Appendix for Chapter 5: Cases for the Sensual Thread of
Experience
In order to deduce user experience (UX) factors and design features for
vividness and interactivity, eight products and services with various
combination of both high and low vividness and high and low interactivity have
been studied (Table 1). These eight cases are currently or used to be the
dominant designs in their own domains. These cases provide real
experiences to people while possessing clear characteristics in terms of
vividness and interactivity.
[Table 1] Eight cases used in the case study for the sensual thread of the
experience.
interacitivity
HIGH
interactivity
LOW
vividness
vividness
HIGH
LOW
Golf-Zone
Su Norebang
Nintendo WII
Gorilla Radio
UHDTV
Klive
ebook
BGM
The case studies for the eight examples were conducted through roughly twophases of research. The first phase dealt with collecting a wide range of
primary records about relevant product or service. The internet, news articles,
and market reports were the main sources of the information. Three years
before and after the point of success was the target time span for gathering
information about each product and service. The adequacy of each case was
determined from this preliminarily gathered information. The second phase of
the investigation was to interview main users of each product and service
about their overall experiences of using them. The interviews were conducted
according to the pre-planned guidelines. The goal of the interviews was to
earn insights about detailed illustration of the experiences in using a product
or a service and design factors that directly affected such experiences.
1. GOLFZON VISION
A product case of high vividness and high interactivity
(http://www.golfzon.com/)
Golfzon's golf simulator "Vision," which was released in 2012, uses two highspeed cameras installed on the ceiling to sense ball movements as shown in
Figure 1. In 2013, Golfzon's Vision generated revenues between USD 50 m to
USD 60 m. Golfzon's profit increased by 16.5% compared to the year before
to USD 80 m, and its revenue increased by 20.3% to USD 350 m. The Vision
possesses an estimated 90% of the market share in the screen golf market,
and its share has been expanding by 20% annually. Golfzon's accumulated
sales are around 22,000 units. In the first quarter of 2014 alone its sales were
over 5,000 units. Golfzon possesses over 100 patents and has applied for 265
on top of that. Consistent R&D has helped Golfzon maintain its position as the
leader of the screen golf market and its products as dominant designs in that
market.
The Golfzon Vision utilizes cutting edge technology to enhance the feeling of
being in an actual golfing experience through an accurate projection of ball
movement and the installation of rough mats and bunker mats as shown in
Figure 2.
The Vision sensor, developed through three years of R&D, measures precise
trajectory, impact, and ball movement through its two high-speed cameras
that detect and analyze the shots in a diverse way such as if they draw or
fade. In addition, its fairway, rough, and green bunker mats provide users with
a realistic sense of the course. Swinging on the mats reduces artificiality and
maintains the integrity of the swing itself.
Twenty Korean KLPGA and KPGA golfers including So-yeon Ryu, Dae-hyun
Kim, and Dong-hwan Lee participated in the development tests in order to
enhance accuracy and reality of the golfing experience of the Vision. Another
characteristic of the Vision is its tee information data that provides a more rich
and accurate analysis of playing golf in the Vision. Users can also log onto
golfzon.com to find detailed analyses based on usage of the driver, irons,
woods, or putter. Practice mode offers information such as ball speed, head
speed, back spin, side spin, angles, carry, driver head impact, and club face
angle for each club. Realistic graphics and accurate sensor technology are
evolving together towards a greater sense of reality.
In the screen golf, users conduct natural interactions with the system by
physically hitting a ball onto a screen, and the screen shows where the ball
lands. The Vision especially utilizes its detailed sensor technology and precise
data (number of strokes, average driving distance, greatest distance, driving
accuracy and par saves) to provide users with smoother interactions with the
system compared to other golf simulators. During the practice mode, users
can check their swing motions right away, and performance feedback is
offered through sound effects such as “AWWW” for a miss and claps for a
good shot. In this way, the user experience of the Vision is heightened
through interaction with the service.
