I took part in a slightly off-topic discussion about books last night at the Northern User Experience group meeting. It digressed onto the question, will e-readers ever replace books?
It started with the idea of people printing documents from their computers in order to reduce eyestrain caused by reading from a monitor, or to read in a more leisurely manner, slumped on a sofa for example.
So, what's the alternative? Despite Xerox's attempt to produce the digital equivalent to paper (before someone else beats them too it and forces their demise), the closest we have to an alternative are e-books, such as Sony's E-reader or Amazon's Kindle. They have recently launched but I've yet to see a decent review from anyone but those paid to write them.
One of the main arguments against e-books taking over is the idea that people have an emotional connection to printed books. I can understand this argument. I love my books, I proudly display them and am constantly adding to my collection. There's something comforting about the smell, the typeface, the turn of the pages. However, I think to claim this is going to stop future generations taking up e-books and having the same passion for them is naive.
If children in schools each have an e-book, capable of holding every text book they need for the day and are able to download new books online in seconds, I'm sure they will wonder why we ever printed books in their cumbersome format. Would they not develop the same emotional connection to their e-books as we do to our paperbacks?
We may be some time off, but it's certainly not beyond what I can imagine as possible in the near future. I did, however, enjoy this article from the Guardian - 14 features that e-books will need to have in order to match the qualities of a book: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/nov/21/thekindledoesntlightmyfir
I don't think they are all unachievable!
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Monday, 1 December 2008
The weird and wonderful world of David Lynch online
I stumbled across this site and thought it was worth a blog post. It's David Lynch's website and it's as odd and random as you would expect.
There's a daily video weather report given by Lynch himself - it's the weather outside his window in LA, so completely pointless but intriguing all the same, if only for his hair.
Then there's the literal representation of an item being added to the shopping cart. And the literal representation of the log in page which will have resonance with fans of Twin Peaks :
Like his films, the more I look, the more I notice. The navigation, for example, is a feature of the site rather than just a method of moving from a to b. Take a look at the coffee cup page to see what I mean. The navigation is a map but also a coffee mug, I think.
There's a bizarre mixture of the serious and silly. After a while, you start questioning if the serious parts are actually serious or if the silly parts are quite as silly as you initially thought.
In summary, it's simple on the surface and technically not worth mentioning but scratch the surface and you can't help but stop and look and possibly buy. Plus it screams David Lynch so a successful online experience I would say.
There's a daily video weather report given by Lynch himself - it's the weather outside his window in LA, so completely pointless but intriguing all the same, if only for his hair.
Then there's the literal representation of an item being added to the shopping cart. And the literal representation of the log in page which will have resonance with fans of Twin Peaks :
Like his films, the more I look, the more I notice. The navigation, for example, is a feature of the site rather than just a method of moving from a to b. Take a look at the coffee cup page to see what I mean. The navigation is a map but also a coffee mug, I think.
There's a bizarre mixture of the serious and silly. After a while, you start questioning if the serious parts are actually serious or if the silly parts are quite as silly as you initially thought.
In summary, it's simple on the surface and technically not worth mentioning but scratch the surface and you can't help but stop and look and possibly buy. Plus it screams David Lynch so a successful online experience I would say.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
15 Reasons why having a cold and being on holiday isn't so bad.
Ok, so it's the middle of the night, I can't sleep because I have a cold. I've not done any of the things I wanted to do this week. It truly sucks ass and could easily be one of the worst holidays ever. I've been in bed for 2.5 days now and I'm not much better - 4.5 days if you count the weekend but that was because I went out on Friday :).
But, rather than moan and get down about it, I've decided to write a list of all the positive things to having a cold while on holiday.
1) I can lie in my giant, warm bed working my way through every episode of Friends without feeling guilty or like I should be doing something better.
2) I don't have to justify to anyone why I spent my whole week off doing the above.
3) I feel hot and cold at the same time - it's strangely pleasant.
4) I keep hallucinating, which is amusing. I saw an advert for Nationwide whilst watching the England game that said 'proud sponsors of the England Team'. I misread that as 'proud sponsors of the England Netball Team' and laughed at how stupid they were...
5) I have absolutely no desire to venture outside where I would get cold and wet.
6) I don't have to go outside for food / tissues / necessities - people bring them to me :)
7) I don't feel guilty about work paying for me to be off sick.
8) I don't have to go the gym and I can eat whatever I want.
9) I can't smell the fridge anymore.
10) It is acceptable to wear tracksuit bottoms and a giant tshirt with no makeup for the whole week.
11) I've done the majority of my Christmas shopping online and it's not even December yet.
12) I won £7 playing instant win games on the National Lottery site (then lost £5 but I feel good about it).
13) I finished my IPA course - ok, that's naughty while I'm on holiday but so what.
14) I think I'm losing my voice - it's funny trying to talk to people on the phone with no voice and is particularly good if you want extra sympathy, not that I do.
15) I have an extra blog post now. A-woo-hoo to me.
