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E-readers: A Comprehensive Design Analysis

Katie Heller and Caitlin Orbanek

“To balance our accounts of society, we simply have to turn our exclusive attention away from humans and look also at nonhumans … Students of technology are never faced with people on the one hand and things on the other, they are faced with programs of action, sections of which are endowed to parts of humans, while other sections are entrusted to parts of nonhumans.” – Bruno Latour

+Context

E-books evolved from books: “mediums for communicating information, where information is taken to include facts, teaching material, discursive writing and fiction” (Bennett & Landoni 2).

They should be the “digital equivalent” of this medium.

E-book designs should consider the values inherent in traditional books: Legibility Portability Autonomy

+Context

E-books should also improve upon traditional books and instill new values: Literacy Participation Inclusiveness

Previously, reading was a one-way process between an active reader and a fixed text.

E-reading is truly interactive; the technology engages the individual in a variety of ways.

+The Kindle

A true mono-task reading device

Slim and lightweight

Five-function control switch and traditional keyboard

E-ink: black and white display only

One month battery life

Built in text-to-speech conversion program

Basic web browsing

+The Nook

Smaller and lighter than the Kindle

LCD color touchscreen (older versions

10 day battery life

Includes games and web browsing

Ability to “rent” and “share” e-books for 18 days at a time

Memory expansion slot

+The iPad

Multi-task device that offers e-reading capabilities

Physically larger and bulkier than other e-readers

Color touchscreen and interactive display (NO e-ink)

10 hour battery life

Advanced web browsing, games, apps, etc.

“Technologies in general … provide value suitabilities that follow from properties of the technology. That is, a given technology is more suitable for certain activities and more readily supports certain values while rendering other activities and values more difficult to realize.” – Friedman, Kahn, & Borning

+The Kindle & Values

Like the book, the Kindle values: Legibility (e-ink) Portability (lightweight

design) Autonomy (functions

independently of anything else)

Also values: Sustainability (long

battery life, low power consumption)

Participation (interactive features)

Inclusiveness (text-to-speech capability, large font capability)

Faithfulness to the original medium

Simplicity (black and white only, clean lines, high contrast)

+The Nook & Values

Like the book, the Nook values: Legibility (though limited

– no e-ink) Portability (lightweight

design) Limited autonomy

(functions independently of anything else up to 10 days)

Also values: Aesthetics (color display) Participation (interactive

features) Generosity (ability to

share and rent books) Multi-functionality

(though somewhat limited)

Flexibility (user can expand his or her device’s memory and change its batteries)

+The iPad & Values

Unlike the book, the iPad sacrifices: Some legibility (no e-ink) Some portability

(somewhat bulky) Some autonomy

(comparatively short battery life)

Also values: Aesthetics (bright color

screen, elaborate designs) Intuitiveness (touch screen,

gestures, etc.) Participation (interactive

features) Multi-functionality (apps, web

browsing, e-mail, games, social networking, etc.) This leads to “shallower,

more fragmented reading” (Schcolnik 18).

Somehow compromises the integrity of reading

+Additional E-reader Values E-readers and women:

“Men account for only 20% of fiction readers.” (NPR.org) Because e-readers are utilized primarily for pleasure reading,

they are inherently biased toward women (an emergent bias).

E-readers and the disabled: “Handicaps don’t result from disabilities alone, but from a

combination of disabilities and circumstances … changing the circumstances can often eliminate the handicap” (Perry 81).

E-readers have the potential to eliminate handicaps because they change the context in which the disabled person must function.

E-readers and digital rights management: DRM is used to prevent piracy of the books – each device has

its own format, and these formats are not compatible with other devices.

“DRM is … treating paying customers like criminals … while doing absolutely nothing to the people who acquired the same content illegally” (Griffey 8).

+Ideal E-reader Values

• iPad• Nook

• Kindle

• Books

LegibilityPortabilityAutonomy

Sustainability

Inclusiveness

Simplicity

IntuitivenessAesthetics

Participation

GenerosityFlexibilityLimited multi-

functionality

+Business Plan:

Why a new e-reader? Because all e-reader devices to date have significant value

flaws and their designers are too proud/brand-oriented/lack the resources to incorporate desirable traits from their competitors

The niche? Primarily women (this bias will be difficult to overcome) but

also men in their teens through old age; possible variation device for young children

The payoff? An entirely new tool that upholds the integrity of the

original medium while also engaging the most desirable values within existing e-reader devices

“If an ideal world is one in which technologies promote not only instrumental values such as functional efficiency, safety, reliability, and ease of use, but also the substantive social, moral and political values to which societies and their peoples subscribe, then whose who design systems have a responsibility to take these latter values as well as the former in to consideration as they work.” – Howe & Nissenbaum