https://www.codeandtheory.com/things-we-make/the-outline
This dynamic has produced the design and content conventions that define present-day publishing: under-written posts composed to chase the maximum random audience about trending topics, blasted endlessly on all social channels, and consumed somewhere else, like Facebook. This system is unsustainable. It redirects creative ambition to churn out the least interesting advertising or social media gimmick.
Founding editor and publisher, Joshua Topolsky saw an opportunity in this chaotic, unpredictable media landscape. The core insight was that quality matters more than quantity. Quality storytelling, quality design and interface, quality ads, quality audience. The Outline is the anti-Buzzfeed. The only thing it's scaling up is its creative ambition.
The conventional world of digital media was founded on desktop design principles. In that world, the article body is the most fundamental element. As a result, every post has to be an article in order for it to be told. It is almost too obvious a point to make without sounding pedantic; nevertheless, a new platform offers that paradigm a meaningful challenge. There are some stories best told in new formats: like outline bullet points; short videos, and other snapshots of information. These posts do not fundamentally require a page format that automatically includes a byline, dateline, lead art, side-rail, and ad unit. The Outline established a system that puts the story at the center of the post. In other words - the story determines the format; not the other way around.
Something historic happened around 2012 that changed the digital publishing industry that set the stage for The Outline. The whole notion of responsive design is that design and technology accomplishment can combat an existential threat to publishing. This accomplishment created new industry standards and conventions that made it relatively easy to redesign old publications. Cash-strapped publications devoted limited resources to upgrading their designs to maintain visual standards. As a result, a visual pattern emerged that made it much more difficult to distinguish a publishing brand through aesthetics alone.
Additionally, the volume of content required to maintain audience growth effectively homogenized the editorial content across most mainstream publishing brands. This happened because there were not enough editorial resources and time to produce truly differentiated voices and formats. The credit for all of this goes to the iPhone and the digital design community. It was a quiet revolution that has yet to be acknowledged.
It starts with the platform itself; Code and Theory knows that the majority of readers quickly consume material on smartphones, that quick consumption means scanning headlines and occasionally reading articles. Quickly scanning through things is a common and fundamental aspect of the most popular apps like Snapchat and Tinder. The Outline borrows those conventions to create a native digital experience. It is user-experience design that is so intuitive that it appears almost invisible. In this vein, The Outline is not inventive as much as it is resourceful; it answers the question of what Tinder would look like if it replaced profile pictures with premium headline cards.