Wow, that has worked. I feel much better. Sleepy time. x
But, rather than moan and get down about it, I've decided to write a list of all the positive things to having a cold while on holiday.
1) I can lie in my giant, warm bed working my way through every episode of Friends without feeling guilty or like I should be doing something better.
2) I don't have to justify to anyone why I spent my whole week off doing the above.
3) I feel hot and cold at the same time - it's strangely pleasant.
4) I keep hallucinating, which is amusing. I saw an advert for Nationwide whilst watching the England game that said 'proud sponsors of the England Team'. I misread that as 'proud sponsors of the England Netball Team' and laughed at how stupid they were...
5) I have absolutely no desire to venture outside where I would get cold and wet.
6) I don't have to go outside for food / tissues / necessities - people bring them to me :)
7) I don't feel guilty about work paying for me to be off sick.
8) I don't have to go the gym and I can eat whatever I want.
9) I can't smell the fridge anymore.
10) It is acceptable to wear tracksuit bottoms and a giant tshirt with no makeup for the whole week.
11) I've done the majority of my Christmas shopping online and it's not even December yet.
12) I won £7 playing instant win games on the National Lottery site (then lost £5 but I feel good about it).
13) I finished my IPA course - ok, that's naughty while I'm on holiday but so what.
14) I think I'm losing my voice - it's funny trying to talk to people on the phone with no voice and is particularly good if you want extra sympathy, not that I do.
15) I have an extra blog post now. A-woo-hoo to me.
Wow, that has worked. I feel much better. Sleepy time. x
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The Content Renaissance
Social media, social networking, online communities, web 2.0 (the list of buzzwords and phrases go on and on) are hailed as the future of the web, moving people to communicate and socialise in new ways and have opened the doors to democratising knowledge and news across the world. But how new is this really?
I remember 10 years ago using a super slow PC on a dial up connection, back when Alta Vista was THE search engine of choice, before the dawn of images and video content. I spent hours reading text based websites - possibly with one image that had just about loaded by the time you'd read the page. Most companies didn't even have websites back then, or if they did, I certainly wasn't aware of them! People who knew and had access to the web had their own websites, stuck together with virtual paper and glue, proud of their text based creations that allowed them to vent to the new online world. I spent hours reading people's opinions, stories, ideas directly from their own sites and taking part in forum discussions with a community of people that was far broader than my circle of real world friends.
What's happened since then? We got fast - fast computers, fast connections. The internet became about making sites as visually beautiful and creative as possible - pushing the boundaries of what we could achieve. The shift was away from text and accessibility and towards making pretty pictures (and of course, without consideration for how easy these creations were to figure out). The more effort the site took to use, the more of an achievement it was for the creator.
Then came the content renaissance - people were bored with pictures and wanted copy again. I'm back to trawling through the web for interesting text, not pretty pictures. The difference now is that you don't need to be able to create your own site to express yourself and the tools available make it much easier and more accessible for millions to take part.
Ironically, the easier it is to communicate with the world, the more people want to limit this to small networks - people they already know, people from school, people from work. I can't remember the last time I chatted to someone from outside this country online.
Maybe we'll have a Creative Renaissance soon - and so a cycle of image vs. copy is realised, much like the unstoppable economic cycle we're experiencing the downturn of now. Or maybe I'm thinking too hard.
I remember 10 years ago using a super slow PC on a dial up connection, back when Alta Vista was THE search engine of choice, before the dawn of images and video content. I spent hours reading text based websites - possibly with one image that had just about loaded by the time you'd read the page. Most companies didn't even have websites back then, or if they did, I certainly wasn't aware of them! People who knew and had access to the web had their own websites, stuck together with virtual paper and glue, proud of their text based creations that allowed them to vent to the new online world. I spent hours reading people's opinions, stories, ideas directly from their own sites and taking part in forum discussions with a community of people that was far broader than my circle of real world friends.
What's happened since then? We got fast - fast computers, fast connections. The internet became about making sites as visually beautiful and creative as possible - pushing the boundaries of what we could achieve. The shift was away from text and accessibility and towards making pretty pictures (and of course, without consideration for how easy these creations were to figure out). The more effort the site took to use, the more of an achievement it was for the creator.
Then came the content renaissance - people were bored with pictures and wanted copy again. I'm back to trawling through the web for interesting text, not pretty pictures. The difference now is that you don't need to be able to create your own site to express yourself and the tools available make it much easier and more accessible for millions to take part.
Ironically, the easier it is to communicate with the world, the more people want to limit this to small networks - people they already know, people from school, people from work. I can't remember the last time I chatted to someone from outside this country online.
Maybe we'll have a Creative Renaissance soon - and so a cycle of image vs. copy is realised, much like the unstoppable economic cycle we're experiencing the downturn of now. Or maybe I'm thinking too hard.
Saturday, 8 November 2008
I'm an angry Blogger user
I'm shocked at how many basic usability problems there are with Blogger. First, call me naive, but I wasn't aware that Blogger was part of Google. So, on receiving an email from Google Accounts asking me to confirm I had opened a Google Account, I swiftly moved it to my spam folder. On returning to my blog later that day, I noticed an alert telling me I had not verified my account via the email I should now have received. Now I'm confused for two reasons. 1 - why would I verify my account when I am already using it and 2 - where was my email from Blogger? I requested a new email and it all became clear...
