Buttons are not an eBook navigation method

[LDBoblo]

When are product designers going to learn that buttons just won't function effectively to navigate about our books?

It is a travesty that this method is limiting our creativity and forcing us into a primitive "one page, one screen" paradigm that starves off any hope of the eBook truly becoming a navigable dynamic medium.

OK OK, I'm just mocking the PDF thread, but before I go back to my bridge, let me ask:

In addition to buttons (including rockers) and the current touch-swipe page-flip method, what could be an interesting new direction for navigation function? Scroll wheels? Trackballs? MacBook Wheel?

[DawnFalcon]

The same one laptops have settled on - touchpads.

[Abecedary]

One of the iPhone apps uses the accelerometer to scroll the text by tilting, although it seems more gimmicky than useful (unless you're reading one-handed while hanging from a strap on a bus or subway).

[Kali Yuga]

You prefer what, that the user lick their finger and swipe a part of the screen?

Most readers use eink, which a) can't really scroll and b) reduces both power usage and eye strain by adopting a static-page approach. Buttons are simple, robust and intuitive. Where's the problem?

[LDBoblo]

Or that little red navi-nipple that IBM used to like sticking in the middle of their keyboards.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

In addition to buttons (including rockers) and the current touch-swipe page-flip method, what could be an interesting new direction for navigation function? Scroll wheels? Trackballs? MacBook Wheel?

A touchpad that facilitates the swipe-style of page turning. Albeit the low-refresh rate of eInk does not yet make the whole swiping practical...

... the holy grail of swipe page turning would be visual feedback that gave some of the benefits of "flipping through pages" trying to find something at a glance. Part of me wonders whether that's possible at all though.

Is that bridge-underside centrally air-conditioned?

- Ahi

[ahi]

Or maybe a vertical slide-button (that returns to the centre, but can be moved up or down for going backwards or forwards in page-numbers respectively)... used only for moving multiple pages at a time... therefore probably working so that the longer you hold it up or down, the faster the pages turn.... though with eInk, the pages wouldn't actually be displayed until you "land on a page", so only page numbers at the centre of the screen would need to be refreshed.

- Ahi

[evenstr]

On a slightly different note...is there any reason for no dual-screen ebook reader--something that would open and close like a book and facilitate the two-pages-at-a-time format so many of us are used to. My apologies of this is too off-topic or if it has been answered before.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Or that little red navi-nipple that IBM used to like sticking in the middle of their keyboards.

Thinkpads still come with trackpoints, although they are often blue anymore. I'm writing this on one of the only Lenovo devices without a trackpoint (Ideapad S10), but that's because it is a netbook with a tiny keyboard, so not much space to put it in the keyboard without causing issues.

[Elfwreck]

I miss the scroll wheel from the Sony Clié. A lot. If I could figure out how to get another 6 hours of battery life on it, I'd never have switched to a PRS.

[HarryT]

Of all the devices I've owned, my personal favourite as far as page turning went was the "rocker bar" of the iLiad.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by evenstr

On a slightly different note...is there any reason for no dual-screen ebook reader--something that would open and close like a book and facilitate the two-pages-at-a-time format so many of us are used to. My apologies of this is too off-topic or if it has been answered before.

2 screens means 2 sets of electronica, attached by something that, by its nature, is going to be bent & manipulated. Folding anything electronic are more fragile than non-folding. The screens themselves would still be prone to the same breakage issues--and there'd be the issue that if the divider were damaged or twisted, one of the screens might stop working.

The Nintendo DS series manages, by having the hinges be very solid, and by being so small that the hinge is rarely held at an angle that puts more weight on one side than the other.

[Hellmark]

I'm perfectly fine with a button. It is cheaper, thus no extra costs to the end user, and just makes sense with static eInk displays.

[evenstr]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

2 screens means 2 sets of electronica, attached by something that, by its nature, is going to be bent & manipulated. Folding anything electronic are more fragile than non-folding. The screens themselves would still be prone to the same breakage issues--and there'd be the issue that if the divider were damaged or twisted, one of the screens might stop working.

The Nintendo DS series manages, by having the hinges be very solid, and by being so small that the hinge is rarely held at an angle that puts more weight on one side than the other.

Gotcha. Thanks for the answer. I hadn't thought of the hinges/bending issue--I just knew it worked on the Nintendo DS.

[Hellmark]

that's also why there have been multiple revisions on the DS. They're on their third major revision, and each one has had multiple minor ones, because of the hinges breaking. Most people never think of how big of a problem it is, until after they have theirs break.