Pictory – A beautiful example of online editorial design

I’ve talked before about exploring different ways of navigating and consuming content online.

I first came across Pictory a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. But as it starts to fill with stories and topics I feel provides some beautiful and elegant ways to gorge yourself on content and is really forging a path into new areas of content layout and navigation online.

Their line ‘Your best photo stories’ explains what it is nicely.

Let’s look at the evidence.

Lovely, big images. Navigation via a keyboard which allows me to skip from piece to piece simply by pressing the left/right arrow keys. A balanced mix of captioned images and short stories pulled together to create a rich textured viewing / reading experience. Real-life stories which often cause an emotional stir in the reader. And the designer in me loves the use of Typekit fonts.

I think it’s an example of crowdsourcing at it’s absolute best. A nice tightly worded brief but open enough for interpretation by the viewer. (Aren’t all the best briefs like this?)

Being ultra picky. A full-screen view would be nice.

Anyway, I think it’s best if you go there now and lose the next hour of your day.