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Old 06-16-2013, 08:02 PM   #36
guma
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Posts: 93
Karma: 473808
Join Date: Jul 2012
Device: kobo touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by DNSB View Post
As far as I am concerned, the new home screen is an improvement. I get more tiles so placing a 6 book series on the screen is easy, adding books does not push my current reads off the screen, I can long press most of the tiles and dismiss them. Finished books remain on the screen until they are pushed off by newer tiles or I choose to dismiss them -- again, when reading a series, that makes it a lot easier to refer to an earlier book. I have a little tile for the web browser making it easier to open for a quick look up unless I do so much that it gets pushed off the screen.

I've seen the carousel on an Aura when I was doing some experimenting and left it on 2.4.1 after a factory reset. That interface does not compare to the tiles introduced with 2.5.1 in making my Aura easier to use. My wife seems very happy with the tiled interface on her Glo as well and she is not one who takes easily to interface changes.

Overall, a step forward from the carousel display.
Functionally the tile interface might well be an improvement over earlier firmware versions. With the addition of some tweaks I can see it offering the possibility to tailor the home screen to each user's individual preferences.

Visually though it leaves a lot to be desired. (The same goes for the new sleep cover display.) With some effort at design a tile based home screen sure could be made to look a lot better. Until this happens I fear there will be no consensus whether an increase in functionality outweighs a decrease in visual appeal. Thus, in general, whether one considers the new home screen an 'overall step forward' depends, IMHO, a lot on which features/functions one uses on the device.

When I bought my KOBO some time ago, one thing that made me choose it was the simple and elegantly designed home screen interface. But with almost every firmware update it lost some of this visual appeal. First by adding all sorts of shop and 'social reading' related GUI elements and now by seemingly foregoing every attempt at visual design whatsoever for the new tile based interface. If I had to describe the new home screen aesthetic in one word I'd call it unmotivated.
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