Wikiread
A relaxing portal to stories past & present.
Project —
Mobile Application
Services —
Product Design
Logo Design
Concept
With a knowledge of the past, we can grapple with our present. This is hard with the crazed treadmill that is our 24-hour news cycle.
Wikiread was conceived as a sanctuary from this madness. With a desire to connect people with the wisdom of the past, Wikiread curates Wikipedia entries to match any subject the reader wants to learn about. This is all in a format making the digital reading experience much more comfortable.
The Core
Wikiread is simple at its core. It operates like any modern reader, allowing the user to discover topics, subscribe, and then sit back and let a feed bring fresh reading material each day.
Early Concepts
Early sketches of Wikiread had it operating like many other readers like Apple News or Medium. However, turning the process of subscribing to Wikipedia’s topics—which are countless—into an easy endeavor brought the first part of the user journey into interesting and unique territory.
Refining the Design
As I built prototypes of Wikiread, the main goal was to make subscribing to topics a breeze. A key breakthrough was moving topics into small tags, which could easily be toggled on and off to subscribe or unsubscribe from topics. But, this was just the start.
Fractal Topics
Any given topic contains a multitude of sub-topics. Wikiread allows the reader to expand large topics into their component parts, which are additional subscription opportunities.
The Reading Experience
We read more and more on our phones, but the task isn’t getting any easier. The small screen forces our eyes into rapid and uncomfortable movements. The illuminated display makes us choose between brightness and contrast. But, by borrowing some techniques from print media, Wikiread can narrow the gap.
Color, typography and layout choices all had the purpose of reducing eye strain and creating a comfortable experience.
The warm patina of aged newspaper was a major influence for the visual language of Wikiread
Goodbye to the Endless Feed
Wikiread is designed to hold attention, but not monopolize it. The Article Feed is updated with new content every day, but the reader can reach an end point. Then they can simply go about their day.
Progress
Wikiread is a conceptual project. It represents the distillation of many of my design philosophies. It is also an active project. Visit this page again for future updates.