How to make an E-Reader product.

And by a product I mean, not e-reader technology, but something human beings can use (and are willing to buy).

Image via Wikipedia

1)  Touchscreen  ( back and forth keys are a definitive no-no). You have to be able to flip pages with your fingers. Still with me?  Remember, touchscreen.  Throw your Kindle thing away.

2) The display must cover the entire surface of the device, with no frame.  Books have no frames.  You can have controls.  Eight of your fingers are always on the back of the book, why place buttons on the front side?

3) Unless you have perfect e-paper (and you most likely don’t have it yet)  it’s better to deliver a high density LCD screen, say 1280×800 in 10″.   A rotary control on the side should serve to control brightness. Or better, the device should come with an auto-brightness mode that self-corrects in tune with ambient light. Make the auto mode optional.

4)  A non-ingredient:  you don’t want an OS,  you want to read things.  So your most recent books should be available on the main screen. Not applications. People don’t want applications the same way they don’t awant shelves, nor book covers.  Shelves and book covers are a minor nuisance when you want to read a book. You must be able to switch between thematic bookshelves that must be readily available with a single gesture or keystroke. A rotary control with three positions (back, forth and select) can do this job. All user interface must be hidden most of the time.

5) Make it easy to share pages with other users. I’m reading this page and I want to beam it over wi-fi to my colleagues, and have that displayed on their screens automatically.  It’s not that hard, the technology is already available, you only have to put it to work for humans.  Extrapolate to the internet:  integrate Wordpress, Typepad and Movable Type api support.   Keep the “social” nuts happy providing Facebook and Twitter support. It’s easy and it doesn’t cost a thing.

6) You need an iTunes-kind of bookstore. Make it open so bookstores from all around the world can publish their stuff.   Make the whole Project Gutenberg catalogue easily accessible.  Forget about DRM. Play embrace and extend game with Amazon and send them customers.  Do the same with Barnes and Noble and with every small player too.  There’s 6 billion people in the world and every one of them on average have a penny to put in your piggy bank.   That’s a lot  more than you are making now.  Mind you, maybe you have to give these e-readers for free.

7) Let me take audio notes and attach them to pages. Include a screen reader. It doesn’t have to be a perfect screen reader, it will be okay as long as it’s understandable what it says.  People with low vision problems and blind people deserve better.  I know it seems that this could cut down on the audio books market.  Not so.  If I want to hear William Gibson reading out loud, I will buy the audio book anyway.   Send the greedy marketer to the closet, you will sell more books by letting people rest whilst listening to any book.