Catching up with my technical reading, I come across this article in New Electronics about Ebooks (www.neon.co.uk, but don't bother going there, I couldn't find the article online; here's a BBC story about it). Despite its focus on the technical challenges in producing a readable electronic book (battery life, resolution, screen size and shape, etc.) its main conclusion seems to be that the principal challenge here is one of ergonomics: making a device which fits how people read.
Well, duh.
I think even this misses the point, though. I suspect, although I have no proof of this, that the way authors write is in part a reaction to the format their work will take. On the surface, this is fairly obvious; work written for a pamphlet or a newspaper will have a different tone and form from that written for book format, and there's a clear, overt design intention there. The question is, is there also a subconscious conformity to the format? I suspect there is. One indication might be the size and spacing of paragraphs, which not only break up the story but also ease the strain on the eye and make a page of writing less intimidating. Obviously the width of the page and the size of the writing will mean that paragraph shape will be different in different formats. Does a writer then write with a visual expectation of what the page will look like? Or are we just listening to the voices in our heads?
So it's interesting to speculate as to what the shape and design of these new ebooks will do to their content, if anything. Any effect will probably be lost amid all the other influences we take in, but I wonder. And it's not as if books will disappear overnight - in this era of TV on demand and easy broadband access to the Net of a Million Lies, the book industry is the biggest it's ever been. Will a new generation of authors, brought up reading from ebooks, produce content better suited to it than us old-fashioned book lovers?
Conversely, of course, this means that anyone designing an ebook has a fearsome challenge. I've read books on a pda, and the experience is less than satisfying. For my money, the design of an ebook is one of the most culturally charged and potentially difficult bits of design you're likely to come across. It's like designing a toilet; both strike deep into our cultural territory, and our sense of where and who we are.
So it's interesting to speculate as to what the shape and design of these new ebooks will do to their content, if anything. Any effect will probably be lost amid all the other influences we take in, but I wonder. And it's not as if books will disappear overnight - in this era of TV on demand and easy broadband access to the Net of a Million Lies, the book industry is the biggest it's ever been. Will a new generation of authors, brought up reading from ebooks, produce content better suited to it than us old-fashioned book lovers?
Conversely, of course, this means that anyone designing an ebook has a fearsome challenge. I've read books on a pda, and the experience is less than satisfying. For my money, the design of an ebook is one of the most culturally charged and potentially difficult bits of design you're likely to come across. It's like designing a toilet; both strike deep into our cultural territory, and our sense of where and who we are.
(Incidentally, this is my first cross-post from my Blogger blog, Supernormal. I set it up so that I'd be able to post from my Clie when I'm not at home. Already annoyed with it though - upload of pictures doesn't seem to be possible. Guess I'm shelling out the fifty dollars and setting up my own now).
4 comments:
My partner worked at Parc for a while. Picking up on your toilet design theme, Xerox people would typically say that we would get rid of toilet paper before we get rid of printed paper. :)
I think that's changed a great amount, hasn't it. I can't remember the last time I printed something other than print directions for my folks, who don't use a computer.
As to real reading you're right -- they just can't come close to matching the ergonomics -- even the feel of the paper maters. Plus typically I do most of my reading outside, at the beach, on the balcony, etc -- even lighting is an issue.
Perhaps someday one person here will think back to this post when they're reading their ebook on the new fangled toilet-like contraption.
Until it doesn't require batteries, has very easily changable content, and a format that allows easy page/section jumping (i.e. be able to quickly return to a paragraph you recall reading, and the battery being flat doesn't effect things) I'm not sure I'd be in their market - Aren't Sony about to bring somthing out... and/or MS?
You see, paper's just so damned flexible, other than the WORM-ness of it. It doesn't weigh much, doesn't require batteries (unless reading at night), is legible in bright sunlight, and at any angle, it's fairly robust.. and is tactile. you can open a book to roughly where you last were and find your place quickly - I even think it might be much easier on the eye
could you use a larger font!
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