Vice is an online magazine about different news issues including music, fashion, travel, sports, health, impact, technology, food, gaming, opinions, elections, crime, culture and environment.
At the top is a menu with selections like VIDEO, SECTIONS, PHOTOS, MAGAZINE, TOPICS:ELECTION 2016, OPINION and so on. Thanks to wed design and programming, clicking on one of these different options will lead you to another 'page'. When moving the mouse on top of one of the different options, this is what will show up(below)
In this case, the mouse is on top of the photos drop-down option. I like the layout of the page with the different colours present and different type of photos or designs. Having everything the same style would be boring and not attract the viewer to keep on looking at the website and by a click of a button the page will be closed and the viewer will look for something else. So we realize the importance of catching the viewers' eyes.
The audience for VICE magazine is literally anyone. Age is a bit of a factor which shows people who really look at the magazine. For example, a 13 year old wouldn't really bother to read about the news of the computer but rather chat with his/her friends. That's one good thing about this magazine, it is that it typically writes about anything in at the moment targeting everyone as a whole. Vice has also become popular with the videos that they do on interesting topics such as distribution of drugs, back stories of important people and so on.
When clicking on an article in a sub topic, a layout like this will appear.
In this case, the topic being discussed is how marijuana won the Election. I am not going to go into the topic but rather the layout, style, arrangement and layout.
On top,we still see the menu bar, just in case you are fed up of reading the article and might want to read another article instead.
Then, being the largest in bold, with less spacing between letters is the title 'How Marijuana Won the Election'. Underneath the title is the writer of the article.
There then is the share menu, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and so on.
Underneath that obviously continues about the article with an image and text. Text also has underlined words. These are portrayed in bold to attract a bit more attention. When clicking on one of these, another tab is opened of another Vice article which has to do with what you click on. For example, when clicking on 'passed referenda' a different styles article came up as you can see below.
There is no grey background where there is no text like the top one, the text is bigger and in a different font. This is good in a way as for the reader not to get bored of the same layout, size, text, font and so on. Here, there is a good use of white space, a bit too much perhaps. I lie the design of the ;UP IN SMOKE' title. The effect ads interest into the page and makes it look a lot nicer.
Back to the ' How Marijuana Won the Election' article, we see the presence of ads. On the side we see a big part of advertisement of Green Valley Cordon Bleu. Underneath the ad, we see MOST POPULAR. These are more articles of Vice, trying to keep the reader on their site and making it easier for them to know what is the most popular at the moment.
When it come to colour, simple colours like black, grays and whites are used on VICE.com . They focus more on the information than on the layout(however layout is good).
When it comes to Typography, they are different to that of a magazine. Titles are a classic black bold title.
The Articles on this site are a bit less formal than those on actual magazines, with more straight to the point wording.
When it comes to size of wording, it is a little larger than that of an actual magazine. They could do this maybe because it being on a screen, it is bigger as there are other things going on, such as bright colours from photos of other articles, ads and so on.
Underneath the article, there are TOP STORIES. Layout is simple with 3-centred columns, with many rows.
In these top stories, a few words lay underneath the photo describing what it is about.
As an online magazine as a whole, I think it is quite good design wise, not how i would design my own, but i still like the layout and design. I would have on the other hand done something different from the norm, layout wise..
Below are some different online magazines, but in a way have the same layout or style, obviously varying in content and images.
You will also realize that the style or 'playfulness' of the design layout varies according to how 'serious' the magazine is.For example, there is a clear difference in colour and layout between 'The Verge', and 'The Wrap' from 'The New York Times'.
Type of content makes all the difference.
ANALYZING THE VICE APP
When it comes to the Vice app, information will be the same and so will articles be the same. However layout and grids are different.\
Here is the homepage of the Vice app. We already notice that it is a one column grid app for android. Stories continue as you scroll down. Font of the title is a sans-serif font. It is also displayed in bold.
Under the Vice logo, there are two 'links' which are MUST-READ and LATEST.
When clicking on LATEST this is what came up.
There is a difference in picture layout, with no number going into the picture like before. There is also a difference in font in the article where the font of the article is sans-serif. I honestly do not know why they used the sans-serif font, as the online magazine font is a more suitable font for the app itself.
However, the LATEST link is still a one column grid layout. This is very common for apps since the screen will be much smaller to read.
Moving back to the MUST-READ link, we notice that the font of the article is serif, which is more suitable for an app and more appealing in my opinion. Font is modern and up to date. Here we see again, how the number becomes one with the illustration.
This is the article number 1 in this case, and we see a banner of white and black with the VICE logo in a circle.
There is also a difference in font in the article where the font of the article is sans-serif. I honestly do not know why they used the sans-serif font, as the online magazine font is a more suitable font for the app itself.
One factor i really like about this, is that it tells you the estimated time to read the article. This is good to know if it it worth reading or not, as many people do not even bother reading an article if it is very long.
