A look at Amazon Kindle design in reference to Norman's book "The Design of Everyday Things"

1. Kindle According to Norman
Brittney Huntington

2. A look at Kindle
• Designer goals and
reader expectations
unclear
• Book?
• Not a book?
• Better than a book?
• Young. (2009)

3. Kindle Display Design
Conceptual Models:
1. Designers Model
2. Users Model
3. System Image
– Mapping
– Clarke et al (2002)

4. Kindle Affordances
• Buttons
–Positioning
–Size
• Keyboard
–Mayer’s pre-training principle:
similar to many other devices
used in everyday life like
smartphones and computers.
• Screen Display
Clarke et al. (2002) focus group study
Mayer, R., (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of
Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University
Press

5. Kindle Decision Tree
Reading w Kindle
Book Magazine Newspaper
Wuthering Heights New York Times Wall Street Journal
Blog
The Hunger Games The New Yorker Sports Illustrated Perez Hilton

6. Constraints to Kindle Display
Design
Older Versions
1. Mobility
2. Note-Taking
Newer Versions
1. Navigation between
pages
2. Simultaneous Browsing
3. Small Screen Size still a
problem
Brown et al.(2001)

7. References
• Clarke, D., Goodwin, S., Samuelson, T., Coker, C.
(2002). A Qualitative assessment of the Kindle e- book
reader: results from initial focus groups.
Performance Measurement and Metrics, 9, 118-129.
• Brown, G.J. (2001). Beyond Print: Reading Digitally,
Library Hi Tech, 19, 390-399.
• Mayer, R. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of
Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.
• Norman, R. (1969) The Design of Everyday Things.
Currency and Doubleday: New York.