Furthermore, the development of sensing technology enables users to feel
high vividness by checking the direction and speed of a shot on the screen,
and the floor tilts based on the field's slope. The system even vividly
expresses tree graphics. Therefore, Golfzon Vision is a product that
possesses both high vividness and interactivity.
[Figure 1] Diverse interactions offered through Golfzon Vision's technology
(Courtesy of Golfzon, used with permission)
[Figure 2] Golfzon's three different mats; fairway, rough and bunker mats
(Courtesy of Golfzon, used with permission)
2. Su Norebang
A service case of high vividness and high interactivity
(http://www.skysu.com)
Korean karaoke services (known as norebang in Korean) started off in 1991 in
enclosed spaces that were not in the best of conditions for entertainment.
However, after many changes in order to enhance service quality, norebangs
have set their place as a service space where anybody can come to sing
comfortably. In 1996, the norebang had become an established part of the
Korean social culture with up to 35,000 norebang services offered across the
country. After 1996, a number of luxury norebang franchises created a
paradigm in order to become the dominant design of the industry. Luxury
norebangs provide a bright and refreshing image that allows friends and
family to seek out and enjoy the atmosphere and service. Their spaces are
not only for singing but also for other activities related to singing, such as
drinking and dining. In addition, they also provide instrumental
accompaniment devices and mobile norebang applications.
Su norebang started in 1999 with an aim to shed negative images on the
conventional karaoke by providing distinctive service. Every branch of Su
norebang is located on the ground floor for easy access and its themes are
comforting and friendly, relating to European cafés or hotel lounges, to
encourage the customers to visit again. Su norebangs offer unlimited
beverages and waiting rooms so that the customers will enjoy the visit more,
from when they enter until they leave. Most of their singing rooms have
different themes with various musical instruments and mixing devices. One
example of themes is a room for those who enjoy singing by him/herself. A
mixing device, a standing mic, and headphones are available in the room,
allowing recording and editing activities on top of the singing. As such, Su
norebang offers various types of services under the overarching service
concept of “Norebang.” This is an outstanding characteristic of Su norebang in
terms of customer experience. After 2007, many luxury norebang franchises
other than the original Su have surfaced such as Rakhyu and Everysing, thus
confirming the Su norebang as the dominant design.
Su norebang has kept improving the vividness of singing in diverse ways as
shown in Figure 3. It conducts regular inspections and upgrades its sound
system, and provides high quality of sounds that was originally used to record
the songs by the professional singers. Additionally, Su norebang has made
diverse attempts for deeper customer engagement such as matching the
background video with lyrics of each song, providing a stage equipped with
surround-speakers, and lightings and video displays. So as a result, the
customer views Su norebang rather as a provider of multiple services than a
simple norebang (karaoke).
Along with the vividness, the service of Su norebang is highly interactive.
While the interactivity of conventional norebangs is limited to pressing the
code of a song with a remote control and singing, Su norebang enhances the
interactivity through presenting applications of its wide variety of activities.
Taking the motives from real performance stages or recording studios by
arranging a standing mic and lightings accordingly also maximizes the
interactivity of Su norebang as shown in Figure 4 below.
[Figure 3]. Maximizing vividness through surround sound system,
lightings, stages, and video plays of real performances.
(Courtesy of Su Norabang, used with permission)
[Figure 4]. Providing high interactivity with musical instruments and devices.
(Courtesy of Su Norabang, used with permission)
3. UHD TV
A product case of high vividness and low interactivity
(http://www.samsung.com/sec/consumer/tv-video/tv/)
A television (TV) has a close relationship with the broadcasting industry. 3D
TVs and Smart TVs were introduced in 2010 alongside the popularity of the
movie ‘Avatar.' However, neither the 3D TVs nor the Smart TVs became
successful products. This was because the TV, by itself, cannot lead a
dramatic change to the broadcasting and content industry, both industries
however can affect the sales of TVs. Today, high definition TVs (HDTVs)
make up the major portion of TVs sold worldwide in wholesale. That is
because HD content is the ruling type of content produced for TVs, not vice
versa. Therefore, understanding TV should be accompanied by the
understandings of contents and home appliances.
