Allowing print, television and psychology to influence the iPad reading experience.

Ali Driver, 10th November ‘10

Lines of type that are too long or too short slow down reading and comprehension. Combine the wrong line length with the wrong type size and the problem is magnified.

Typography

Allowing print to influence, and not dictate our iPad reading experience, can help us give our audience text that is easier to read. A line length of ~39 characters is one measurement we can employ.

Typography

We can also use grids to help us layout our content on the iPad. Of course, these were first used in print, although they are now commonplace on the web.

Grids

A grid of 32x32 has been my size of choice for this iPad project.

Both 1024 and 768 are divisible by 32 to give whole numbers back. Lovely.

Grids

Red focuses attention, blue sets your mind free.

University of British Columbia (UBC) researchers tested 600 people on detail-oriented tasks (such as proofreading) and creative tasks (such as brainstorming).

Psychology & Color

Psychology & Color

I’m going with blue.

A teleprompter (also known as an autocue or a telescript) is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.

Television

The first "teleprompters" were simply mechanical devices located near the camera. The script was printed on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read.

Television

Autocue for iPad

So, a new way to read and consume, without relying on “enhanced” digital magazine editions. Also, gestural interaction is kept to a minimum. So you can give your fingers a rest.

Autocue for iPad

This is completely fictional. No applications were built or harmed during this gold card. Just thought something different was in order.

Just a card of Gold

Questions?

I don’t have all the answers. An iPad app wasn’t, and shouldn’t be, built in a day.

Fin.

Borrow and steal old ideas for a new medium.I am a scouser after all.

Thanks.ali.driver@futureplatforms.com@alidriver (not much of a tweeter tho)