The 'look and feel' of an ebook: considerations in interface design

This paper asks, 'How should an electronic textbook look and feel?' The results of the Visual Book and the WEB Book experiments, both of which address this question, are discussed, and the EBONI (Electronic Book ON-screen Interface) Project's evaluations involving students and lecturers in UK Higher Education are outlined. It is proposed that, in terms of the on-screen appearance of information, certain aspects of the paper book metaphor should be retained and that text should be made more 'scannable' to suit the electronic medium. In terms of the look and feel of the physical object, issues such as display technology, size, weight and ergonomics should be taken into account. These considerations will form the basis of EBONI's best practice guidelines for designing electronic textbooks.