IF you could design the user interface for the next Kobo Firmware

[jackastor]

If you could design the interface for the next kobo firmware incarnation what would you design?

1 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU ADD?

2 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU REMOVE?

3 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU KEEP?

4 WHAT LAYOUT WOULD YOU PROPOSE FOR THE HOME SCREEN,SETTING SCREEN, ETC?

5 WHAT LOGICAL WAY WOULD YOU ORGANIZE THE DATA BASE AND HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST TO IMPLEMENT IT?

6 WHAT MAIN FEATURE DO YOU THINK WE ALL WANT?

7 HOW WOULD YOU ROLL OUT ALL FUTURE FIRMWARE UPDATES?


WELL THAT IS A FEW QUESTIONS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ANSWER ANY ALL OR NONE OR ADD ANY OF YOUR OWN.

Also if you are skilled why not for fun include a rendering of how you would have the home screen orgainized?


Have fun guys,


regards

Jack

[Jeff1192]

I know a lot of people don't care much for the reading stats on the Kobo but I think it's a great feature that should be expanded. I would like to see even more stats, along the lines of the extra stats found in the iOS version of Kobo and maybe even more. I would also like to have the ability to sync the books I'm reading across devices when they are not kepubs. Most of my books are not kepubs so I can't sync between my devices.

Overall I am quite happy with my Kobo and that's perhaps why my suggestions are fairly minor in nature.

Jeff

[JSWolf]

Before adding or removing any of the existing features, I would want Kobo to work on fixing the bugs. Make sure everything works. Don't change, add, or remove anything until the bugs are fixed.

That does include the fixing the overly large line height. Make it 1em and let the user use the slider to make it larger. Also, fix the font-family in body bug and let that work too. Fix it all. Just fix fix fix and fix until it's all fixed. Then work on changing, adding, or removing. But don't do a thing like that until you've fixed the works.

Kobo has the buggiest firmware going and that's not a good thing to have.

[Jeff1192]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Before adding or removing any of the existing features, I would want Kobo to work on fixing the bugs. Make sure everything works. Don't change, add, or remove anything until the bugs are fixed.

That does include the fixing the overly large line height. Make it 1em and let the user use the slider to make it larger. Also, fix the font-family in body bug and let that work too. Fix it all. Just fix fix fix and fix until it's all fixed. Then work on changing, adding, or removing. But don't do a thing like that until you've fixed the works.

Kobo has the buggiest firmware going and that's not a good thing to have.

I've had my Touch for a couple of years now and I just don't see the bugs anymore. Yes it was buggy when I first received it. But I find that in the last 6-9 months there are pretty much no bugs. Maybe I'm just lucky?

Jeff

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Jeff1192

I've had my Touch for a couple of years now and I just don't see the bugs anymore. Yes it was buggy when I first received it. But I find that in the last 6-9 months there are pretty much no bugs. Maybe I'm just lucky?

Jeff

Maybe they have become undocumented features

[BookBunny]

1) Make a file browser so users can sort/browse their books in folders
2) Ability to pin books to make them show up on the home screen
3) Keep the document reading like it is
4) Let users assign tags to books
5) Search function for title / author / tag
6) Optional playlist support and whatever else they want

There I fixed it!!!111111

[Ken Maltby]

What the long eared rodent said.

But also, provide a means to lock the home screen preventing the automatic additions,
shelves, new books, ect... Let us build the screen with the tiles we want and leave
them alone.

Luck;
Ken

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by jackastor

If you could design the interface for the next kobo firmware incarnation what would you design?


WELL THAT IS A FEW QUESTIONS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ANSWER ANY ALL OR NONE OR ADD ANY OF YOUR OWN.

Also if you are skilled why not for fun include a rendering of how you would have the home screen orgainized?


Have fun guys,


regards

Jack

Off the top of my head.

1 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU ADD?

None at present, Like JSWolf I would like to see everything functioning correctly before distracting the poor programmer with yet another Bell and Whistle.

My priorities would be (not necessarily in order)

Stable touch screen input.

Consistent and correct sorting.

Opening the shelf list in a timely manner, perhaps as fast and smoothly as the other readers on the market and the now obsolete readers of years gone by..

Easier navigation, a slide bar that is easy to get to the page in the book or to the books in the books or shelves lists, and ideally alphabetical navigation as well., numeric goto options.

A back button that works as most other back buttons work, ie take you back to where you were immeiately prior, not back to page one in the previous list.

2 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU REMOVE?

None. Any that don't work, I would not remove them I would just start over programming them one at a time.

Generally if a programmer or a group of programmers haven't been able to get something working in several years, well they are just compounding errors, adding to the code complexity making it harder to troubleshoot and digging a bigger hole to fall into.

3 WHAT FEATURES WOULD YOU KEEP?

Other than navigation or reading functionallity I am not to into the 'Features' But if they works and others like them they should be kept.

4 WHAT LAYOUT WOULD YOU PROPOSE FOR THE HOME SCREEN,SETTING SCREEN, ETC?

Stable rows and columns with consistent sizing and placement.

