One last Kindle before I stop.
I know I said last one was the last, but this one’s the last. I just came across this piece (via) which talks specifically about the interface of the Kindle and how crappy it is, from a hardware perspective and it’s the kind of talk I’ve seen elsewhere so I wanted to look at it. First he says the iPod is yesterday and the iPhone is today, which is perfectly reasonable and the Kindle ought to be compared with the iPhone, which is kinda reasonable but also kind of a strawman argument… but let’s go with it…
on a device that is so obviously focused and marketed as a reader, why do I want a keyboard taking up 30% of the front of the device all the time?
This is a reasonable question and a good one. In my opinion, I don’t mind it there because you need it sometimes and it provides you a nice place to hold the thing without your fingers getting all up in the text. A folding/sliding keyboard would fatten it up and make it more delicate. But I said that last time. I am not opposed to seeing another design, it could be better, but I really don’t have a beef with the hard keyboard.
He then talks interestingly about the various types of devices there are - good reading. And at the end he gets to his suggestions and that’s where things go downhill, in my opinion.
Say one that ditched the fixed keyboard, the goofy pointing device, and the page turn buttons in exchange for a touchscreen a la iPhone. Wouldn’t that be cool?
He seems to forget that this isn’t an LCD screen, it’s E-Ink, it takes a second for the screen to refresh. Can you imagine if that was your interface? No zooming buttons like the iphone no nothing, just a second before any indication that you’ve done something. That wouldn’t be cool… that would suuuuHUUCK.
Imagine having the ability to flick from page to page, point at individual words with a finger tip, or use pinch gestures to change text size.
I’ve imagined that and it defies my ability to comprehend how someone would actually want that ability on a reader. First of all, that means every time I want to turn a page I have to use this thing two handed and swipe the screen? Instead of just pushing a button that’s right under my finger already? That’s good how? And changing sizes? This is a book with text, not a website with all sorts of parts on and off screen, I don’t need to have arbitrary zoom, I just want the ability to pick it and be done. I don’t need to pan and zoom.
If Amazon really wanted a breakthrough, they should have aimed for the ‘iPhone of Books’.
I think he has fundamentally misinterpreted the statement iPod of books. It doesn’t mean it wants to be an iPod, it means it wants to do for e-book what the iPod did for digital music. Slavishly copying the interface of the iPhone would not be the right way to make an e-book reader - as he suggests the iPhone is a multipurpose device that needs a general interface. An e-book reader is not - they need to have different strengths and I for one am glad that his UI suggestions above are not where Amazon went.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Seriously, Felix is one of laziest people on the planet. I don’t mean that in a “sitting on the couch covered in Dorito crumbs” kind of way, more of a “wait, this could be simpler and here is how” kind of way. Believe me, he takes laziness to an art form level. (last I heard he refused to make hand gestures while talking) I suppose in the corporate world the term would be “he optimizes situations” but I know it’s just laziness. To this day I try to achieve the laziness level this man has managed to maintain for years. Felix, I applaud you sir for taking a stand, all be it sitting down, about the nav of this device. Trust me people, if Felix says it can be easier, it can be and should be. If your good, when you die you achieve the “F” level of laziness. . . Ive heard.
I wold love to see two wheels around the bottom corners for page turning. Not unlike the old monitors control panels navigation.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Make that the bottom of the screen, not the bottom of the device itself.
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:25 am
Thanks! Uh… I think…. :)
November 24th, 2007 at 11:45 am
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