclature of the term since it allows the app to open internationally and the word in this language is easy to remember and pronounce for a considerable amount of nationalities. "Magnet" also includes the term "net", making a reference to the medium that makes MAGNET possible.

Design

At every moment the design was made thinking in usability, that's why a clear and well-organized look that didn't take the content's importance away was created and reaching an easy and intuitive use was the main goal.

The interface possesses a clear typography, highly readable and with generous body size as well as a neutral chromatic range (white and grey) that is complemented with a brighter color palette destined to identify the different news categories (politics, sports, leisure...). The permanent menus that can be found in the upper and lower part of the screen can be used to navigate in a simple way between the different functions of the app.

The typography used is called Titillium. It has a wide range of weights, good legibility and the scientific-technological nature that the project needed, and furthermore it's a font created in a collaborative way in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino. This means that one of its strengths resides in what both projects share: they are the result of a collaborative and open work process.

The identity of the brand is composed of a symbol and a logotype that can work together or separate.

Scientific illustration was used as a model to create the symbol in order to represent how two different entities (citizens and media) meet in MAGNET and broadcast news, information and experiences. The strokes and shapes from the logotype hat to be in line with the symbol and express modernity, confidence and being easy to read even at its smallest sizes. Therefore Jan Pool's typography DIN was chosen and a logotype fully in capital letters was constructed. The aim was that any letter drew more attention than the others, respecting the essence of the MAGNET community: a network where everybody has the same opportunities.

Promotional website

In order to make the app more known, a webpage that informed the user about MAGNET and its features was designed. It also sets at disposal the download links so everyone can try the app. The website has a simple yet modern structure, following the general feeling that the application has.