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new technologies, latest trends

OPDS: building an ebook catalogue

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This is part of a series wrapping up (belatedly, alas) the findings from Project Sunflower. As the protagonists of the Project have moved on to pastures new, leaving their notes behind, editorial duty has fallen to yours truly.

In this post, we look at OPDS, otherwise known as ‘Open Publication Distribution System’, and why it’s worth a look for anybody intending to integrate ebook platforms into the student experience. For anybody who’d rather skip ahead, version 1.1 of the standard can be found right here.

OPDS is, according to the specification, designed as

a syndication format for electronic publications based on Atom and HTTP

and can

enable the aggregation, distribution, discovery, and acquisition of electronic publications

using

existing or emergent open standards and conventions, with a priority on simplicity.

Now, as we will see from reviewing the performance of typical embedded ebook search/indexing functions and interfaces, most ebook readers aren’t designed to contain huge numbers of ebooks. At 7.99 an ebook, most readers will be cautious in their acquisitions, so perhaps the perception from some manufacturers is that it is pointless to create readers that specialise in navigating across hundreds of thousands of files. Many portable media devices suffer from similar difficulties – the classic ‘clickwheel’ interface on iPods, as applied to a large number of files, became the subject of a 2009 satirical report by The Onion.

The relevance of OPDS is the following: OPDS allows you to search and browse across extensive collections of documents. They don’t need to be books; an OPDS frontend on an institutional repository is perfectly achievable, format conversion notwithstanding. The obvious use case is searching or browsing for a single file, but part of the relevance of OPDS is the fact that it also allows for batch mode: a student downloading the full reading list for the semester, for example. Wouldn’t that be convenient?

An OPDS catalogue is fairly straightforward to set up. For prototyping purposes, the well-known ebook software Calibre can be used to experiment with the concept; it can be found in the Calibre software under Preferences->Network->Sharing over the net, and is referred to as a ‘Content Server’. If you’d rather experiment with a static OPDS catalogue — providing no search function, but with browse functions that make full use of your metadata — consider trying calibre2opds, a Java application that renders your Calibre catalogue as a set of static HTML pages and, being simpler and more secure (by dint of having very few moving parts), may be considered a relatively secure way of deploying a prototype. A comparison of these alternatives may be found here.

Cross-platform compatibility: Limited.

Android and the iPad approach this on a per-application basis, and a good implementation is available for both. iBooks won’t handle the catalogue functionality, but you can manually type the address into Safari; then, when you click on an ePub file, iBooks can handle the download. Alternatively, you can use Stanza, which works well – but when iOS 5 came out, we discovered that Stanza ceased to work until we updated the iPad to the latest version, so be prepared for sudden failures around the time of iOS upgrades.

The Kindle is able to use OPDS catalogues, but requires them to run on port 80 (the usual port for a web server, admittedly, but not Calibre’s preferred choice for practical reasons). Simpler e-Ink devices mostly still do not have any mechanism for connecting to the Web, and therefore this sort of functionality is not available on the platform itself, so desktop software must be used instead.

Ease of setup: Moderate.

Getting a Calibre content-server running on a home network is relatively easy provided that the user is familiar with terms like ‘IP address’. However, practical implementation on a larger scale requires significantly more thought; not only are there security and sustainability issues around the software, but the usability of the resulting catalogue is very dependent on good metadata.

Benefits

Standard, relatively simple to set up, and extremely liberating – a convenient distribution channel, bypassing the need to centralise via a commercial vendor, what’s not to like?

Disadvantages

Support for OPDS is patchy and the standard is still relatively recent. Many popular ebook reader applications do not support it explicitly. Fortunately, it’s so near to popular standards that all you really need is a web browser and an ebook reader to get some benefit from an OPDS.

Sample screenshots

Browse by tag screenshot

Browsing the Calibre content server by tag

 

Browse by author screenshot

Browse by author

Social media sites in China

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Introduction

When we talk about social media sites, we tend to focus on a number of well-known examples – Facebook, YouTube, and so forth. Yet there are many international social media sites of all kinds. This post is written by Jenny Luo, who is studying Electrical Power Engineering at Bath and works part-time at UKOLN. In it, she looks at some examples of social media sites in China, compares them to other popular sites, and collects together information about the sites’ APIs.