I would make on the Aura at least, a largish row at the top with the current book I am reading in a bigger box, Then two rows of 1/3 size icons, one for other books in progress and one for recently added. I know for many these rows woud remain blank and could cause confusion but this would be good for me. Perhap if no books in progress or recently added a box or banner to reflect this,

Second row, recently opened shelves.

Third row and any extra rows user placed stickies of there choice.

Forth Row things like settings etc.

Bottom Row icons to open the shelves, and 'Features'

I am pretty sure this would all fit on the Aura and the Glo.

The Mini is just fine as it is and I would not be adverse to seeing the Aura and the Glo being exactly the same.

5 WHAT LOGICAL WAY WOULD YOU ORGANIZE THE DATA BASE AND HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST TO IMPLEMENT IT?

If, as I suspect, the database and the lack of an expert SQL programmer, is at the root of the slowness of certain functions when too many collections or too large collection, then start over. Don't keep trying to patch it up. develope a basic scheme that is reliable and impliment it when it works,

6 WHAT MAIN FEATURE DO YOU THINK WE ALL WANT?

No such thing

7 HOW WOULD YOU ROLL OUT ALL FUTURE FIRMWARE UPDATES?

Give the end user a choice. Forced updates are no different than forced advertisements or any other type of SPAM.

Helen

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BookBunny

1) Make a file browser so users can sort/browse their books in folders
2) Ability to pin books to make them show up on the home screen
3) Keep the document reading like it is
4) Let users assign tags to books
5) Search function for title / author / tag
6) Optional playlist support and whatever else they want

There I fixed it!!!111111

1. Forget the file browser. With (at current count) 1680 books on my Aura, it takes far fewer clicks to find a book by searching than trying to dig down through the directory structure. So improve the search function by adding the ability to limit the search specific fields (author, title, series, user tags, etc.). Series is the obvious one since search already searches the series field though the series gets mixed in with titles, authors, etc.

2. Not sure what you mean by that one. The current tiled interface will leave a book on the home screen even after it is finished until it gets pushed off by newer tiles. I've gotten into the habit of opening all the books in a series in reverse order and then reading through them. The finished books are handy when I want to refer back to an earlier book in the series.

3. Document reading... I'd like an option to open all ebooks with the ACCESS renderer without having to rename them to .kepub.epub. Perhaps an option to setup a user stylesheet which would override the ebook's stylesheet so I don't have edit every book to make them have the same font size, margins, paragraph and line spacing, etc. Possibly bite the bullet and spend the developer time to clear up some of the bugs in the Adobe Reader Mobile SDK.

4. Again with the number of books I keep around, I find using Calibre to be much easier than doing each book by hand on the ereader.

5. See my comment on #1. The current search function does search author, title, series but no ability to limit the search to one of those fields.

6. Not sure what you mean by playlist support? No audio support so it's not a request for an audio playlist and given that most people take quite a bit longer to read a book than to listen to a single song, a list of books to read doesn't seem that necessary to me.

Otherwise, I'd put an icon for search on the top menu bar on the home screen to bring up search rather than having the search bar on screen at all time. Possibly move library, bookstore and reading life from the bottom of the screen to icons on the top bar as well. Hmmm... with search that would give me 8 icons on the top bar so four on each side for balance compared to the current one on the left and three on the right.

Updates? Let the user know that an update is available and let them choose to install it or not. Those who like living on the bleeding edge will update, others will wait until they hear some feedback, others will never update.

Regards,
David

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

1. Forget the file browser. With (at current count) 1680 books on my Aura, it takes far fewer clicks to find a book by searching than trying to dig down through the directory structure. So improve the search function by adding the ability to limit the search specific fields (author, title, series, user tags, etc.). Series is the obvious one since search already searches the series field though the series gets mixed in with titles, authors, etc.

2. Not sure what you mean by that one. The current tiled interface will leave a book on the home screen even after it is finished until it gets pushed off by newer tiles. I've gotten into the habit of opening all the books in a series in reverse order and then reading through them. The finished books are handy when I want to refer back to an earlier book in the series.

3. Document reading... I'd like an option to open all ebooks with the ACCESS renderer without having to rename them to .kepub.epub. Perhaps an option to setup a user stylesheet which would override the ebook's stylesheet so I don't have edit every book to make them have the same font size, margins, paragraph and line spacing, etc. Possibly bite the bullet and spend the developer time to clear up some of the bugs in the Adobe Reader Mobile SDK.

4. Again with the number of books I keep around, I find using Calibre to be much easier than doing each book by hand on the ereader.

5. See my comment on #1. The current search function does search author, title, series but no ability to limit the search to one of those fields.

6. Not sure what you mean by playlist support? No audio support so it's not a request for an audio playlist and given that most people take quite a bit longer to read a book than to listen to a single song, a list of books to read doesn't seem that necessary to me.

Otherwise, I'd move the search bar to the top menu on the home screen by having an icon there to bring up search rather than having on screen at all time. Possibly move library, bookstore and reading life from the bottom of the screen to icons on the top bar as well. Hmmm... with search that would give me 8 icons on the top bar so four on each side for balance compared to the current one on the left and three on the right.

