Amazon has released the Kindle, their electronic book device. This is a very interesting product. My initial reactions:
It's the right size/weight. I didn't like the industrial design of it at first (too antiseptic?), but it's growing on me. I can't imagine enjoying sitting down with it as much as I do a book made of paper, but then, once you get into the story, maybe the object you are holding doesn't matter so much. On the other hand, there are several things that really appeal to me, like the ability to search your content, the ability to annotate (without defacing the book), and bookmarking. They've done some really smart things, such as including the wireless service in the fee for the product, rather than requiring a separate, monthly fee or service contract. You can read the first chapter of any book for free before purchasing. It handles magazine and newspaper subscriptions. It also will display blog content, but is limited to some specific set of blogs, and this comes at an extra fee. They also charge a fee to put your own documents on the device (via email). As for the UI, call me spoiled, but their selection wheel with the separated selection indicator bar seems disconnected. Having had an iPhone for over a month now, I would want the ability to select things by tapping them on the screen. Even without a touchscreen, why can't the selection be shown within the content display, rather than in a separate display beside it. I like that they made the next/previous buttons available on both sides, but made the previous button significantly larger on the left, and the next button larger on the right. Still, I want to flip pages with a horizontal swipe of my finger. Using a grayscale display makes sense for reading books, but when it comes to magazines, blogs, and even newspapers, color would be desirable. What do you all think? Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com I am in search of the simple elegant seductive maybe even obvious IDEA. With this in my pocket I cannot fail. - Tibor Kalman ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
