Think of a Book. Undeniably, it’s the Content that makes the book useful. However, the Format is what makes it usable.
Content + Format; King and Queen.
For a great user experience in any literature (print or electronic), marrying both is very essential. Particularly in case of an electronic book. Some characteristics of most readers of eBooks are:
- Reading while multi-tasking on laptop
- Reading on smaller-screen devices (tablets and phones)
- Reading while traveling (bright and jarring environment)
- Quick scan through the pages than actually reading every line
Few days ago, we launched our first eBook on Social Media. Radha Giri, the co-author and CEO of Midas Touch Consultants, brought “king” to the table in our collaboration, and I brought the “queen” to complement her efforts. The book is titled “Are you Socially Shy?” and is available at LULU online store.
Keeping in mind the aforementioned characteristics of our reader audience, we chose to implement some radical patterns in our format, which are not your everyday-common-practice or experience when it comes to eBooks. Following some standard good practices, we made each chapter follow a uniform flow, introduced quick-jumps and smart-links wherever applicable and useful, and packaged into a PDF, which can be printed in high quality if desired. The not-so-common-patterns we chose were:
- Horizontal layout (like PowerPoint) instead of Vertical layout (like Word) – better for viewing screenshots to be seen in Full-Screen view without zooming
- Heavy and Large Fonts – better readability (both in terms of lesser content per page, and viewing through smaller-screen devices without zooming)
- Unique visual elements and partial info-graphics – to create a good recall and subconscious connect with some feature in the book
- Bold use of color – to provide contrast while reading in outdoors and to distinguish between chapters (we chose complementary but varied color schemes using after doing some good research using Adobe’s Kuler platform).
- Numbered Bullet points instead of paragraphs – providing a sense of “progress” in the reader’s mind
Few random screenviews from the book:
The visual formatting leverages good content beyond usefulness, making it enjoyable and easy to register. This principle should not be applied loosely, but in close conjunction with the target audience and the reading patterns and environments – both physical and virtual.
Thoughts and opinions are welcome.
Vishal Mehta is a usability professional who loves to play chess and has a strong eye for details. He’s also the CEO of IDYeah Creations, a UX practice in Pune, India. Vishal is also a guest blogger on UXBooth, Technorati, BlogCritics, and SAP Community Network.
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Very well said Vishal. Usability is anyway a very neglected aspect everywhere and I am sure with things like books, it is all the more ‘not so thought of’. Such thorough thinking and research on the format of the book really makes it visually very refreshing – about the content, it’s for others to comment