In recent years, both the broadcasting industry and the consumer electronics
industry have been actively preparing for a post HD era, and UHD is the main
focus of the efforts. UHD TV refers to both the TV itself and Ultra High
Definition Video (UHDV) also known as Super Hi-Vision (SHV). NHK
Technology Research Institute first introduced a UHD TV in May 2002. The
main difference between the HDTV and UHD TV lies in the resolution.
According to the standard recommendations published by ITU-R1 in August
2012, UHD TV has a resolution of 3,840 X 2,160 (4K) or of 7,680 X 4,320
(8K), with a frame rate of 120, 60, 59.94 (60 /1.001), 50, 30, 29.97 (30 /
1.001), 25, 24, and 23.976 (24 / 1.001). The recommendation for color
representation is to assign 10bit or 12bit at each of the existing channels. This
allows more colorful expression than an 8-bit digital TV as well as more
detailed image representation through four times higher resolution than Full
HD.
On 8 January 2013, the French telecommunications satellite operator Eutelsat
initiated a channel service dedicated to 4K UHD using satellite. Japan's NHK
transmitted the Brazilian World Cup broadcast in UHD with satellite (CS) in
2014. This was two years earlier than originally planned, in line with the
strategic movement by Japanese companies that attempted to recapture the
market lead in the TV market by actively promoting UHD broadcasting for
TVs. In particular, UHD diffusion strategies by the Japanese based
companies include securing the lead in the content and broadcasting
equipment market in addition to the TV market. Korean companies are also
expected to start cable broadcasting of UHD content in 2015, satellite in 2016,
and terrestrial broadcasting in 2018.
The broadcast equipment vendors accelerate the race to pre-occupy the 4K
broadcast equipment market. For example, major vendors of broadcasting
equipment showcased UHD ready equipment such as UHD cameras at the
international broadcasting equipment exhibition, NAB2013, heralding a
1 The ITU-R Recommendations constitute a set of international technical standards developed by the
Radiocommunication Sector (formerly CCIR) of the ITU. ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is
the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies – ICTs.
generational change in broadcast equipment. The competition between TV
manufacturing companies for prior occupation of the market is becoming
fierce. TV manufacturers have been making a pitch for achieving the early
market dominance by introducing an expanded line-up of UHD TVs. From
2011 the UHD TV market has risen in value by approximately 50 times to
USD 85 m in Q1 2013. That rise demonstrates the fast rise of UHD TVs to the
leading product of ultra-definition TVs2.
The increased resolutions of the UHD TV support strong vividness to viewers.
When portraying the human skin in the video, UHD even depicts pores and
soft hair on the skin while HD barely does. The viewer even feels threedimensional effect from not just the higher screen resolution, but also the
improved color reproduction as shown in Figure 5. The modalities of inputs
from watching TV are relatively limited with only visual and auditory stimuli,
compared to other media. However, a TV provides outstandingly rich visual
information. As human rely heavily on the vision3, the enhancement of visual
information strengthens the images in our view as shown in Figure 6. Through
such, UHD TV can be said to be highly vivid in terms of the experience that it
produces.
On the contrary to its high vividness, UHD TV scores low in terms of
interactivity. Many consumer electronics companies installed smart functions
to the UHD TVs to continue with the interactivity standard set by the Smart
TVs. Consequently, UHD TV also has the same functions with the Smart TV
thus holds greater potential of interactivity compared to traditional TV.
However, having greater potential does not necessarily mean actual use of
the interactive functions.
