Gestalt & interaction of the touch ebook

Gestalt & Interactionof the touch ebookThe strange case of Dr. Ebook and Mr. Device

What is a book?

“ 1. a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers. 2. a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc. 3. a division of a literary work, especially one of the larger divisions. - Random House Dictionary / Dictionary.com

The deﬁnition of book is already quite fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy

Photobook

Gamebook

Popup books

What is a book, really?

“ You cannot open a book without learning something. - Confucio

An interaction view:

1 We are conditioned by portion sizes: by default, we try to ﬁnish our food portion. Rolls B.J., Morris E.L., Roe L.S. (2002) “Portion size of food affects energy intake in normal-weight and overweight men and women”

2 Closure: the mind’s tendency to see completeness of forms from an incomplete stimuli. Wertheimer M., Rock I., Palmer S. (early 20th century) Gestalt Psychology Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

1 + 2 Let’s think for a while of the book as a cognitive object perceived as a single item that satisﬁes a promise through reading.

The new coming of the ebook

Why didn’t ebooksreally work before Kindle?

Hitchhiker’s Guideto the Galaxy“A screen, about three inches by four,lit up […] a large red button at thebottom of the screen and words beganto undulate across it. At the same time,the book began to speak”

Star Trek’sPADD“Consisting of a large touchscreendisplay and minimalistic manualinterface or control panel (generallyonly one or two buttons), the typicalPADD is used for a variety of functions.”

“ I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. - Groucho Marx

book =

content +

physical support!

ebook ‣ screen resolution ‣ reﬂection & illumination ‣ weight

Kindle’s interaction paradigmis simple

open/closeprevious page next page read

(additional complexity)

open/close turn page read

...or is it?

Don’t forget: habitshapes behaviours

The reading paradigm left-right (“western languages”)top-bottom gestalt

The touch age

Touch devices introduced a newinteraction paradigm

Skeuomorphism

Let’s look around...

The Economist

Financial Times

The New Yorker

Interview

Type Specimen

book/turn + web/scroll

One idea

Francesc Trovar Spain

Davide Tarasconi Italy

Benjamin Law Hong Kong

‣ WebKit engine‣ html5 (multimedia)‣ minimal admin debris‣ opensource (commercial use)‣ book:// identiﬁer protocol‣ Hpub simple packaging

The overalluser experience

readMost ebook devices

read annotate

buy read annotate

ﬁnd buy read annotate Kindle + Store iBook + Store

ﬁnd buy read annotate discuss quote

borrow lendﬁnd buy read annotate discuss quote

borrow lend PRIVATEﬁnd buy read annotate discuss quote

SOCIAL borrow lendﬁnd buy read annotate discuss quote

Each one is a potential service / app borrow lendﬁnd buy read annotate discuss quote

2 × 2 suggestions

for Designers1. don’t assume an interaction paradigm2. gestalt (closure) is critical

for Publishersfor Authors1. don’t forget the whole user experience2. the book experience is social - in its own way

“ Complicare è facile, semplificare è difficile. Per complicare basta aggiungere, tutti sono capaci di complicare. Pochi sono capaci di semplificare. - Bruno Munari

Davide ‘Folletto‘ Casali intenseminimalism.com @folletto folletto@gmail.comEbook Lab ItaliaRimini, 3-5 marzo 2011ebooklabitalia.com

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Gestalt & interaction of the touch ebook

by Davide 'Folletto' Casali

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