DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2009
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ISTANBUL DESIGN WEEKEND 2009
BAUHAUS SUMMER SCHOOL 2009
The lastest 1HDC had pages filled with some excellent eReader designs. We saw everything from paradigm-changing concepts to designs aimed at hiding the technology and preserving the look and feel of a common book as much as possible. The winner (and first to submit) is Kinl with the eScroll concept--an ultra-mobile device that challenges the obvious form factor.
Some notables: Special mention should go out to Yo! with his excellent bar-raising rendering of a leather bound i-something named nu*book. Callosum's exploration of eye tracking functionality could have had a clear shot at winning with a better rendering; (the bar was definitely raised for presentation quality this go around). KasinChan approached the problem from a student perspective--combining the best of low- and high-tech.
Check out these and other submissions right here.
And congrats, Kinl! Don't forget to get your knew NikeID shoes!
Dutch Design Week
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1 Hour Design Challenge Winners!
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Comments
Great work, but isn't the one hour challenge supposed to be completed in one hour? As far as to my knowledge, this type of renderings take a lot of time to produce. And add to that the time to come up with ideas and sketch. Not all that fair on the other contestants, but then again, I guess life is far from fair anyway.
Thats not very reading friendly at all. I thought this contest was to compare to better design on the kindle. I wouldn't want to hold a vial shaped object and twist one end to scroll, to read books, and newspapers.....
This seems to be one of those instances of designing something to be very different and quirky, without any functional reasoning whatsoever.
Operation for this device would be impossible with one hand, and very awkward to hold. Also impossible to scan ahead or read quickly without constant scrolling.
Plus with such a slim viewing area it would be very easy to lose where you were if you did scan ahead/back, I'm sure we've all experienced that on tall web-pages of just text.
Personally I feel that before adding lights/inputs/novel controls, designers should be thinking about giving them the same functionality something made of paper has: the ability to jump straight to a page/chapter, to display a whole page as it was intended to be seen, and the need to only scan ahead every minute/couple of minutes or so.
It was completed within the hour, as a game designer I find working in 3d faster than sketching, if thats un-fair then I am sorry.
If I wasnt to take a bold approch to designing It would have been left with designing something that resembles a book or PDA, therefore why wouldnt you just buy a book or a PDA? I did use some "functional reasoning" and realised that you would only really look at a few lines above and below the one you are reading to allow for speed reading (if you can speed read at more than 5 lines at a time then you're a better man than I), as the scroll is analogue it would move at pixel level and not line level therefore making reading it as you scroll smooth and easy on the eyes, a few extra features could be added like quick tempory markers to stop the scroll when you flick back to where you were after flicking forward, you could also set it to just scroll through chapter titles or page numbers, it was designed as a cheap (if you were to spend $400 on a book reader, you'd probably want it to be a phone or PDA too) and compact way to read novel type books, obviously full colour photos are out of the question, but that wasnt the brief!
I do feel I added the ability to flick through 100s of pages like you can a book, where current models would involve clicking a button 100s of times or navigating a standard PDAesc menu system, even a flexible display would have an issue with flicking through multiple pages.
one more "functional reason" for it is I am slightly dyslexic (or so they tell me)and I remember using a ruler when I was a child to help me with my reading, I feel this design would aid anyone with a slight difficulty in reading while not impeding people who dont.
One handed though, you've got me on that one, but as I was designing it I though the scroll could potentially run off a tilt sensor therefore making one handed use an option, i scrapped this thinking about people using the device on a moving train.
I'm sorry you dont like it, I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding usability.
Peace.
Sorry, reading back I feel my comments were a bit harsh, to say there was no functional reasoning was a bit ott of me.
I do like the look of it, and the reading line as you mentioned is genuinely a good idea. I see a lot of people read while holding their finger to the line they're on, dyslexic or not.
Personally I do like to see a whole page, but I can see how the scrolling could feel quite intuitive. I do wonder if it would feel a litle more natural if only the front half scrolled, kind of like a pitch bend wheel on a synthesizer.
On the whole I think everyone did well given the time constraints. Your extended description does a lot to improve it in my eyes, certainly if it could quickly select between page scroll, page skip and chapter skip, thats most of my previous issues with it resolved.
Don't let a grumpy man dishearten you! and congratulations