Milchjugend: Online edition of the youth magazine «Milchbüechli»

The "Milchbüechli" is the magazine of the queer youth organization "Milchjugend". It offers young queer authors and illustrators a platform to write about anything that interests them.

The Milchbüechli has been published exclusively as a printed magazine for 12 years. This is set to change in 2024, with the aim of making the new issues readable online and the entire archive available online.

The special challenge

The articles in the Milchbüechli are only rarely simple text articles with pictures. They are almost always fully designed pages in which texts and illustrations form a "total work of art". If the texts alone were put online, they would only tell half the story. The complete pages, on the other hand, are too large for mobile screens. Designing all articles for mobile, i.e. creating two layouts for each, would exceed the capabilities of the volunteer editorial team. What to do?

The special solution

Desktop

For the desktop version, the solution was obvious: the entire pages can be presented in practically 1:1 size in their design diversity. To ensure accessibility, e.g. for screen readers, the texts can be displayed separately from the page layout.

Mobile

On the mobile screen, we give an impression of the designed pages by showing a nice section of them. And we go straight into the easy-to-read text.

Sophisticated user experience

The fresh design of the website is complemented by sophisticated features that make it easy and enjoyable for readers to delve into the variety of content: the following articles are automatically reloaded - be it the next article in the issue or the next one in the same section. The night mode or dark mode relaxes the eyes. And accessibility is optimized throughout using the latest accessibility standards.

Conclusion

Thanks to a collaborative approach and the use of productive UX methods, the vision became reality in a short space of time. 

"The website looks really cool! We are very pleased. 😊"

Sara Boy, Milk Youth Office

The entire club website was relaunched on June 19, 2025. 

Two workshops in the “Regenbogenhaus” have led to revealing results, which form the basis for the solution.