— Emma

 

Social network sites (similar to Facebook)

1. renren

Renren means “people and people”. Renren is very similar to Facebook, not only in terms of function but also in terms of interface. You need to register on this website first ,then you can add somebody else as your  friends. You can upload some photos, write diaries, share videos, add some comments or delete some comments.There are also some online games. Anyway, it’s almost the same as Facebook. But, in my opinion British tend to share more pictures than the Chinese do.

Link: www.renren.com
API: http://www.programmableweb.com/api/renren
Description： This is an open platform based on OpenSocial

2. douban

Douban means “watercress”. On this website you will feel free to comment on any  books, films, and music. You can find others’ recommendations about books, films and music. Everything shown on your douban webpage can be chosen by yourself. For example, if you are a mother the website will recommend you some recipes. Unlike Renren, which is mainly used by college students, this website focuses on all kinds of people, they will help you find friends from what you like, then you can find more things you like from them. It has more than 5,000,0000 users now.

Link: www.douban.com
API: http://www.douban.com/service/apidoc/reference/
Description: The weblink given above is the instruction of API utilisation. The Douban API follows the Atom and GData principles. When addition or deletion operations are used, OAuth certification would be required. Then, there are also lots of instructions about how to use the API to acquire different information.

3. kaixin001

The website’s name means ‘having fun’. It was set up in 2008. Till now, it has about 110 million registered users. This website mainly focuses on the urban white collar. This website has 3 main functions, such as ‘basic tools’, ‘social games’, and ‘other applications’. For example, in ‘other applications’ you can get a weather forecast, a service for buying tickets online, and many other practical applications.

Link: http://www.kaixin001.com/
API: http://wenku.baidu.com/view/671f256e1eb91a37f1115c5a.html
Description: The link given above is the instruction of  kaixinoo1 API. This API support java, PHP, NET and a variety of kinds of programming language. Kaixin API uses a REST connection. All the Kaixin open platforms are achieved by using HTTP POST to send requests to http://rest.kaixinoo1.com/api/rest.php The following instructions are about Users API, Friends API, actions API and so on.

Blogging (similar to Blogger)

1. Sina Webblog

‘Sina’ is not a a Chinese word, I asked baidu about why it got this name, and it says that it means China in Latin. Sina Webblog is the most popular and also mainstream blogging service in China. It includes amusement celebrities’ blogs, intellectual celebrities’ blogs, sensibility blogs, and common people blogs.

Link: http://blog.sina.com.cn/
API: http://blog.csdn.net/用户名/services/metablogapi.aspx
Description: The link above is found in a message board. It seems that till now sina blog haven’t provided public access to their API. The Chinese character in the link above means user name.

2. SoHu Webblog

‘So’ means ‘ searching’  ‘Hu’ means ‘ ‘fox’. So the name means ‘search a fox’. It’s similar to the sina’s but not as popular as the one above.

Link: http://blog.sohu.com/
API: http://ow.blog.sohu.com/guide#11
Description: Sohu open widget(SOW) is proposed by sohu company, which is based on the UWA (Universal Widget API) principle, applied on many platform’s Widget standards. A brief introduction about SOW follows. Firstly, it’s based on a standard Widget principle — the UWA principle. Secondly, everyone can use this to develop their own Widget, and share it to multiple net friends, adding to their sohu blog for utilisation. Then there are loads of information about how to apply.

Microblogging services (similar to Twitter)

1. Sina Microblogging

Sina Microblogging is very similar to twitter.You can also call it ‘one sentence’ blogging. Users can send messages from mobile phones’ SMS messaging functions, WAP, Internet, or MMS.You can send what you hear, see, and think immediately. Your friends can also see what you sent immediately and add some comments. It has the most users of all Chinese microblogging services, and public celebrity is its character.Sina microblogging invite stars and celebrities to be users and will authenticate them. After authentication,a ‘character “V”‘ will be added after their names to distinguish them from common users.

Link: http://weibo.com/
API: http://open.weibo.com/wiki/API%E6%96%87%E6%A1%A3_V2#.E5.BE.AE.E5.8D.9A
Description: The link above is a introduction to the sina microblog API. This documentation contains detailed information about the reading and writing of Microblog, users, comments, relationships, accounts, topics, searching, registration, and so on. Some of them are signed by a red Chinese character, which means this is high class permission, and can only be used by making an application.

