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>Having seen my mother (edit: and, more pertinently: myself) struggle with her Kindle, I do think the interaction model is one-degree unnecessarily complex How

>Having seen my mother (edit: and, more pertinently: myself) struggle with her Kindle, I do think the interaction model is one-degree unnecessarily complex How often do you struggle with the interface once you've learned it? I agree that the current Kindle interface isn't the most intuitive, but to me that's a non-issue. I've long since learned how to interact with the Kindle, and now that that initial learning is complete, the interface does an excellent job allowing me to do what I want.

stingrae 9y ago
The goal of the interface should be to be intuitive. You shouldn't have to learn an awkward sequence. If there was a page forward and backward button on each side, I don't think people would have anything to learn
- criddell 9y ago
  Don't people expect to be able to swipe on the screen these days? That seems more intuitive than indirectly controlling the screen via buttons. If I were designing the Kindle, I think I would add a button that brings up the UI and have screen swipes turn the page and screen taps bring up something that makes sense for whatever was tapped on (like a dictionary or X-ray feature).
  - stingrae 9y ago
    I would be curious to see a user study on how people without training try to interact with eink screens. re: swipes vs taps.
    - criddell 9y ago
      Just with e-ink screens? Do you think the results would differ from users interacting with the Kindle app on a phone or tablet?
      - stingrae 9y ago
        I think people will interact differently with an eink screen compared to a standard display.
  - npongratz 9y ago
    > Don't people expect to be able to swipe on the screen these days? That seems more intuitive than indirectly controlling the screen via buttons. Nope. I hate swiping. I expect my e-ink screens to be free of ugly, distracting fingerprints, and I generally find physical buttons to be more accurate, precise, and intuitive than swiping and other gestures.
- 0xffff2 9y ago
  I disagree. The goal of the interface should be to be ergonomic. In the case of the Kindle, there are a very small number of things that need to be memorized because they have no visual cues. The small number of actions coupled with the fact that any visual cue would distract from the primary purpose of the device (to display text) make the current interface more ergonomic than one with always-present visual cues IMO.
  - stingrae 9y ago
    There is space on the bezels, that could be used without taking up space on the display.
- jhoechtl 9y ago
  The goal of the Kindle interface is to buy books
  - stingrae 9y ago
    Sure... Though the goal of an industrial/UX/UI Designer should be to make the core function, reading books, as easy as possible. If it isn't good at that, no one will buy books for it.
ropeadopepope 9y ago
> How often do you struggle with the interface once you've learned it? You must not be a VIM user. I've been using VIM for about 10 years now and I still make mistakes where I think I'm in one mode, but I'm actually in another. Just because you've "learned" an interface doesn't make it easy to use.
- 0xffff2 9y ago
  Vim's user interface is vastly more complex than the Kindle's. For 99.9% of my interaction with the Kindle, the only things I need to remember are "top=menu", "right=next page", and "left=prev page". These actions are not intuitive, but they are extremely easy to remember.
  - ropeadopepope 9y ago
    Memorization isn't the problem. It's intuition. What if the right side of the screen was "previous page" and the left side of the screen was "next page"? I bet you that when you sit down to read, your first tap would always be the wrong one. Then you'd remember and get it right, until it was time to put the kindle away. The next time you sat down to use the kindle, you'd tap the wrong side again. Repeat ad infinitum. I've been through that cycle personally until I got so annoyed that I either fixed it or stopped using it.
- ggm 9y ago
  I struggle with vi(m) and I've been on it for 35. There's a core commandset I can use, but in the back of my mind is the constant realization if I'd learned the other way, I'd type about five less keystrokes for some things.
com2kid 9y ago
> I've long since learned how to interact with the Kindle Occasionally my Kindle jumps forward or backwards by a large number of pages, and I've yet to figure out why. It happens when I put it down to talk to someone, someone a shortcut of jump around gets activated. I am not sure how to quickly and rapidly jump around the text on purpose, but I do dread it happening by accident far too often. I pull up the UI with the page preview and skim around using that, but obviously there is another interaction method that allows for the same thing. Rather than learning it, I want to disable it, since it causes me nothing but frustration.
weberc2 9y ago
I struggle with the interface all the time. I often keep accidentally changing the page, or quite frequently a large number of pages for reasons unbeknownst to me. I often have to dig things up in unintuitive menus (especially things that I dig up infrequently enough to forget the sequence). On top of that, the clumsiness of the e-ink display--text selection is abysmal enough on iPhones. I would love a kindle with physical buttons/keyboard.

