New Digital Reads

TXT Maytal Huijgen | IMGS Maytal Huijgen

[about my ambition to get reading content go digital]

collage / photo from a morning street-stroll, Amsterdam; text from the great book "I Read Where I Am" by Valiz Publishers

Take any familiar printed, bonded content and rethink it in a mobile environment. Manuals, catalogues, books. Rethink Cookbooks, history books, biographies, art books, travel books, atlases - what can they all be? In mobile existence, try to think: Which content will they hold? will it be the same? what can you add and what will you reduce? would you create them for reading or using? for both?

And when you have your content, how would you design it for the reader? How would you create multiple layouts? How would you construct a reading flow? How would you set ideal typography? How would you allow the reader to interact with the content on the screen? How will you create a digital reading experience?

I've been busy with those questions in the past six years, experimenting with both clients and students, to form new guidelines in creating curated content-containers. Last year I've conducted a research, funded by @stimuleringsfonds for the creative industry, called "Gutenberg III". The primary purpose of the research was to investigate how can design, focused on digital platforms, can draw readers back to attentive reading content?

In this blog, I will share worldwide projects of digital reading experiences, next to presenting my personal digital reading experiences wish-list.