2. SoHu microblogging.

It’s very similar to the one above, but not as popular as the above.

Link: http://t.sohu.com/
API: http://open.t.sohu.com/en/%E9%A6%96%E9%A1%B5
Description: This link above is instructions for how to use the sohu API. They give some English labels.

Instant Messaging (similar to MSN)

1. QQ

This name means cute because its symbol is a little penguin.This software support online chatting, video chatting, sending documents, sharing documents, qq email, Netdisk. You can also join some groups which are built by the qq users. For instance,if you like yoga, you can join a yoga group, and you can chat with the people in this group. It’s the most widely used chatting software in China.

Link: www.qq.com
API: http://wiki.opensns.qq.com/wiki/%E3%80%90QQ%E7%99%BB%E5%BD%95%E3%80%91Qzone_OAuth2.0%E7%AE%80%E4%BB%8B
Description: The link above has these contents. 1, a brief introduction to qq zone OAuth 2.0. 2,The procedures involved in using qq zone OAuth2.0. Step1: How to acquire access-token, qqzone. OAuth 2.0 provide different log-in checking and authorization procedures for website, mobile application and desktop. Now they provide 2 ways to acquire an access token. 1.server-side mode. 2. client side-mode. The two modes  only have differences in acquiring an access-token, but work similarly in the following steps of acquiring an  openid and invoking the API. Step 2: Using access-token to get the corresponding openid. Step 3 : using openAPI to get resources. You can also get specific information about API  from the following link given http://wiki.opensns.qq.com/wiki/%E3%80%90QQ%E7%99%BB%E5%BD%95%E3%80%91API%E6%96%87%E6%A1%A3

2. MSN

No more introduction, but not as popular as qq in China

Link:http://cn.msn.com/
API: http://dev.live.com/messenger/

Video Sharing (for example, YouTube)

1. YOUKU

This name means ‘you are so cool’. A very popular video sharing website in China, founded in 2006. In 2007, it launched an activity called ‘LOMO is everywhere’, and turned out to be very successful. It’s also a website which gathers lots and lots of people who like to share their videos.

Link: www.youku.com
API: http://dev.youku.com/
Description: The weblink describes the basic functions of youku’s open API. They are: uploading videos, getting users’ related data, broadcasting which includes designing your own player’s appearance. Their characteristics are XML or JSON format data, and using Javascript client-side to directly insert youku videos without having to add anything on the server-side. Youku API is only open to partners, so a partner ID must be applied for first.

2. Tudou

Its name means ‘potato’. You can upload, download, and share videos through this website.

Link: www.tudou.com
API: http://api.tudou.com/wiki/index.php/%E9%A6%96%E9%A1%B5
Description: The link given is a tudou open platform document. Every developer can use a tudou account to login to the open platform and apply for a APP. Every APP has a limited amount of interface requirements. The interface includes functions that require user authorization, and others for which user authorization is not needed.

Photo sites (similar to Flicker)

1. babidou

‘Babidou’ I don’t know its meaning actually. But I think this name sounds good in Chinese and may mean ‘some interesting beans’.  Babidou internet photo album Internet Save centre was founded in 2005. Babidou specially serves Internet business. Almost all its photos are from taobao, yiqu, paipai, some large Internet shopping Websites. It has a strong documents management system, and a humanistic operator interface. Very easy and convenient to use and totally free.

Link: www.babidou.com
API: N/A.
Description: N/A.

2. bababian

‘bababian’ means ‘change’. This website imitates flicker.It has two subsites, one is for Internet shops, the other is for individual photo albums.

Link: www.bababian.com
API: http://www.bababian.com/api/api.htm
Description: This is the open platform link of bababian, but a bababian account is needed to see more detailed information.

Social bookmarking services (for example Addthis, or Delicious)

1. jia This
‘jia’ means add in Chinese. Its function is as same as its name. It provides these functions: website link collection, website sharing, and website link sending as well. Users can share everything they want to share to many popular social website by using this tool.
Link: www.jiathis.com
API: http://www.jiathis.com/help/html/share-with-jiathis-api
Description:The link gives a standard jiathis API interface, which make the implementation easier.This link, http://www.jiathis.com/send/?webid=shareID&url=$siteUrl&title=$siteTitle&uid=$uid is the standard form, share ID can be gleaned by a ID list. $siteUrl means the weblink that you want to share, $siteTitle means the shared website title which can also be defined by yourself. $uid(非必须) is used for data statistics. Four examples are also given.