2 2013 Trend report by National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA)
3 Dalsgaard, P. & Dindler, C. 2014, “Between Theory and Practice: Bridging Concepts in HCI
Research”. In Proceedings of CHI 2014, ACM, New York
According to the report by Korea Information Society Development Institute
published in February 2013, Korean viewers of Smart TVs spent 99.6% of
their time using them watching them or listening to the radio on them rather
than using the functionalities of the smart TV or downloading Smart TV
applications. This use pattern is rather globally prevalent and not specific to
Korea where the world's largest and second-largest TV manufacturers are
located. In short, people tend to buy the latest Smart TV but not necessarily to
use its functions. Smart TV has been revolutionized technically from the
traditional TV known as "the idiot box," but the users have not yet caught up
with the revolution. Traditional consumer electronics companies had been
trying to redefine the concept of TV, but have failed to do so - the core
function of a TV has remained after all those efforts. Overall, a UHD TV did
not succeed in interacting with its users even with all the functionalities for
novel interactions. Therefore, the UHD TV is low in interactivity whereas its
vividness is high.
[Figure 5] The expression of a same image upon different resolutions; higher
resolution displays more details of the image.
Source: http://www.kbench.com
[Figure 6] Video test of UHD TV; Red and white pellets are clearly
distinguishable.
4. Klive
A service case of high vividness and low interactivity
(www.klive.co.kr)
A hologram has been widely used in various concerts as an important
element. Leading entertainment companies in Korea often use holograms in
designing several stages in the performances of their artists, and sometimes
plan an entire concert program using only holograms. Today we have been
accustomed to seeing holograms of singers who have passed away or are
even alive. In recent years, we have seen Korean entertainment companies
accelerating their investments in hologram related content. Many of their
showcases include holograms and they even built a hologram-only theater in
collaboration with companies specializing in building holograms. For instance,
YG Entertainment, KT, and the Korean Ministry of Science are jointly
operating "Klive," a specialized hologram performance theatre. Klive regularly
hosts the performance of PSY, BigBang, and 2NE1, who are globally famous
Korean artists.
Klive is a representative project of cultural technologies converging content of
Korean Wave and hologram technology. It offers novel experiences of
watching hologram concerts to its visitors using diverse audio-visual devices.
As shown in Figure 7, the audience can feel a sense of reality from the
hologram video projected to a screen of which total area is 1,652 square
meters and height is equivalent to a two stories building. Watching the vibrant
video is possible with a 270-degree panorama screen built for media facade
with dynamic wall installed inside. In addition, a 14.2-channel surround sound
system makes the experience of the audience even more real. In addition to
this audio-visual system, the combination of special effects, such as a laser
illuminator and fog effects, amplifies the authenticity and richness of the
experience.
Various factors that comprise the Klive concerts cover multiple modalities of
stimuli including those of visual, auditory, and tactile. The audience can
simultaneously have a multi-modal experience from carefully designed
devices intertwining visual, auditory, and tangible stimuli. Through this, Klive
secures its position in providing a service with high vividness.
Though Klive is successful at providing a highly vivid experience, it scores low
on the interactivity of the experience. The audience at a Klive concert can only
enjoy the performance as a passive bystander. Interactive experiences, that
Klive provides, are only available at the Photo Box (a place to take a picture
of audience) or the Giant Wall (a Large Touch-screen to zoom in and out of
the photos of artists before or after the performance) installed outside the
Klive Theater. No interaction such as receiving feedbacks by manipulating
devices during the concert is provided to the audience. Given the context of
massive watching inside the theatre, high interactivity could have caused
confusions in the feedback to the audience, and hindered the total immersion
into performances. To this end, the interactivity of the Klive experience is
rather low.
[Figure 7] KLIVE
http://fun.mbn.co.kr/fun/view.html?aid=1621221
(Courtesy of KLIVE, used with permission)
[Figure 8] KLIVE
http://fun.mbn.co.kr/fun/view.html?aid=1621221
(Courtesy of KLIVE, used with permission)
5. Nintendo Wii
A product case of low vividness and high interactivity
(www.nintendo.co.kr/Wii/main.php)
Nintendo Wii was first released before Christmas 2006. Since then, more than
100 million units have been sold worldwide as of 2013. Thanks to this
phenomenal success of Wii, Nintendo became the second most valuable
company on the Japanese stock market after Toyota Motor Corporation.
