UCI's 2014-15 Online Literary Magazine: Kiosk

      UC Irvine's Kiosk is a web based digital magazine that is updated annually in the Fall. They are part of UCI's literary journalism program, primarily posting nonfiction prose or reported nonfiction with occasional photography. Running a strictly digital journal gives the freedom to upload and edit with no restrictions to a certain time or a point in a semester. With fewer restrictions, the journal can run like a blog. 

     Stylistically, the website remains the same regardless of the pages that are being viewed. The buttons at the side of the page create a simple way to traverse the website and view all of its contents easily. Unfortunately, there is no audio or video with Kiosk, since they adhere to literary nonfiction only. The same unchanging design is used throughout each issue for each year posted. 

There is no promotional or informational media on the home page, but a blank page. Essentially, it's useless. The main page should be the welcome page, which describes the currently discussed issue. 

The website does, however, have the ability to preview back issues not in scans but in slides. The issue number counts backward to the first issue with each page consisting of varying artwork to the pertaining year. 

    

     A feature that is admirable from Kiosk is the depth of background information available from the vast array of contributors and editors. Credit is given to more than just the editors. Short biographical details are accompanied with small profile pictures for all people who've participated. Incorporating short biographies for contributors helps connect the reader to the literature along with giving deeper meaning and insight on the material. 

     The sections dedicated to each short story are listed vertically, categorized by the editors choice of theme. The benefit of the text format to each older issue, as opposed to using only scans would be to avoid Matryoshka Doll links stacked within pages and maintaining details directly on the website. Digging multiple folders deep becomes redundant when all pages are identical with material and purpose. However, using the Pdf format has the benefit of being able to transfer the material from physical sources directly to digital images on to the website, or to be shared across other mediums in other formats. Pdf files can be more manageable than text directly posted on the website. 

     When compared to the Myriad website, I feel Kiosk is more developed than Myriad by the amount of detail. However, Kiosk has no media, is barren of artistic expression or experimentation and is over simplified. The beige color scheme of Kiosk is a poor choice since much of the material on the website is read as is, the color becomes tiresome to look at. The Myriad website could be enhanced by organizing the pages with buttons perhaps on the left-hand side. Also, a consistent theme relating to Myriad could work as a holistic background. Perhaps, a collage of the myriad of collected artwork throughout the years. I also think that the scans of different editions of the Myriad displayed at the top of each page could work better if they were only a portion of the front cover and did not show the spine. I think font and its size is also important to be consistent, for maintaining a polished style and elegance.





Find out more about UCI's literary journalism at:

www.humanities.uci.edu/litjourn

www.ljdigital.tumblr.com

sites.uci.edu/conversations

www.twitter.com/UCILitJ 

Comments about Kiosk can be sent to:

Piersonp@uci.edu or Kiosk@uci.edu 

(949) 824 - 6876

Kiosk

c/o The Literary Journalism Program

Department of English, UC Irvine

435 Humanities Instructional Building

Irvine, CA 92697 - 2650