2. bshare.cn

bshare is also a social sharing web2.0 button tool.

Link: www.bshare.cn/index
API: http://www.bshare.cn/api
Description: The link above gives detailed information about the API. It’s an open platform.

3. Baidu share

This is almost as same as the tools above.

link: http://share.baidu.com/
API: http://open.baidu.com/
Description: The link given above is the website of baidu open platform where you can find the APIs of different baidu applications, such as baidu share, baidu map, baidu encyclopedia.http://share.baidu.com/get-codes. This link is the specific code of baidu share, and also the instructions for use. You can copy and paste the code given and put it in any position within the webpage between <body> and </body>.

Online Trade (for example, ebay)

1. taobao

‘Taobao’ means ‘finding treasure’ in Chinese. Taobao is the biggest online retailer in Asia Pacific.It was funded by alibaba enterprise in 2003.Its business include c2c( person to person) and B2C( Business to person). By 2008, its registed member is more than 98million and represented about 80% of China on line trade, and its turnover reached 41.3billion yuan.

Link: www.taobao.com
API: http://open.taobao.com/doc/api_list.htm?id=102
Description:The link given above is an API list of taobao.It has API of users , products, businesses and so on.You can click on what  you need to get more detailed information.

Deal of the day (for example: Groupon)

1. meituan

Meituan means ‘Shopping happily in group’. This group shopping website is funded by the same company that funded Renren. Meituan reccomends you a qualified life service everyday. Its recommendation must be of excellent quality and reasonable value.

Link: www.meituan.com
API:http://www.meituan.com/help/api
Description:The weblink given is meituan API. You can get cities API,and also the daily deals API.

A general overview of lots of Chinese social media sites, including many not covered here, can be found at: http://www.bshare.cn/share. English speakers might prefer to read it through Google Translate (Click here for a translation).

CC image by Dainis Matisons

Project Sunflower: Evaluation Based on Neilsen’s Heuristics

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Jakob Neilsen has devised ten general usability heuristics that help evaluate user interface design. Further to our usability research, these guidelines have been used to compare the user interface design of the iPad, Kindle and XOOM. The heuristics given by Neilsen are:

Visibility of System Status – The user should be informed of what is going on

Match between System and Real World – The system’s language should be familiar and follow real-world conventions

User Control and Freedom – System should support undo and redo to help user leave an unwanted state

Consistency and Standards – The meaning of words and actions should stay consistent in  different situations

Error Prevention – Eliminate error-prone conditions or allow users to perform commit actions

Recognition rather than Recall – The user should be able to recognize the meaning of actions than having to recall their functions

Flexibility and Efficiency of Use – System should provide certain accelerators that help speed up interaction for expert users, however it should cater to both, novice and expert users efficiently

Aesthetic and Minimalistic Design – The design should be aesthetic, minimalistic and easy to understand

Help Users Recognize, diagnose and recover from errors – The system should assist users in recognizing, diagnosing and recovering from errors

Help and Documentation – Adequate help and documentation should be available to the user when needed

The study has been conducted based on user interaction with the eBook reading interface.

Results of the Analysis

The table shows the results obtained. It displays the areas where the devices do not agree with Neilsen’s Heuristics, and mentions the reason it does not fit the respective guideline(s).

Usability Heuristics iPad Kindle DX XOOM
Visibility of System Status – No Feedback on Downloads Download Progress bar not clearly visible
Match Between System and Real World Dynamically Changing Page Numbers and Location Shown in Percentages Locations Interpretation Needs to be Learnt Dynamically Changing Page Numbers and Location Shown in Percentages
User Control and Freedom No Forward Button No Forward Button No Forward Button
Consistency and Standards – – –
Error Prevention No ‘Commit’ actions Accidental ‘Back’ due to Slow Response Rate System Crashes
Recognition rather than Recall Use of Applications needs to be learnt Button functions need to be learnt Use of Applications and buttons needs to be learnt
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use Accelerators absent Accelerators absent Accelerators absent
Aesthetic and Minimalistic Design – – –
Help Users Recognize, Diagnose and Recover from Errors – – No suggestions for crashes
Help and Documentation None provided on-device – None provided on-device

This study further agrees with our previously done research indicating that the current eBook readers have some shortcomings that affect the user experience and there is more room for improvement that would lead to more satisfying user interaction with the device from an eBook reading perspective.

