[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Fanki

I have to admit, I did not know about those threads in this forum. Maybe I was not looking hard enough.

As there are two threads in the stickies at the top of the page, then it has to be 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.

That statement makes your decision not to start the thread with your own ideas even stranger to me. If you think you have a new angle for this, then why aren't you expressing it and then asking for ideas?

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.

All good ideas.

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.

And as we are all exposed to the Kobo interface, plus others on different devices

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.

None of those are new. And the first is either naive or a contradiction. You want to design a new interface for Kobo to use, but the first thing you suggest is to remove Kobo from the interface? And for the forth one, is what you mean what Kobo already does in the Wishlist or Recommendations?

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".

OK, the last statement first: It really, "Here is how you think it should be done."

As to the reaction, I stated what my reaction was when the thread was opened. And I only posted it because of your reaction above. And that I was curious about the way you started the thread and your expectations. Is my reaction typical? I don't know, but I am actually surprised by how few responses you have received. I was expecting a lot more.

Where do you go from here? That's up to you. If this is something you are interested in doing, go ahead. I am curious about the result you come up with. But, a better target for the output might be an open source project like KOreader. And if you think my posts are distracting from the thread, I'm completely OK with you asking a moderator to remove them.