The Digital Reading Experience: Learningfrom Interaction Design and UX-Usability Experts
Anne Kostick
Published online: 9 March 2011ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract Now that e-books and digital devices are active in the marketplace,
publishers need to incorporate usability and user experience research and practice in their development process. Interaction design and UX research is well
established in technology-driven industries; publishers have much to learn from these experts, for the betterment of their digital product and eventually, broader adoption of e-books by their customers. This article highlights the work and
opinions of three UX, research and design practitioners as a first step in launching a tidal exchange of knowledge and ideas.
如今市场上电子书和电子阅读设备的活跃是的发行商们必须将可用性和用户体验调查融入他们研发产品的过程中去。交互设计和用户体验调查在科技为导向的行业之中深深扎根，发行商有很多东西应该向这些专家学习，为了他们的电子产品最终能够发展的更好，电子书能够更好的为他们的消费者利用和熟悉。
Keywords Bibliotype", Book publishing ", Design ", Digital reading ",Digital books ", E-books ", Reader experience ", User experience ", User interface ", UX ", UI ", Usability ", Steve Portigal ", Whitney Quesenbery ", Craig Mod ", Foxpath IND ", A List Apart ", Rosenfeld Media ", Jeffrey Zeldman I remember the first time I picked up the new, first-generation Kindle and tried it out. I found it so hard to hold; the buttons seemed to be in the wrong place and on the wrong sides. The labels were hard to see. The color and feel of the exterior was off-putting. The screen text was, well ... unsatisfactory. I thought: Don’t these device makers like to read? Don’t they like books? I put it down and didn’t touch another Kindle for quite a while.
如果我们现在回顾第一代kindle的话你回发现他非常难用。按钮似乎都放错了位置和方向，指示标签难以找到。外观的颜色和感觉都很奇怪，字体显示也很让人不适。
After a whirlwind 2010, a variety of improved digital reading devices are now in the hands of customers, with various configurations, colors, screens, and displays. They all try to emulate the book reading experience, but they frequently fall short:
A. Kostick (&)Foxpath IND, 30 Fuller Place, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USA e-mail: anne@foxpath.com
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when they do, another book customer is confirmed in his or her decision to stick with print.
而在2010年之后大量被改进的电子阅读产品已经被送到了消费者手中，外形，颜色和屏幕各不相同，他们都极力提升电子阅读的用户体验，但其中的大多数在昙花一现之后就很快被市场淘汰了，而当他们让一些新的尝试者失望之后，有一些本来转向电子阅读的人们决定还是忠于纸质阅读。
We in the publishing industry need to stop and think about what makes print books almost always a happy and pleasant physical experience. And not only a physical experience: there’s a reason why our current book formats have endured all this time that goes beyond convenience, economics, and lack of other options. 身处出版业的我们需要停下来多去想想是什么让纸质大多数印刷品总是能创造出一种愉悦的阅读体验。不仅仅是生理上的愉悦，我们现存的书籍存在形式在经过长达几千年的发展和转变之后逐渐已经超越了物理上的方便经济。 Books feel good. They operate well. It turns out that hundreds of years of
publishing have field-tested for us the best ways to display text, to compose pages. Standard trim sizes are no accident, nor are the relative page counts of most books. It is not only economical; it works to hold books in these shapes, sizes, and
weights. More than that, we readers have developed important habits and cues that keep us turning pages, finding our places, scanning and skimming—even
inhaling—the text. Most readers want to transfer their established reading habits to the new technology; it is up to us to apply what we learn about the reading experience to the new technology of e-readers.
纸质书籍让我们愉悦，他们被用起来很方便并且舒服，因为数千年的发展、转变和出版售卖的经验已经为我们提供了很多经验，去用最好的方法装载书页，合适的页面大小和纸张材料而没有过多的错误产生。不仅仅是经济上的，我们了解了怎样的形状大小和重量最适合人类握在手上阅读和翻页，更重要的是在数千年书本的进化之中作为读者的我也发展处了重要的阅读习惯和直觉翻页做笔记快速扫读或是精读。多数读者希望把他们已建立于纸质阅读上的习惯直接嫁接到电子阅读中去。而我们应该做的就是用我们的所学用新兴科技来匹配这些传统阅读习惯。
There is plenty of expertise out there that we can draw on, mostly coming from the technology-driven industries that power the digital book revolution. Product and software interface designers in the computer and Internet industries have long relied on experts in usability and user experience to guide their decisions. They know that the easier and more satisfying it is for customers to handle the
equipment or interact with Web pages, the more likely they are to buy the device, order the product online, or view ads over many screens. We in digital books need to learn this and then gain influence in the decisions being made, both about how digital devices will be designed in future, and more immediately about how digital text is displayed. I sought out usability and design experts to see what they can offer that will help us move toward a better user experience for readers. Three of them appear in this article.
我们可以借鉴很多的专业技能，其中的大多数来自促使电子书革命的科技导向行业。实体产品和软件见面设计师们已经有很长根据用户体验和可用性原则来指导他们决定的历史。他们知道只有用户越容易使用产品，产品满意度越高，他们才越有可能继续用买产品或浏览网页上的广告。 Analyzing Reader Experience
Steve Portigal, of consumer research firm Portigal Consulting1 in Pacifica,
California conducted a research project in the summer of 2009 called ‘‘Reading Ahead,’’2 on individual reading habits. Portigal’s project presented some compelling arguments for serious and expert research into user habits and preferences. As the summary states:
P做了一个关于读者个人阅读习惯和偏好的调查
? Books are more than just pages with words and pictures; they are imbued with
personal history, future aspirations, and signifiers of identity. ? 传统书籍并不试试上面有字和图画的书页而已。他们还承载了阅读这本书
时候的个人历史，未来的期许以及个人身份认同等等。 ? The unabridged reading experience includes crucial events that take place before
and after the elemental moments of eyes-looking-at-words. ? 一个完整的阅读体验同时包括了你在浏览这些书籍前后以及同时发生的事
情和记忆 ? Digital reading privileges access to content while neglecting other essential
aspects of this complete reading experience. 1 www.portigal.com.2
The Digital Reading Experience关于数字阅读设备上的用户体验
