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

What is a book?

“

- Random House Dictionary / Dictionary.com

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

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

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

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.

fuzzyfuzzyfuzzy

fuzzyfuzzy

The definition of book is already quite fuzzy

Photobook

Gamebook

Popup books

What is a book, really?

“

- Confucio

You cannot open a book without learning something.

An interaction view:

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”

1

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

2

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

21 + 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 ebooks really work before

Kindle?

Hitchhiker’s Guideto the Galaxy

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

Star Trek’sPADD

“Consisting of a large touchscreen display and minimalistic manual interface or control panel (generally only one or two buttons), the typical PADD is used for a variety of functions.”

“

- Groucho Marx

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

book =

content +

physical support!

ebook‣screen resolution

‣reflection & illumination

‣weight

Kindle’s interaction paradigmis simple

previous page next page

open/close

read

(additional complexity)

turn page

open/close

read

...or is it?

Don’t forget: habit shapes behaviours

The reading paradigm

(“western languages”)left-right

top-bottom

gestalt

The touch age

Touch devices introduced a new

interaction paradigm

Skeuomorphism

Let’s look around...

BBC

The Economist

Financial Times

The New Yorker

Time

Interview

Type Specimen

book/turn + web/scroll

don’t forget closure!

One idea

Francesc TrovarSpain

Davide TarasconiItaly

Benjamin LawHong Kong

‣WebKit engine

‣html5 (multimedia)

‣minimal admin debris

‣opensource (commercial use)

‣book:// identifier protocol

‣Hpub simple packaging

The overall user experience

read

Most ebook devices

read annotate

buy read annotate

find buy read annotate

Kindle + StoreiBook + Store

find buy read annotate

discuss quote

find buy read annotate

discuss quote

lendborrow

find buy read annotate

discuss quote

lendborrow

PRIVATE

find buy read annotate

discuss quote

lendborrow

SOCIAL

find buy read annotate

discuss quote

lendborrow

Each one is a potential service / app

2 × 2 suggestions

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

for Designers

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

for Publishers for Authors

“

- Bruno Munari

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

Davide ‘Folletto‘ Casaliintenseminimalism.com@follettofolletto@gmail.com

Ebook Lab ItaliaRimini, 3-5 marzo 2011ebooklabitalia.com