Quote:
Originally Posted by davidfor
That's fair enough, and I've thought a couple of times that resetting those firmware suggestion threads would be a good idea. But, to do that it would really need for someone to sift through the threads and make a summary to seed the thread. Otherwise, the new thread would just be repeats of the old.
On the other hand, don't be to surprised if a few of the older hands get a bit exasperated by the repeated suggestions. As I said, nothing suggested so far in this thread is new. None of those suggestions have been taken by Kobo, and I doubt if any will be. I'm not trying to discourage the discussion, just making sure that expectations are reasonable.
A problem for me I suppose is that I disagree with @Fanki's opening statement. I have no idea what "smartness" the UI is missing or how you to really improve the reading experience. I see words on the page, I can adjust the text size and easily turn to the next page. And I don't have to break the spine of the book to keep it open. What more do you need? And that is why I feel the lack of information in @Fanki's opening post is important. I have no idea where @Fanki is coming from. And that is important as a lot of this is personal. To pick a suggestion made in the thread, tapping anywhere to turn the page doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but obviously someone does think it is a good idea.
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I have to admit, I did not know about those threads in this forum. Maybe I was not looking hard enough. I also assumed that my angle on approaching the subject would be somewhat new, and that would affect opinions and thoughts on the matter, which would motivate a new thread. I also did not know there was a need to defend this kind of idea, but apparently there is one. What I want to do is:
- Collect opinions, frustrations and needs from Kobo users regarding the UI/UX aspect of the interface
- Map those needs out and see what are recurring/common themes
- Create UI wireframes out of those needs, and create a clickable prototype which I would share here, and on Dribbble/Behance and similar places to show a clear before and after. After a (hopefully) successful outcome, share that to Kobo.
I did not want to come with suggestions, as I wanted to start with a blank sheet, not influencing what you guys came up with. I am not doing this for any reason other than a passion for reading and creating great interfaces. I wanted to merge those two interests and create something good. And I do agree, some requests/ideas in this thread are more personal than others, but I think it is possible to sift through and find common themes.
Here are some of my ideas on improvements to the interface:
- Remove Kobo Store bloat, and use those areas for personal (already bought or side-loaded) content, articles, notes etc.
- Find a way to visually represent the length of books in relation to other books in your library (Kindle has found a way of solving this)
- A global Day/Night Mode, which would invert the whole UI, including Reading Mode
- Let your book collection shine: Display more metadata regarding genre, year, synopsis etc. in a "Detailed Listing Mode".
- A smarter dictionary, which would help non-native English readers (like myself) to easily recognize and learn difficult english words. English has a lot of words.
I am unsure on how to proceed, as I was not expecting this reaction. I am still naive enough to think it would have an impact on Kobo. It's one thing to say "This is not working" or "Do this", an another to say and actually show "Here is how it should be done".
All the best,
E