Award year: 2016
Category: Other Award
Awarding organization: Bayerische Amerika Akademie
User Interfaces in digital reading media: design, media usage, and reading culture
The design of the virtual user interface in digital reading processes, while dominantly structuring accessibility and readability, is surprisingly rarely considered as an important aspect for reading processes and the construction of meaning. Standardized designs for effective and efficient reading in printed media have evolved over centuries (Drucker 2007). In contrast, design for digital reading is still in an experimental stage and is not yet standardized despite the fact that design determines access to and interaction with texts. Designs are distinctive regarding the layout and composition of characters and other signs and the navigational framework for structuring the reception process (e.g., using virtual pages and the imitation of pageturning vs. unlimited space accessed by scrolling, sequential vs. optional access, static vs. dynamic sign representations, mono- vs. multimedia, forms of interactivity and networking) (Kuhn/Hagenhoff 2015). Analyzing user interfaces of digital reading media therefore exceeds the capability of single working fields and does not fit in classical practices of typography. Thus, information for different aspects of designing user interfaces can be found in the fields of media informatics, human engineering, human-computer interaction, reading research, psychology, communication/media studies, and literature studies. This distribution leads to the conclusion that interdisciplinary approaches are necessary for understanding the influence of user interfaces on reading behavior and reading culture.
The project in Stanford aims at the compilation of further expertise in the areas of relationships between people and digital media, digital human representation, immersive virtual reality, technology design for users, and human-computer interaction.