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Leading Digital Transformation at Condé Nast
As Head of Mobile at Condé Nast France, I led the company’s shift from print to mobile. Over five years, I oversaw the launch of 20+ apps for brands like Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair. I directed the creation of an in-house publishing system and guided cross-functional teams to turn luxury magazines into modern digital products — creating new revenue streams and establishing a scalable mobile publishing model.
Meet Condé Nast: Global Publisher of Iconic Luxury Brands
Condé Nast is home to titles such as Vogue, GQ, and Vanity Fair. As readers moved to smartphones and tablets, the company needed to modernize monthly magazine production. I led the development of a unified digital publishing framework that transformed print content into mobile experiences across smartphones and tablets.
The Product Challenge:
Condé Nast needed a scalable publishing system to produce and distribute monthly magazine editions across multiple brands and devices.
Transform Print into Interactive Digital Products
Enhance static pages with galleries, video, and multimedia elements to elevate the mobile reading experience.
Modernize Monthly Workflows
Define production processes that allowed editorial teams to prepare content for digital release without disrupting existing print operations.
Create a Magazine-Ready CMS
Develop a CMS capable of structuring print layouts into mobile-friendly digital formats.
Build a Scalable App Framework
Create a reusable application shell that each brand could customize while keeping interaction patterns consistent.
The Vision: Reinventing the Magazine for the Mobile Era
My vision was to build a unified mobile publishing system that transformed Condé Nast’s print magazines into interactive digital products — scalable across brands and faithful to each title’s identity. Instead of simply digitizing layouts, we aimed to deliver high-quality mobile editions that matched modern reading habits while respecting each brand’s editorial style.
My Product Design Process:
With 15+ years of experience, I work across strategy and craft. My process spans user research, interaction design, and visual design—from discovery through delivery.
The Product: UI/Visual Design
The UI needed to balance strong brand identity with consistent interaction patterns across apps. I defined a visual strategy that ensured every app felt unmistakably like Vogue, GQ, or Vanity Fair — while operating under a shared framework.
- Brand Expression: Adapted each brand’s typography, color palette, and visual language into flexible UI themes.
- Clear Content Types: Created separate visual treatments for magazine editions and web articles to distinguish premium content from free content.
- Adaptive Layouts: Designed responsive templates for smartphones and tablets, enabling teams to publish monthly issues without rebuilding layouts from scratch.
- Photography & Editorial Style: Prioritized large-format imagery, refined typography, and modern gallery components to honor each magazine’s editorial heritage.
The result was a visual system that preserved each brand’s identity while maintaining consistent interaction patterns across devices.
UX Design: Crafting the User Experience
I designed the Condé Nast Mobile Framework to unify the reading experience across all apps while supporting both premium editions and free content.
- Reader Mode: Structured reading flow with clean previews and clear paths to full editions.
- Enhanced Media: Rich interactions for galleries, video, and multimedia to bring magazine storytelling to life on mobile.
- Kiosk Mode: An intuitive interface for browsing current issues, back issues, and downloads — a modern mobile newsstand.
- Consistent Navigation: Shared navigation patterns across brands and devices, giving readers a familiar and intuitive reading environment.
This system matured through continuous testing and editorial feedback, becoming the foundation for mobile publishing across Condé Nast brands.
Discovery: Strategy & Research
My strategy focused on enabling digital publishing at scale while respecting existing print operations.
- Team Leadership: Led a cross-functional team of 12 across design, engineering, product, and content.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Ran workshops with editorial, marketing, and advertising teams to define requirements, workflows, and technical constraints.
- Technology Evaluation: Assessed third-party tools and determined that building a proprietary framework offered greater flexibility than solutions like Adobe DPS.
- Workflow Definition: Designed production processes that complemented print schedules and supported monthly digital releases.
- Scalability Planning: Established a system that launched in France and later scaled to 11 international markets.
The framework enabled Condé Nast to modernize production while maintaining editorial quality and operational efficiency.
The Showcase:
The mobile publishing framework powered magazine editions across Condé Nast brands, providing a consistent, high-quality reading experience on smartphones and tablets.
The Results:
Condé Nast’s digital presence expanded significantly, creating new revenue streams and improving production efficiency across brands.
Apps Deployed
Released more than 20 iOS and Android apps across multiple brands.
Digital Publishing Sales
Digital issues grew to represent 35% of total distribution revenue.
Workflow Efficiency
Digital publishing workflows became five times faster than traditional print processes.
Global Adoption
The framework was adopted by 11 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Transform Ideas Into Great Products
With 15+ years of experience, I help companies design and build digital products that deliver results. Ready to start your next project?