What is an ebook? An interaction point of view. The evolution of the interaction mode of the book at the dawn of the first successful ebook, how to understand it and how to design for it. Presentation at the EbookLab 2011.

1. Gestalt & Interaction
of the touch ebook
The strange case of Dr. Ebook and Mr. Device

2. What is a book?

4. “ 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

5. “ 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

6. “ 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

7. “ 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

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

10. Photobook

11. Gamebook

12. Popup books

13. What is a book, really?

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

15. An interaction view:

16. 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”

17. 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

18. 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.

19. The new coming
of the ebook

20. Why didn’t ebooks
really work before
Kindle?

21. Hitchhiker’s Guide
to 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”

22. Star Trek’s
PADD
“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.”

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

24. book =

25. content +

26. physical support!

27. ebook
‣ screen resolution
‣ reflection & illumination
‣ weight

28. Kindle’s interaction paradigm
is simple

29. open/close
previous page next page
read

30. (additional complexity)

31. open/close
turn page
read

32. ...or is it?

34. Don’t forget: habit
shapes behaviours

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

36. The touch age

37. Touch devices
introduced a new
interaction paradigm

38. Skeuomorphism

39. Let’s look around...

40. BBC

41. The Economist

42. Financial Times

43. The New Yorker

44. Time

45. Interview

46. Type Specimen

47. book/turn + web/scroll

50. One idea

53. Francesc Trovar
Spain

54. Davide Tarasconi
Italy

55. Benjamin Law
Hong Kong

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

57. The overall
user experience

58. read
Most ebook devices

59. read annotate

60. buy read annotate

61. find buy read annotate
Kindle + Store
iBook + Store

62. find buy read annotate
discuss quote

63. borrow
lend
find buy read annotate
discuss quote

64. borrow
lend PRIVATE
find buy read annotate
discuss quote

65. SOCIAL
borrow
lend
find buy read annotate
discuss quote

66. Each one is a potential service / app
borrow
lend
find buy read annotate
discuss quote

67. 2 × 2 suggestions

68. for Designers
1. don’t assume an interaction paradigm
2. gestalt (closure) is critical

69. for Publishers
for Authors
1. don’t forget the whole user experience
2. the book experience is social - in its own way

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

71. Davide ‘Folletto‘ Casali
intenseminimalism.com
@folletto
folletto@gmail.com
Ebook Lab Italia
Rimini, 3-5 marzo 2011
ebooklabitalia.com