Project Sunflower: XOOM Usability Study

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The Motorola XOOM is the first tablet to run on Android 3.0. It supports 720p recording and boasts an Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz processor. The XOOM was introduced as a tablet that does a lot of things, one of which is eBook reading. Our aim was to study the eBook reading capabilities of the device. We studied the reading experience, the device itself and the UI the device had to offer from a purely eBook reading perspective.

Device

The first thing noticeable about the device, or should I say not noticeable, was the power button. The power button was nowhere to be seen on the sides of the device. Users often mistook the SIM card slot for the power button. This was an issue with all users. The power button is on the back of the device, besides the camera. It isn’t easily identifiable.

The XOOM weighs 1.6 lbs, slightly more than iPad and Kindle that weigh at 1.3 lbs and 1.2 lbs respectively. This was another concern shown by users. The users pointed out that the impact of the weight was clearly evident through stress in the wrists when holding the device.

The thickness of the device is also not comparable to the iPad 2 and Kindle DX, the two other devices used for the study. The users thought a thinner device would be more convenient. The greater thickness however, did provide for slightly better grip.

The keyboard feels too broad when holding the device in landscape mode making it difficult to type.

User Interface

The users liked the eBook reading experience the app had to offer. The pages were displayed across the entire screen not wasting space at the edges and thus displaying more words per page in portrait mode. Settings provided by the app were also deemed adequate by users.

The most admired feature was ”Night mode’. This feature allows users to change the screen to white on black from black on white. This makes it more comfortable to read in low-lighting conditions and especially at night. This feature is an advantage because the backlit display can cause severe stress to the eyes when reading continuously for a long time.

The areas users generally found tricky were finding applications to read books on the device. Previous experience with the device played a significant role in this case. The users with little or no experience found it difficult to find and install apps. Most users wanted the app to be installed by default instead of requiring the user to install it.

The landscape view does not support 2-page display, causing almost 2 inches of screen space being wasted on either sides of the screen. This space could be better utilized to display more text and thus help users to see more information on the same screen.

The most severe issue was that of crashes. In case of some users, the app crashed abruptly and the user was taken back to the homescreen.

Bottomline

The Motorola XOOM is a powerful device and runs the latest Android 3.0 OS, however as far as eBook reading goes, is not a very suitable option. Especially for academic text. The device’s weight. thickness, abrupt crashes, and the ePub format’s illustrations rendering capabilities deems it unsuitable for reading academic text. Like most other tablets, the XOOM is good for leisure reading with its simple UI, various viewing modes and fast responsiveness. Academic text on the other hand requires more information displayed on a single page, the ability to flip through chunks of pages while being able to see the scrolled contents and the ability to make notes on the textbook. It will take more time till eBook readers support these features and as of now the Motorola XOOM does not seem ready for use as an academic textbook reader.

Project Sunflower: Kindle DX Usability Study

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The Kindle DX is the only dedicated eBook reader from the devices we are using for the study. It has an E-Ink Pearl display and was made with the sole purpose of comfortable and convenient reading. The first generation Kindle had a big launch in 2007, where all the Kindles were sold out in five and a half hours. The Kindle stayed out of stock for five months. These figures tell a lot about its popularity and people’s interest in reading on the device.

We studied the Kindle from point of view of academic text. We studied the reading experience on Kindle DX, the user interface it offers, and the device in general.

Device

The users were really happy about the fact that it was lighter than any other tablet they had held in their hands.  The fact that it is lighter than most other devices is true, however saying its weight makes it an ideal eBook reader is not. The users did have problems with the weight of the Kindle DX. Some users that had used other Kindles previously said that the bigger screen on the  DX was a great advantage, but the addition to the weight worked against that. The users were comfortable using the smaller Kindle than buy the more costly, heavier Kindle DX for a bigger screen.

The E – Ink Pearl display made a mark on all users. The users were very impressed with the fact that there was no glare from the screen, and the absence of brightness adjustments to be made to the screen to adapt to ambient light.  The screen was perfectly readable in varying lighting conditions. The screen felt good, and mimicked paper.

