The redesign, screen by screen, and a magazine viewer

It was time for some polishing. I saw that the deployment only had the foundations of the approved design, so the session was used to work through the screens one by one before finishing with a new layout viewer featuring facing pages.

Returning to the approved prototype

The session resumed after I confirmed that the deployment only contained the foundations of the design. I fixed thumbnail generation, connected the workflow indicator to real data, and completed the credential-change screen by adding verification of the current password.

I then carried out a view-by-view comparison against the prototype: the header and listing cards, the editing panel and its reports, the page width, and the print preview with three columns and a collapsible panel.

Details that are visible and matter

There was content overflowing on the cards, a misaligned theme control, and downloads without button styling. I adjusted the progress bar so it would fit the card width. When the text is too long, the card displays a summary of the stage.

I redistributed the actions: first beneath the title, grouped into prepare, produce, and review. Management actions, such as status or deletion, were placed next to the title. I added labels explaining the next transition and a clear confirmation for when an item is moved to the trash or restored. I tested widths from 320 to 1,440 pixels, with and without a PDF, and at different zoom levels.

Progress that does not lie

The progress bar was marking old processes as completed even though the material had changed. It now takes snapshots of the data used for layout and export: if the material changes, previous PDFs warn that they are no longer valid, and there is a publication marker linked to the closure of the current version.

I also fixed the sample edition: it had an article marked as ready but without an extraction, so the layout failed and the print PDF started from an earlier file. I extracted the test article, and the progress bar no longer treats an extraction without content as completed: it now displays an indication on the article.

I separated the warnings from the print report details by creating dedicated cards for warnings and the number of checks, while leaving the full report in the viewer. I also corrected a warning that had been mistakenly classified as a global error.

Reading the layout like a magazine

To close out the day, I implemented what the user had requested: reviewing the layout as a virtual magazine instead of using the generic PDF viewer. It features a single cover, facing-page spreads, keyboard and touchscreen navigation, and page zooming. The view respects the final trim box so that crop marks are not displayed.

The original PDF remains available for download, and the images are generated on demand with an independent cache.