Regards,
David

1. Call me a stick in the mud, but I am accustomed to a shelf browser that works reliably in my other readers,
But.. if Kobo is unable to get theis working than by all means ditch it and I will get accustomed to using the search as you suggest.

2-6 nothing for me there in fact it makes me wince for the most part. But if enough others want it, by all means.

Helen

[Quexos]

I can't so what's the point here ?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

1. Call me a stick in the mud, but I am accustomed to a shelf browser that works reliably in my other readers,
But.. if Kobo is unable to get theis working than by all means ditch it and I will get accustomed to using the search as you suggest.

2-6 nothing for me there in fact it makes me wince for the most part. But if enough others want it, by all means.

Helen

I was used to a file browser before but with as many books/authors/series/genres that I currently have on my ereader, it's just easier to type 'belg' in the search bar to bring up the Belgariad series rather than to browse down through the directory structure to find a book. It's also easier to search for multiple author items. A search for 'assit' brings up all the Assiti Shards books instead of having to dig through all the authors who have books in the series. Or if I am just looking for the base books, '163' works. The effort of adding the series information using Calibre was pretty minimal.

If I'm looking for an author, a search on 'web' brings up all the books that David Weber authored or co-authored regardless of where they are. Otherwise, I'd be going "Who did he co-author that book with" so I could dig to the right folder. Another problem is that I have several series where each book has a different author -- search has no issue with finding the book name, author name or series. How do I file those in a directory structure to make them easy to find?

Implementing a file browser should be fairly trivial since the Kobo ereaders are Linux based but, to me, it's become a feature whose day has passed.

Using search also saves me the pains that others are complaining about with shelves. Why have a shelf for a group of books when you can just do a quick search for them? Instant shelves on the fly at full speed.

Even on my computer, I'm often using search to find files rather than browsing to locate them -- using either Windows or Mac OS X, search becomes a better choice when you have that many files to wade through.

The reason for some of the odd abbreviations above is that I stop typing when the on-the-fly search gets down to 1 to 4 returned results.

Regards,
David

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I was used to a file browser before but with as many books/authors/series/genres that I currently have on my ereader, it's just easier to type 'belga' in the search bar to bring up the Belgariad series rather than to browse down through the directory structure to find a book. It's also easier to search for multiple author items. A search for 'assit' brings up all the Assiti Shards books instead of having to dig through all the authors who have books in the series. Or if I am just looking for the base books, '163' works. The effort of adding the series information using Calibre is pretty minimal.

If I'm lookinh got an author, a search on 'webe' brings up all the books that David Weber authored or co-authored regardless of where they are. Otherwise, I'd be going "Who did he co-author that book with" so I could dig to the right folder. Another problem is that I have several series where each book has a different author -- search has no issue with finding the book name, author name or series. How do I file those in a directory structure to make them easy to find?

Implementing a file browser should be fairly trivial since the Kobo ereaders are Linux based but, to me, it's become a feature whose day has passed.

Using search also saves me the pains that others are complaining about with shelves. Why have a shelf for a group of books when you can just do a quick search for them? Instant shelves on the fly at full speed.

Even on my computer, I'm often using search to find files rather than browsing to locate them -- using either Windows or Mac OS X, search becomes a better choice when you have that many files to search through.

Regards,
David

I use search constantly on my computer, even when it is not the most effiecient method.

My problem with books is that I probably have residual pbook tendencies. It is how I percieve them.

On my other readers, I open the collections and open a collection and everything is sorted in the order I have chosen. If I open an author collection the books are sorted by series if there is one with the non-series books first, book one in each series next, followed by book two in each series. Not how others do it, but I like this.

If I have my collections based on series, which I have on one of my Kobos well the books are all in order after I change the default sort.

I will try using the search as you use it a few more times (I will aim for 10) and see if it approximates what I prefer. Maybe you can sort the search results by author or series for example?

Generally I read for an hour or so before going to sleep (I am kind of old so I have an afterwork nap and then an actual bedtime at night) so I am not at my brightest when looking for booksbut will give it a shot.

Helen

[theonna]

File browser is the best addition you can make.
Make database creation optional or create it on the desktop Kobo app instead- the best correction you can make. It is ridiculous that it takes that long (more than an hour) to process a library that takes only third of the memory of the device.
Fix idiotic space management- make all margins user configurable, including preference for having or not the top and bottom status lines. Make smallest interline distance smaller, .8 at least, so users can configure their own preferences better.
As far as another person suggestion to better a search rather than adding a file manager- if his request would make database 10 times smaller and faster to create and search + adds ability to search within the books written on different languages(chinese, hindy, cyrillic)- go for it, but only after enabling a file browser.
Those are mine most important issues. Thank you for listening.

[speakingtohe]

PS my T1 and my antique PRS 600 have far more books (8000 plus 0n 600) and can do the collection thing in less than 5 seconds with 1400 collections on the antique 600 and well over 1000 on the T1.

Helen