The problems mostly faced were with the buttons on the device. Users complained the keys on the keypad were too small, and found holding the device and typing at the same time uncomfortable as the keypad was too low on the device. The fact that there are no dedicated numeric keys added to this factor. The 5-way stick was difficult to identify for the first time, and making selections was difficult until the users realized the 5-way stick could be pressed in to make a selection. The device has navigation buttons on the right side only, which makes it mandatory for people to hold the device either in the right hand, or use another hand to flip pages when holing it in the left. The ‘Back’ button and the button to navigate through a book were misleading. Users mistook the ‘Back’ button for page navigation, however it is for navigating through and to menus and not for in-book navigation. Some users also expressed the need of a ‘Forward’ button as the slow response rate may cause repeated actions causing unwanted results. The Menu button was also misleading. as users thought they could change settings in-book using the Menu button. There is a dedicated key for settings on the keypad. This key too, is difficult to identify the first time.

User Interface

The users liked the simplicity of the UI, as all the books were displayed on the Homescreen. This made it very easy to find a required book on the device.

The Kindle offered a number of font sizes to aid the user. It also has a text-to-speech feature. That being said, the text-to-speech isn’t as advanced as one might expect. It is like any other text-to-speech software you may have tried using. The software  sounds fairly automated and loses expressions, which are key to any book or story alike.

The fact that it was not a touchscreen and did nothing but read eBooks was seen as an advantage. The lack of a touchscreen and other features caused less distractions to users and readers spent time reading instead of anything else.

The main concern shown by all users was the responsiveness of the UI. Common tasks like unlocking the device, opening a book and flipping a page took a long time due to the slow refresh rate. Talking from an academic texts viewpoint, fast refresh rate is one of the most important attributes an eBook reader should possess. When reading textbooks, most people flip through chunks of pages to retrieve relevant information. A task that seems impossible at a very slow refresh rate.

Bottomline

The Kindle is great for linear reading, but its currently not suitable to be used to read academic text. The refresh rate is too slow to allow for fast flipping to and from pages. The limited illustrations rendering capabilities and weight are also a problem. The Kindle, due to its low weight and E-Ink display may be really well suited for leisure reading, but it might take some time till one can use the Kindle DX to replace textbooks.

 

Project Sunflower: iPad Usability Study

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The iPad since its launch has been promoted primarily as a web-surfing device. Its eBook reading capabilities came with applications that rendered eBooks on the iPad. Our usability study tested the iPad from an eBook reading point of view. More so, from the point of view of academic texts. We tested the eBook reading experience the iPad has to offer, the user interface of iBooks, the settings it allows the users to alter, and the device in general.

Device

Most users were very happy with the design of the device, and particularly liked how thin it was. That being said, the flip side is that they were not very happy with the weight of the device (despite being 15% lighter than its predecessor), and complained that their hands would hurt after a certain amount of time when using the device to read. When reading from the device for a significantly long time, one starts to feel the edges, especially when held in one hand.

The most common concern that all participants raised was that they all wanted the iBooks app installed by default instead of having to install it separately to be able to read eBooks. I admit this isn’t a lot of work, but isn’t the whole point of eBook readers allowing the user to get access to books as fast as possible? Inexperienced users did not know much about applications and their installation.

The screen feels good to read, however exposing your eyes to an LED-backlit display for a really long time isn’t a good idea. Especially in low-lighting conditions.

User Interface

The users were particularly impressed with the responsiveness of the touchscreen. They liked the way the device registered the tap exactly where they intended, and did exactly what they wanted it to do.

Users that had previous experience using iOS devices were more comfortable operating the device than others that had never used iOS devices before.

iBooks renders the book in a very graphical way to make it look not like plain text, but more like an actual book. This feature, however, costs almost an inch of space from each side. Space that could be utilized to fit more content on a single page, allowing the user to read more on a single page, saving some time from the reduced page flips.

Bottomline

From a purely objective viewpoint, I’ll go ahead and say the iPad has a supercool UI and great responsiveness, however, when it comes to eBook reading, these features don’t really count. Its backlit LED display and weight make it a ‘not so ideal’ eBook reader when it comes to academic text. The device is useful for leisure reading, but it may take some more time before we see students using the iPads as textbooks leaving their 2000 page hardback textbooks at home. One of the main uses of a textbook is to refer to a particular formula, diagram or search a particular concept as soon as possible. The ePub format’s limited Math rendering capabilities coupled with the inability to write all over the book and flip through chunks of pages at a time does not affect leisure reading, but makes it not so suitable for academic use.