Despite the severe global economic recession in the 2008, the popularity of
Wii continued to achieve record sales (http://www.itworld.co.kr/news/53328).
Sales to age groups that have not been associated with video games
consoles, like women and older people, rose rapidly from when the Wii was
introduced and brought the concept of "family game console'.
Nintendo Wii consists of the console, a remote controller, a Nunchuk that is a
secondary remote control and a sensor bar. Instead of complicated keypads
and a mouse common for popular game controllers at that time, Nintendo Wii
adopted the traditional remote controlling interface as that of a TV. Users can
operate the Wii system intuitively through the acts of swinging, twisting, and
hitting using the controller. The Nunchuk, the secondary controller, works as
intuitively as the main controller. The sensor bar is usually placed under or on
the TV monitor, and identifies the location and motion of the remote
controllers used to play the Wii. One of the major reasons why the Wii has
been so popular is that video games designed for the Wii encourage physical
exercise and movement when playing them. For example, tennis and fishing
games force users to imitate the movement of hitting a tennis ball and casting
a rod in the hope of catching a fish, by snatching the remote control.
In terms of the vividness, the Wii does not earn a high score. Though it covers
a multi-modal input of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli at the same time, the
intensity of the experience from such inputs are rather weak. The technical
specifications, such as the CPU and the GPU performance, video resolution,
and storage capacity of the Wii, are much lower than those of its rivals, such
as Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox 360. In line with that, the Wii does
not offer any eye-opening features like 3D or light source effects for a vivid
experience. The hardware only suffices the minimum requirements to run
games. Not only that, the characters in the Wii games often seem very
simplified and shoddy in comparison to the realistic characters of other video
game consoles. They give an impression that the Wii games are for children,
not for adults, despite not being intended for children. However, the childish-
looking simplified games could be far more interesting and fun than previously
expected. So what could the reason be that the Wii is so popular among this
broad customer basis despite its low vividness?
That is mainly due to the interactivity of the experience of playing the Wii.
Every motion by the users can be detected, captured, and reflected naturally
to the game characters by the Wii motion-sensing controllers. The Wii
controllers embed motion sensors in order to quickly detect the changes in
angles or positions of the main controller by the users' behavior. The
detection speed is surprisingly fast, enough for users to feel it as instant.
Additionally, since there is no limit or guidelines for users' motion, the degree
of freedom is also large. Above all, the reflected motions and their influence to
the virtual game world are directly mapped with the player's behavior in the
real world context, unlike traditional games using a keyboard and a mouse to
control characters. In fact, players will feel the same muscular pain and out of
breathe after playing the Wii version of tennis or fishing, as playing a real
tennis or fishing. Furthermore, special controllers customized for certain
games can improve the mapping between real space and game space. The
controllers that imitate a driving handle or a tennis racket are such examples.
The vibration that the controllers transmit to the user at the moment of serving
or returning a ball when playing tennis is another example of enhancing the
action mapping. In sum, the Wii offers a highly interactive experience
considering the fast reaction speed, wide action ranges, and direct mapping of
behavior.
6. Internet Radio Application
A service case of low vividness and high interactivity (http://gorealra.sbs.co.kr)
In July 2014, news broke out that Apple was acquiring 'Swell', an internet
radio company, for USD 30 m. AllThingsD.com reported that the valuation of
Swell was estimated at USD 7.2 m in July 2013, a year earlier. The amount of
acquisition is hardly comparable to that of traditional broadcasting companies,
but what was note-worthy is the fact that the investment came from DFJ,
investment capital in Silicon Valley, Google Venture, and Interwest Partners
before Apple acquired it. This indicates that internet radio industry has a bright
future from the experts’ viewpoint.