Secondly, I'm still unsure as to what I should call my blog, what the URL should be and whether I should write as myself or as an anonymous user. I won't get into my musings around these points (it's boring and the web is littered with plenty of similar thought streams) but I decided that rather than using an anonymous nickname, I want to use my real name. Where do I change how my name appears? What do I click on? Settings? Posting? My Account? No, no..you click on Dashboard of course. Now don't I feel the stupid one.
Having said that, Blogger does automatically save my post before I publish it so when my computer randomly reboots because it hates me, I'm returned to what I was writing. Sweet.
Secondly, I'm still unsure as to what I should call my blog, what the URL should be and whether I should write as myself or as an anonymous user. I won't get into my musings around these points (it's boring and the web is littered with plenty of similar thought streams) but I decided that rather than using an anonymous nickname, I want to use my real name. Where do I change how my name appears? What do I click on? Settings? Posting? My Account? No, no..you click on Dashboard of course. Now don't I feel the stupid one.
Having said that, Blogger does automatically save my post before I publish it so when my computer randomly reboots because it hates me, I'm returned to what I was writing. Sweet.
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Supermarket shoppers and Muller yoghurts
People become interesting when in supermarkets. What they put in their trolleys is a reflection of who they are (I like to think). While I'm shopping, I'm also weighing up what my trolley says about me - last night I had chillies, ginger, onion, spinach, chapatis, tomatoes, free range eggs and semi skimmed milk and two small cream cakes (well everyone needs a treat and they did have strawberries on top). I imagine other people nosing in thinking 'hmmm...she's going to make a curry' or 'wtf is that weird thing (the ginger)' or 'why doesn't she put her onion in a plastic bag'. Of course they're not thinking any of those things, but I imagine they are.
I'm a supermarket snob and turn my nose up at the fat fucks in there loading up their trolleys with x24 bags of crisps, white bread and litres of coke while dragging round their podgy kids who are mindlessly wobbling round the aisles, narrowly missing hitting their heads on the end of my trolley (I'll get them next time).
The best place to judge other people is at the conveyor belts. There you get a good sweep of the entire contents of their trolley and you can see how they pay. The woman paying when I got there was paying in a stack of twenty pound notes. She was scruffy, grey roots, a bum bag. I often wonder why people like that carry round wads of cash. It's people like that who are secretly sitting on millions.
The next woman on the conveyor belt had basic bread, basic ketchup and some other items I can't recall but I remember thinking she couldn't possibly make a meal out of any of this. She also had 5 muller yoghurts. Not the Crunch Corner kind which are acceptable as a dessert instead of say, a big chocolate cake. Or plain yoghurt for cooking or to go with cereal. No, she had the banana and caramel basic yogurt. Pale, cold, sloppy slop. I'm not saying I don't like yoghurt, but I can't imagine ever spending money on this variety. I can't imagine thinking 'hmm I really want a banana and caramel muller yoghurt now, that's going to satisfy my snacking urge'. Let's face it, if you want a snack, you're still going to want one after eating a tub of muller yoghurt.
After all this going through my mind, I look behind, and the people next in queue after me were loading up the conveyor belt with a whole crate of the same muller yoghurts! Maybe there was some kind of crazy offer going on, but even if they were free I don't think I'd bother!
I'm a supermarket snob and turn my nose up at the fat fucks in there loading up their trolleys with x24 bags of crisps, white bread and litres of coke while dragging round their podgy kids who are mindlessly wobbling round the aisles, narrowly missing hitting their heads on the end of my trolley (I'll get them next time).
The best place to judge other people is at the conveyor belts. There you get a good sweep of the entire contents of their trolley and you can see how they pay. The woman paying when I got there was paying in a stack of twenty pound notes. She was scruffy, grey roots, a bum bag. I often wonder why people like that carry round wads of cash. It's people like that who are secretly sitting on millions.
The next woman on the conveyor belt had basic bread, basic ketchup and some other items I can't recall but I remember thinking she couldn't possibly make a meal out of any of this. She also had 5 muller yoghurts. Not the Crunch Corner kind which are acceptable as a dessert instead of say, a big chocolate cake. Or plain yoghurt for cooking or to go with cereal. No, she had the banana and caramel basic yogurt. Pale, cold, sloppy slop. I'm not saying I don't like yoghurt, but I can't imagine ever spending money on this variety. I can't imagine thinking 'hmm I really want a banana and caramel muller yoghurt now, that's going to satisfy my snacking urge'. Let's face it, if you want a snack, you're still going to want one after eating a tub of muller yoghurt.
After all this going through my mind, I look behind, and the people next in queue after me were loading up the conveyor belt with a whole crate of the same muller yoghurts! Maybe there was some kind of crazy offer going on, but even if they were free I don't think I'd bother!
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