Project Sunflower: Usability Study

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As part of our eBook usability study, this part deals with studying the devices from the eBook reader point of view. All three devices,  Apple iPad 2, Amazon Kindle DX and Motorola XOOM have eBook reading capabilities, with Kindle being a dedicated eBook reader.  The aim of the study was to analyse the ease with which a user can perform a particular task on each device, the user-friendliness of the UI and the eBook reading experience the device has to offer. Two studies were devised for the purpose of our research. One study aims at understanding the user experience the devices have to offer in general, and the second study aims at understanding the eBook reading experience.

Internet access was enabled for all devices for the purpose of the study, as connecting to the internet is not part of the eBook reading activity.

Study 1

The study was implemented in two phases, the difference being the instructions given to the user.

Phase 1

In this phase, the devices were connected to the internet, and the users were asked to download and open an eBook on the respective device. They were not told about specific apps that were needed to render eBooks, and were given no specifics whatsoever. The users were not given any instructions so as to get a firsthand view of where they try to get the eBooks from, whether they even know about the requirement of specific apps to render eBooks on the devices and of any other OS specific functions.

This study helped evaluate whether prior experience with the OS played a significant role in understanding OS specific requirements such as apps, the app stores the devices used, and the place to get eBooks from.

Phase 2

In this phase, the users were given more specific instructions about the applications that they would have to download to be able to read eBooks in the ePub format. This test helped answer questions such as, did the user know where to get the application, which application to get, did they have trouble installing the application, how to download eBooks on the device, and so on.

This study gave a very clear understanding about the intuitiveness of the UI, the difficulty or ease in performing tasks, and whether previous experience with either similar devices or the operating system played a part in performing the given task.

Study 2

This study was devised to evaluate the eBook reading experience each of the devices had to offer. The participants of the study gave feedback on the overall device design from point of view of an eBook reader, the user-friendliness of the user interface from the eBook reading point of view, and inputs on the in-book settings the devices allowed the users to change.

In this study, the users were asked to inspect two areas of the eBook reader or eBook reading app. First, the overall readability of eBooks was tested by asking the users to read a book for ten minutes on the device. The eBooks were rendered at default settings. This part of the test was to get feedback on the eBook reading experience the device offers. For the next part of the test, the users were asked to find and change the settings they wished to change when reading, and also inspect the settings the device offered. For this part of the study, each user was given five minutes. This dedicated time to change settings allowed the users to find all or most settings the software offered, and identify settings the software lacks or are unnecessary.

Cc image by Astragony

Project Sunflower: Time to Launch Application, Open a Book and Flip Page

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Well, we now have results regarding the time taken for the Apple iPad 2, Amazon Kindle DX and Motorola XOOM to render eBooks. We installed iBooks on iPad and the Kindle App for Android on XOOM. The Google Books app can’t be installed (yet) in UK due to copyright issues. We recorded the time taken by the devices to open the app, open a book, and flip a page.

Since there is no emulator that performs exactly like the physical device, we chose to take a practical approach to measure the times. The render times were measured in two ways. One, manually, and the other using a video camera.

Manual Method

Take a stopwatch in one hand, and have the other hand tap on the device. For example, when using an iPad, what we did was to hold the stopwatch in the left hand, and tap the iPad with the right hand. Start the stopwatch precisely when the iPad is tapped, and stop when the desired action is done. This method depends a lot on the user’s reflexes and you may have your doubts about the level of precision when it comes to results. Let me tell you, the results were surprisingly accurate. Read the figures to see for yourself.

Camera Method

This is a slightly more sophisticated way of measuring, though just as simple. All you need to know is the fps (frames per second) at which the video is recorded, and a video player that can replay the video frame-per-frame. Record the desired action on-camera, and then replay the video frame-per-frame. The number of frames traversed from the start to end of the task gives a more precise time taken to complete the task than the manual method.

Results

We measured the times for six free eBooks per device. Six readings were taken per task, and the average time for each task was calculated.

iPad (Average from six readings)


Kindle DX (Average from six readings)

There is no application load time as all the books are displayed directly on the Homescreen.

