It’s clear that the digitization of the Book has opened great possibilities for changing the way we consume, contextualize and engage in literature. Below is a post I found on Core 77  which shares IDEO’s exploration of various ux themes and concepts for interacting with digital books.

(Reblog)

IDEO released a five-minute video exploring the future of digital books. Their illustrated concepts highlight some interesting opportunity areas in the publishing industry through three distinct reading experiences:

Nelson reinforces books as critical thinking tools, providing multiple perspectives, references, and current conversations on a single subject. The layers of information beyond the book itself provide greater context and encourages a deeper dive into the book throughout history and into the future.

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Coupland addresses the challenge to stay on top of the thinking and writing in our world and professional field that so many of us feel. Readers can easily keep up with “must-reads” by following what colleagues are reading and interact with them through “book clubs” and other social layers (discussions, suggestions, lists, purchases) to help each other share and learn.

Alice explores new ways for users to interact and affect written narratives by introducing non-linear and game mechanics to reading. By introducing the reader’s active participation, this concept “blurs the lines between reality and fiction.” Certain interactions allow the reader to transcend traditional media by utilizing geographic location, communication with characters, and user contribution to storyline and plot.

A very cool blue sky project from IDEO to say the least. I enjoyed the way they chose to compartmentalize the functionality rather than attempting to redefine the book in a single all-inclusive interface (a failure we see in most of these concept projects). This project, and examples appearing all over the industry, only further prove that the future of books in the digital age does not lie in single solution but rather a utilization of technology to better address the wants and needs of users to share, interact, and learn more through specialized design solutions. We are certainly on the precipice of a whole new world for this morphed understanding of the “book.”If you are interested in hearing more about IDEO’s project, check out the interview with two of the project’s designers, Duane Bray and Robert Lenne, on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. There’s also a conversation about the topic going on over at IDEO’s Facebook page.

Video and photos from IDEO.

This post was originally posted by Willem Van Lancker, 21 Sep 2010

Limina collaborated with Time For Change Foundation and Convio to design Take Action California, an e-advocacy hub for grass-roots social change in the state of California.

Head nod to Convio, their technology and developers.

Take Action California has an agressive goal to sign up 5k users by 8/1/2010.  Spread the word, share with your local Californians.

Be heard and take policy, budget, legislative and general social well being into your own hands!

We are Limina, and we approve this message!

-Jon Fukuda

This is just a quick post to share good resources for designing usable interfaces. (It always helps to have a handy set of links).

• 20 Websites to Help You Master User Interface Design
• 10 Tools for Evaluating Web Design Accessibility
• 11 Inspiring Lessons from Web Design Experts
• Best Practices for Hints and Validation in Web Forms

Hope you find these helpful,

-Jon Fukuda

Overview:
If you’ve ever watched an eye tracking enhanced usability study, you know how much influence visual perception and user feedback have on usability.  While in progress, eye tracking visualizations can be extremely entertaining, like watching search and destroy video games, but the visualizations also provide meaningful clues that help to unlock the mystery of why pages succeed and fail in usability.

Despite the best copy writing and most well intended navigational systems on the web… one of the most startling facts of web usage is… people don’t read. Sure, they see words and scan for key words and main points, but they don’t read in the traditional literary sense. Both focused web users on a mission to accomplish a task and casual web surfers, those just browsing freely, are not on a mission to read. Their purpose is more tactical and akin to hunting and gathering than reading.

Our reliance on visual and audio senses for survival and focused execution of tasks in the physical world, are equally important for successful orientation, navigation and consumption on the web.

In the majority of eye tracking usability sessions, you will note that the eye moves in a seemingly chaotic yet highly systematic way. Typically starting at the top left, the user will quickly scan across and down stopping a large and distinct blocks of color, chunky text and other visual punctuations. The same scan is repeated a number of times incrementally slowing and resting on the initial set of visual markers with some variance in sequence and jumps to neighboring content. Actual reading in a literal sense does not happen in the first three to five seconds.

You have roughly three seconds to accomplish the following:

• orient the user
• provide key visual markers
• enhance aesthetic experience
• avoid competing with high priority content and actions

It seems like a relatively simple set of tasks, but in three seconds it’s a relatively challenging task. The relative complexity and levels of difficulty vary depending on the site and content objectives. Fortunately, there are proven methods for optimizing the design for scanning and discovery.

1. be conservative. No matter how tempting, minimize the use of color and attractive design elements unless they directly align with a visual system to support content enhancement, clarity, and information of navigational visual cues.
2. be systematic. Patterns of use are driven by patterns in design. Establish punctuating visual treatments for key information, functions and features. Determine content and feature importance both from marketing, business, and functional aspects as well as from the users’ perspective. Once a clear priority is mapped, apply the appropriate visual emphasis the establish visual weighting and emphasis. You can use placement, size, proportion,spacing, color and graphic treatment to establish you visual hierarchy.
3. be consistent. Users rely on repetition to establish a mental map of your organizational system.
4. keep it simple. Users won’t be impressed with how much information you can get above the fold or on the page or in you navigation. Users are more apt to reward sites with clear, simple, and clean designs with repeat visits if they can consistently find what they’re looking for. Simplicity is the art of eliminating clutter while providing valuable content and contextually relevant visual markers for navigation and related features and functions.
5. have fun. Don’t be so serious… users will stay longer and take time to orient themselves if you can avoid chasing them off your site in boredom. Use informal and playful copy as appropriate, but remember the priority is not to distract, but to avoid banality.

Happy designing! Feel free to share examples of your work or other designs that achieve zen visual design.

-Jon Fukuda