stingrae 9y ago

The goal of the interface should be to be intuitive. You shouldn't have to learn an awkward sequence. If there was a page forward and backward button on each side, I don't think people would have anything to learn

criddell 9y ago
Don't people expect to be able to swipe on the screen these days? That seems more intuitive than indirectly controlling the screen via buttons. If I were designing the Kindle, I think I would add a button that brings up the UI and have screen swipes turn the page and screen taps bring up something that makes sense for whatever was tapped on (like a dictionary or X-ray feature).
- stingrae 9y ago
  I would be curious to see a user study on how people without training try to interact with eink screens. re: swipes vs taps.
  - criddell 9y ago
    Just with e-ink screens? Do you think the results would differ from users interacting with the Kindle app on a phone or tablet?
    - stingrae 9y ago
      I think people will interact differently with an eink screen compared to a standard display.
- npongratz 9y ago
  > Don't people expect to be able to swipe on the screen these days? That seems more intuitive than indirectly controlling the screen via buttons. Nope. I hate swiping. I expect my e-ink screens to be free of ugly, distracting fingerprints, and I generally find physical buttons to be more accurate, precise, and intuitive than swiping and other gestures.
0xffff2 9y ago
I disagree. The goal of the interface should be to be ergonomic. In the case of the Kindle, there are a very small number of things that need to be memorized because they have no visual cues. The small number of actions coupled with the fact that any visual cue would distract from the primary purpose of the device (to display text) make the current interface more ergonomic than one with always-present visual cues IMO.
- stingrae 9y ago
  There is space on the bezels, that could be used without taking up space on the display.
jhoechtl 9y ago
The goal of the Kindle interface is to buy books
- stingrae 9y ago
  Sure... Though the goal of an industrial/UX/UI Designer should be to make the core function, reading books, as easy as possible. If it isn't good at that, no one will buy books for it.

ropeadopepope 9y ago

> How often do you struggle with the interface once you've learned it? You must not be a VIM user. I've been using VIM for about 10 years now and I still make mistakes where I think I'm in one mode, but I'm actually in another. Just because you've "learned" an interface doesn't make it easy to use.

0xffff2 9y ago
Vim's user interface is vastly more complex than the Kindle's. For 99.9% of my interaction with the Kindle, the only things I need to remember are "top=menu", "right=next page", and "left=prev page". These actions are not intuitive, but they are extremely easy to remember.
- ropeadopepope 9y ago
  Memorization isn't the problem. It's intuition. What if the right side of the screen was "previous page" and the left side of the screen was "next page"? I bet you that when you sit down to read, your first tap would always be the wrong one. Then you'd remember and get it right, until it was time to put the kindle away. The next time you sat down to use the kindle, you'd tap the wrong side again. Repeat ad infinitum. I've been through that cycle personally until I got so annoyed that I either fixed it or stopped using it.
ggm 9y ago
I struggle with vi(m) and I've been on it for 35. There's a core commandset I can use, but in the back of my mind is the constant realization if I'd learned the other way, I'd type about five less keystrokes for some things.

com2kid 9y ago

> I've long since learned how to interact with the Kindle Occasionally my Kindle jumps forward or backwards by a large number of pages, and I've yet to figure out why. It happens when I put it down to talk to someone, someone a shortcut of jump around gets activated. I am not sure how to quickly and rapidly jump around the text on purpose, but I do dread it happening by accident far too often. I pull up the UI with the page preview and skim around using that, but obviously there is another interaction method that allows for the same thing. Rather than learning it, I want to disable it, since it causes me nothing but frustration.

weberc2 9y ago

I struggle with the interface all the time. I often keep accidentally changing the page, or quite frequently a large number of pages for reasons unbeknownst to me. I often have to dig things up in unintuitive menus (especially things that I dig up infrequently enough to forget the sequence). On top of that, the clumsiness of the e-ink display--text selection is abysmal enough on iPhones. I would love a kindle with physical buttons/keyboard.