Asia Society Magazine
Asia Society Magazine is a print and digital publication that focuses on amplifying Asian voices by addressing the topics and challenges that are impacting Asian communities today. Asia Society Magazine uses their contributions to promote efforts towards peace, diversity, equality, and prosperity for Asian communities around the world. To help expand this message for a larger audience on the modern web, Asia Society wanted to revamp their digital publication to be more reader-friendly, while highlighting the stories and authors behind the magazine.
Designing & Developing a Robust Publication Platform
While articles are the foundation of the magazine, Asia Society produces other forms of digital content as well. Author essays, podcast episodes, and photography collections are also part of the magazine’s rich catalog which needed to be captured in a digital format. Photography catalogs easily adjust to fit page dimensions and provide adequate spacing for captions and photographer accreditations. Episodes of the magazine’s “Asia In-Depth” podcast are embedded into the episode summary pages for readers to easily access. Article and essay pages display elegant and interactive author credits so readers can interact with their favorite contributors.
The integration of this content in an easy-to-read and accessible format was one of the biggest priorities for the design process, according to our lead designer on the project.
Page Filtering & Categorization
Asia Society Magazine covers a multitude of topics, ranging from climate change and COVID-19 to politics, film, and education. Sometimes readers want to catch up on particular topics, which is why we incorporated a topic filter to all publication pages throughout the site. This addition allows readers to easily filter search results to only show the articles they care about. Whether it’s arts or technology – the readers’ topics of interest are only a click away.
Readers can apply additional filters, such as region or country, for a more curated list of results. This level of tagging and categorization gives readers a customized experience and makes it simple to locate specific content across a large database. So if a reader is only interested in learning more about Japanese film, they only need to set a few parameters to find exactly what they are looking for.
In-Depth Author Profiles
Some readers subscribe to Asia Magazine to follow the work of their favorite authors that regularly contribute to the publication. We built the new website to strengthen the connection between readers and authors. Each online article displays the name and description of the contributing author at the end. If the reader clicks on the contributor’s name, they will be redirected to the author’s profile page which includes a brief biography, their full bibliography, and social media icons where readers can stay connected. Maintaining and strengthening the connection between the authors and readers helps create more discussion around important topics and encourages readers to return to the website to see the latest contributions from their favorite authors.
An Innovative Site for an Innovative Publication
One of Asia Society Magazine’s main goals is to provide thoughtful discussion and critical insight on world events to advocate for more equality and diversity, especially in relation to Asian populations. Gravity Works wanted to help Asia Society further their mission through the development of a world class digital publication. With advanced tagging and categorization, we gave Asia Society the digital framework and tools to deliver a quality user experience, attracting and retaining a larger audience than ever before. The new website has received the attention of professional awards organizations, earning a Gold W3 Award for Best General Magazine Website in 2022.
Award-Winning Design
