Since the introduction of the iPad, Joe Zeff Design has shown people what's possible.

We collaborated with Touch Press to design Solar System for iPad, an app in the iTunes Hall of Fame. We launched Fast Company on the iPad and National Geographic on the iPhone, both award-winning magazine apps. And then we designed and developed tablet applications for a new generation of publishers — universities, corporations, museums, institutions — as the iPad transitioned from a toy to a tool.

The next frontier for phones and tablets is the workplace. And to seize that opportunity, I'm closing the studio I founded 14 years ago and joining ScrollMotion as its Vice President/Executive Creative Director.

The New York Times' prototype of its redesigned website raises fundamental questions about the merits of distributing content through websites versus apps. If you haven't yet seen the demo, it's available here. ​

The new website looks like a tablet app, functions like a tablet app, but isn't a tablet app —  it's an HTML-based site available to any viewer on any device without downloading anything at all from any app store. For The New York Times, there's no need to submit anything to Apple or anyone else for approval, and no need to share revenues with Apple or anyone else. So far, so good.

​The look and feel is clearly inspired by other HTML-based experiments in long-form storytelling. ESPN set the standard last fall with an Outside The Lines feature on Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis. As you scroll down the webpage, photographs and illustrations appear alongside the corresponding text, using a parallax scrolling technique. The New York Times upped the ante with its Snow Fall project last December, adding animation to the recipe. Snow Fall was a hit, drawing nearly a million unique visitors in the first week.

Neither experiment worked as well as tablets as they did on desktops, but it's a matter of time before they do. ​So why bother creating tablet apps using platforms like Adobe Digital Publishing Suite when websites can be so ​tablet-friendly? We'd argue that these are the reasons why:

The Final Hours of Tomb Raider is available starting today for iPad, Kindle Fire and desktop computers, setting a new standard for how storytelling comes to life in a tablet application.

Once again we've collaborated with journalist Geoff Keighley to tell the story behind a blockbuster video game, in this case Tomb Raider, which launches today with versions for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows computers. Our app immediately caught the attention of Entertainment Weekly, which featured it on its website yesterday and said that it was "beautifully designed."  

Congratulations to filmmaker Dawn Porter and her team at Trilogy Films for their exciting premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where Gideon's Army has opened to standing ovations and rave reviews.

Gideon's Army is a documentary about the challenges facing public defenders 50 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright, which requires courts to provide counsel for defendants unable to pay for their own attorneys. Porter sheds light on an overburdened system, with 15,000 public defenders handling a million cases a year.

We've had the good fortune of working with the University of Notre Dame and Adobe on Notre Dame Gameday, an impromptu digital magazine for iPad built around the BCS National Championship game played last night in Miami.

While Notre Dame's season ended abruptly last night, the conversation about interactive gameday programs for major universities is just getting started. We've been contacted by a slew of universities about developing similar products, both as one-off publications and weekly editions. It may be that the next revolution in digital publishing takes hold in college athletics departments nationwide.

What we're telling prospective clients considering products like Notre Dame Gameday:

Joe Zeff Design is excited to announce that Notre Dame Gameday, an interactive gameday program for the BCS National Championship Game we developed for the University of Notre Dame, is now available in the iTunes App Store. 

Notre Dame Gameday takes fans behind the scenes with the No. 1-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, recounting the highlights of their climb to the top of the BCS rankings and previewing their January 7 matchup against No. 2 Alabama, the defending national champions. The free iPad app features game-by-game recaps of the team's 12-0 season, photo and video galleries, statistical analyses, interactive rosters, animated lineups, stadium diagrams — even a virtual tailgate party.

We designed and developed the app in less than two weeks using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Instead of reformatting a print edition, we created an experience exclusively for iPad. The rosters are sortable to display players by name, number or position. The starting lineups are depicted as 3D-rendered characters that animate into place. There are video highlights from every game this season, taking fans inside the locker room and onto the gridiron with the Irish.

The death of The Daily has called into question the viability of iPad apps as a way to deliver magazine content. "Tablets in general, and the iPad in particular, are actually much less powerful and revolutionary than many of us had hoped," writes Felix Salmon of Reuters. "Turds all around," adds MG Siegler of TechCrunch.

Has digital publishing on iPad jumped the shark?

Not if done right.

Joe Zeff Design is excited to announce that its most ambitious iPad app yet, Kids Discover, is available today in the iTunes App Store. 

We've developed an interactive magazine for children that blows the doors off the competition. Kids Discover is a monthly iPad app bursting at the seams with original content — text, animation, pictures and activities. The app teaches kids about a different subject every month, with new installments sold individually or by subscription. There is no advertising whatsoever, ensuring that parents and children can experience Kids Discover  without distractions.

Joe Zeff Design is excited to announce that Assets Digital, an iPad app we developed for UCLA Anderson School of Management, is now available for download in the iTunes App Store.

The app represents an exciting new way for one of the country's top business schools to engage with its alumni. Traditionally, universities have published alumni magazines that were distributed by mail to a list of graduates. Assets Digital changes the game by reaching beyond that list of 36,000 alumni to access current students, prospective students, faculty, media and anyone interested in business, culture and technology, anywhere in the world — a potential audience of 85 million iPad users.