Traditional media is said to have weakened along with the advent of internet
and new media. A white paper on the broadcasting and video industries,
published in 2013, summarized that the sales of the Korean broadcasting
market lost more than 500 million USD in comparison to the sales of the
previous year. This reduction in sales was more prominent in radio
broadcasting than in ground-wave broadcasting. In an attempt to revitalize the
sale, radio broadcasting has taken initiatives of diversifying its content,
launching smartphone applications, and starting digital radio broadcasting.
Internet radio is believed to be the most effective solution to meet new market
demands, and that companies promote the interactive element of that
communication, i.e. between the listeners and the radio hosts. Korean
ground-wave broadcasting companies have also been releasing their own
radio players since 2006 with good acclaim from users. Other broadcasting
companies such as cable operators followed the trend and introduced similar
kinds of services and players. In addition, the radio broadcasting stations, in
order to further strengthen their market positions, started releasing podcasts,
another type of internet service.
Internet radio refers to radio content broadcasted on the internet. After
RealNetworks succeeded with real time internet radio broadcasting in 1995,
similar services are now offered through computers, mp3 players, and mobile
phones. At the early stage of its development, internet radio only supported
real time broadcasting and replaying that content. As the technology for the
internet develops, internet radio has evolved into removing the gap between
the listeners and the programs. Swell, the internet radio service company
mentioned earlier, uses a system that selectively broadcasts radio programs
based on the listeners' preferences, thereby optimizing the content. Other
internet radio players enable the functions for interactive communications
between the radio hosts and the listeners, allowing them to instantly exchange
opinions and request content to be played or submitted to the program. This
has transformed the radio into an open place for communication. For
example, SBS, the domestic broadcasting company in Korea, developed a
radio player that supports real time broadcasting and viewing, instant
participation by the audience to either a radio or a TV program, and
transmitting videos for "visible" radio. In addition, that player also has various
functionalities such as a message function, playlists, an AOD/VOD function,
games, events function, Movie/Animations, a fortune telling function and a
news feed. (please refer to Figure 9) The player is even provided in two
different formats, as a Windows gadget and as a mobile application, so the
content is available on a variety of platforms.
In terms of the vividness, the quality of internet radio is not that impressive.
Nowadays, radio broadcasting's digital sound has obviously better quality and
extra functionalities than that of the past, but is still limited to the original
characteristics of traditional radio broadcasting content. The quality of the
audio and the images in video broadcasting is more vivid than that of internet
video. We normally listen to radio in the midst of investing our focal attention
to something else because the radio solely relies on auditory stimuli. Radio
content consists of shorter programs on several topics, the programs being
different every time, unless they are replayed. In terms of the volume of
information, radio cannot compete with the TV as TV provides much richer
visual stimuli. So radio broadcasting is more geared towards the care-free
listening environment. Especially considering that real time broadcasting
emphasizes more on configuring a consistent broadcasting infrastructure and
thus lowering the quality of sound to ensure that and giving up the video
entirely during broadcasting. Hence, the vividness of radio is inherently lower
than that of a TV.
Internet radio service has been very popular for traditional radio audience.
Increased interactivity of the service is the main reason. Since the adjustment
of the content itself is very limited, the internet radio stations chose to
enhance the interactivity of the service with the extra services. The functions
enabling active and synchronous participations from listeners are the keys to
the high interactivity of the internet radio. "Visible" radio, providing video of the
radio host as well as the sound, reveals the real time scenes from inside the
host's booth, attracting listeners to feel more comfortable and less reluctant in
participating in the program. Instant replying and chatting features work as a
communication channel, letting listeners' opinions be heard and reflected
directly into the radio program. The host can alter his or hers original playlist
for example upon the request of a listener, or diverge the topic of their content
by receiving opinions from listeners. These interactions were smoothly comingled with the characteristics of radio broadcasting, changing the
landscape of internet radio service into a more meaningful medium. The
encounter of the internet and the radio produced a novel platform for highly
interactive bidirectional communication.
[Figure 9] The image of SBS Gorilla Player
(Courtesy of SBS, used with permission)
7. Background music
A service case of low vividness and low interactivity
Most people have spent some time at a café, burying oneself on a
comfortable couch, having a cup of hot coffee while softe background music is
playing. During that moment, the café will no longer be a place to merely drink
coffee but to relax in the mood and ambiance provided.
