After watching the user interface eyecandy on Avatar over the weekend, it was fun to find this promotional video for the Mag+ e-reader via Drawn. Here in the age of the graphic user interface (GUI), it’ll be interesting to see what attributes libraries embrace. There’s a lot of attention paid to format wars, proprietary coding, and file types in libraryland, but what of subtler battles, like the search for the best GUI for reading? Is there sense in supporting one interface type because it is better for reading and digesting information than another? Certainly. Is there good science supporting all of these interfaces? Yes. I rather like this one from the video clip, but I haven’t actually used it yet so we’ll have to see.
One of the more interesting points made here is the concept that a magazine reader likes to receive a concise, defined editorial package rather than an endless RSS feed. I like this, and I think its true. I don’t have an endless feed of the same type of content I like to read in print magazines. Do you?
