Session Idea: eBook Usability

Posted by in Sessions | 3 comments

In broad strokes, here are some topics that could be raised in this session.

  • must-haves for users
  • problems with ebook formatting
  • ebook usability across multiple platforms

We’re counting on your participation to make this session a success – but we’ve hedged our bets by asking Erin Mallory,
Meghan Macdonald, and Nic Boshart to help guide this conversation. Let them know what you want to discuss in the comments below.

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3 Comments

  1. Andrew / August 4, 2011

    I would be interested in seeing the differences between necessary ebook features in fiction versus nonfiction titles, as well as specific differences between necessary features and additions within the world of fiction.

    For example, how useful would it be for a fantasy novel to provide hotlinks from book or series-specific terminology in order to avoid textbookish explanations or ideas or terms?

  2. Mark Leslie Lefebvre / August 15, 2011

    Interesting concept, Andrew. It would be intriguing to see how the trope of “so, tell us professor” could be abandoned in such novels, saving the author from the various ways in which you have to “mask” such a convention within the action/natural dialogue of the story.

    And not just for fantasy novels, but perhaps long running series in which there are complex epic plots and a huge cast of characters spanning generations. The features could include hotlinks to family trees, maps, timelines, etc. (I remember, for example, reading some classic Larry Niven novels that contained a huge Dramatis Personae at the beginning, and I’d constantly be flipping back and forth to it in order to remember how particular characters fit into the story)

  3. Joe Clark / August 21, 2011

    This session turned into a total shitstorm, and not because I was the one loudly denouncing the general defence of bad copy.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. BookCamp Toronto 2011: ‘E-books are hard. Let’s go shopping’  ¶  Personal Weblog of Joe Clark, Toronto - [...] year I sat through a completely unplanned and unfocussed session deceptively entitled “E-Book Reviews/Usability.” Three sinecurists of the still-new ...