iPad Potential

May 2, 2010
Stacey Mason

Craig Mod considers the iPad as a reading platform, concluding that designers must do better.

What, then, is the problem?
It's not the screen — I've happily read several novels on my iPhone.
It's not the weight — it feels fine when resting on a table or my knee.
The problem is much simpler: iBooks and Kindle.app are incompetent e-readers. They get in the way of the reading experience and treat digital books like poorly typeset PDFs.
We can do better. (We have to do better.)

Simple design principles like typeface, navigational icons, and a poorly executed three-dimensional book metaphor are hindering the iPad’s ability to be the superb eBook reader it wants to be.

But Mod also offers a few simple solutions: increasing hyphenation, improving margins (including adding ragged-right text), and enabling copy-paste abilities are all small fixes that would help iPad eReaders realize their potential.

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