XOOM (Average from six readings)


Both the methods gave fairly similar results. The differences in the times on an average are:

The standard deviations for each method are shown below:

iPad (Standard Deviation)


Kindle DX (Standard Deviation)


XOOM (Standard Deviation)


The standard deviation tables show that the camera method showed less variation from the average as compared to the manual method in all but two cases, where the difference is only 1/100th of a second. These two cases may be safely ignored.

Although both methods gave fairly similar results, it must be noted that the manual method would give varied results for every test. It is completely dependent upon user reflexes, and slow reflexes could have seriously bad results. The camera method does take up more time, however the results are more accurate and dependable  So, I’d recommend the camera method.

All the recorded times are an average, and the times may change with the length of the books proportionally. These results give us a fair idea about the various devices when it comes to render speed and page flipping. The iPad and XOOM clearly render faster than Kindle DX. However, these results are only pertaining to the device capabilities and say nothing about the user experience. What makes an eBook reader good or bad does not depend only on the render speeds, but more so on the user experience the device has to offer. A detailed usability study of the devices will be undertaken soon which will shed light on the varied user experience, and help us better understand what the user expects from an eBook reader.

Project Sunflower: The Unboxing Experience

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The devices (Amazon Kindle DX, Apple iPad and Motorola XOOM) we ordered a few weeks back finally arrived yesterday. Here’s how it went.

Kindle DX

Amazon has made great use of the Kindle’s E Ink display, with instructions displayed on the screen, waiting to be read once the Kindle is unboxed. The display showed where the power button was, asking to slide and release, and also to plug in the Kindle to a power source. On starting, the Kindle was already setup to the Amazon account it was registered with and displayed a user’s guide. Very simple.

iPad

Setting up the iPad was a bit tedious. On switching on the device, it immediately showed the iTunes USB screen that indicated connecting the iPad to a PC/Mac for setup. The iPad does not start unless connected to a PC/Mac that has iTunes installed. Since I did not have a desktop with iTunes installed, it took some time to install iTunes just to setup the iPad and get the iPad to work. Once this was done, the on-screen instructions took care of the rest. This issue will be solved in the next iOS update allowing wireless setup of iOS devices, but presently its not supported.

XOOM

The XOOM looked different from the other two devices, as its primary orientation is landscape and not portrait. The iPad and Kindle have the Power/Sleep button on the edge of the device. Expecting the same, I checked its edges for the power button. To my surprise, it was not to be found. After checking all sides and mistaking the SIM card slot for the power button, I decided to resort to the documentation. This was the first time I had to check documentation given with the device to find the power button. Its a concave button, placed very close to the camera, which is hardly visible in low lighting conditions. However, it was only a first time thing, after which it made sense as to why the button is placed where it is. Its very convenient and easy to reach when holding the device in landscape mode, as your finger naturally rests very close to the button.

Now, since the wait is done and the devices are finally here, we can start working with them.

Project Sunflower: Devices for Research

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There are a large number of eReaders currently available in the market. We have chosen three devices, one with an E Ink display and the other two with LED displays, each running on a different operating system. Amazon Kindle DX, Apple iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom are three devices we will be using. The Kindle DX runs on Linux, iPad on iOS and the Motorola Xoom on Android 3.0.

 

Amazon Kindle being a dedicated eBook reader has capability to read eBooks by default, without requiring the installation of an eBook application. iPad and Xoom being tablet PCs primarily, require an additional application to be installed that allows the device to render eBooks. We will be considering the native applications that are developed specifically for the device.

Apple iPad

iBooks is the default application for reading eBooks on the iPad. It is free to download from the Apple App Store, and allows in-app purchases. The iBookstore has over 200,000 eBooks available for purchase, with some free ones. There are other eBook apps too, such as the Kindle app and many more.

Motorola Xoom

Google Books is the default application for reading eBooks on Android devices. However, due to publisher restrictions, Google Books is not available to users in UK (yet). The Kindle app for Android works just fine, though you need to have an Amazon account. The other eBook apps rated highly in the Android Market (Android’s App Store) are mostly paid.

Amazon Kindle DX

The Kindle is a dedicated eBook reader. Books are directly displayed on the homescreen, where you can start reading immediately. You can purchase books from the Kindle Store. Most of the books also have a free sample that Amazon wirelessly transfers to the device, allowing you to read the beginning of the book and then decide whether to buy it or not.