Background music is commonly heard in various places during our daily life,
ranging from grocery mart to small stores and to hotels. Nowadays, a
background music is considered an important element that business need to
consider, to create the proper atmosphere that relates to the company's
image for example. Large department stores often outsource the project of
deciding what music shall be played in them because of the critical role it
plays.
Traditionally, background music refers to the music that is played in certain
commercial areas. Commercial service areas play background music in order
to create an appropriate vibe for their visitors and employees. For example,
Restaurants and other establishments play up-speed music to encourage its
customers to eat faster so they can have more turnover of guests.
Background music exists of course in all sorts of media, for example in
movies, soap operas, or on websites, but the background music discussed
here is limited to that used as atmospheric tools. Background music is not for
attentive listeners but for creating atmosphere and mood that are desirable for
the behavior or service provided at designated places, for example, hotels,
restaurants, or shopping marts. Since background music should not distract
the customers' attention from their primary tasks, it is usually played at low
volume. In this case, the vividness of experience is deliberately lowered to
serve the fundamental purpose of background music.
Even though background music might be used differently according to the
place, time, and purpose in order to induce certain actions from people, it
usually has little interactivity with its target users. Since its intended use is
implicit and more inducing, its interactivity is usually low.
8. ebook
A product case of low vividness and low interactivity
(digital.kyobobook.co.kr)
"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which is
passed as presents from one generation to unborn offspring of next
generation." As Thomas Edison said, reading is like having a trip to the past
to understand oneself in the present. As mankind writes new stories the
volume of mankind's legacy increases. Due to the massive volume of written
material, one is not able to own all of it in physical form. This is where the
necessity of the ebook device comes in.
An ebook refers to the digital format of a traditional paper-based book that is
viewed on an electronic device. In its early adoption, most of the e-books are
simply converted directly from existing paper-based books to a digital format.
Now ebooks are designed especially for the ebook devices and are different
of a different setup than the paper-based books.
Roberto Busa was one of the first people to make an ebook device in 1949.
Since then, the ebook device has developed much. Amazon acquired
Mobipoket in 2005 and subsequently released the Kindle in 2007. From then
the Kindle has become a standard in the market for ebook devices. In 2010,
Amazon reported that sales of contents for ebook had surpassed the sales of
paperback copies. The growth of the ebook market was further established
when Apple released its ebook service called iBooks in 2012, which is only
compatible with certain devices. The ebook has achieved a solid position with
its notable portability and aesthetic appearance alongside the diffusion of
smartphones and tablets. Today the ebooks can be viewed across diverse
devices such as computers, smartphones, or tablets, as opposed to be only
viewable on ebook devices in its early days. Thanks to the availability of
diverse devices, the number of ebook readers jumped from 23% in 2013 to
28% in 2014.
An e-book is expected to take a dominant position given the physical and
social contexts around it. Physically, it is more convenient to have 100 books
in a single device supporting ebook contents than to have 100 physical hard
copies of the books. Furthermore, the fact that one can buy the content for the
ebooks without physically visiting a bookstore can be irresistibly appealing
feature to most people nowadays. As mentioned earlier, it is natural to view
private content on laptops, smart phones, and/or tablets. Furthermore, the
devices customized for reading ebooks are equipped with a specially
designed screen that reduces the eye-fatigue from reading.
The devices have small to no range of interactivity and vividness in order to
enhance the immersive aspect of reading. The content of the ebooks is mostly
text-based but sometimes complemented with illustrations. Considering that
the text appears only in black or white, it is a pretty boring stimuli for the
human vision. Despite providing extra functions like underlining, bookmarking,
searching, and looking up words in the dictionary, it has relatively low
interactivity compared to other devices à la mode. The devices are specifically
designed to provide its users with low interactivity and vividness so that
readers can focus on reading without being distracted by other stimuli.