Developments in the Text Medium
When the medium changes, we need to reinvent and rediscover the expertise to manage it
For thousands of years textual information has been the preferred way for humans to reflect on and communicate the most complicated problems and the deepest insights. From the time of Gutenberg and until today, the printed book has been refined and perfected for sustained immersive reading. Pages of text-blocks surrounded by spacious white margins makes for a well designed medium for comprehensive study as well as casual reading. The reader and the text are alone together. The printed text is inherently a calm medium.
But new technologies brings this traditionally attained knowledge into question. It was the case with the introduction of photo-typesetting in the beginning of the 1970s and it is the case with the digital revolution today. When the medium changes, we need to reinvent and rediscover the expertise to manage it.
Digital texts so far
The design history of digital texts is short and until recently conceptually underdeveloped. In the early days of the web, there was really no way to actually design the text. The technology may have improved, but the design of digital texts has seen little benefit from it. We can design the digital text, but the digital medium has established itself as a high speed medium. Publishers of content are dictated by the race for clicks and views to keep the ad prices high. And the once spacious and calming white margins has become littered with menus and obtrusive banner ads.
Using the digital medium may be shallowly immersive but it is not suitable for sustained reading. In the digital environment we are immersed in the richness, fidelity and novelty of its permutations. We are unable to channel our attention towards the depth and meaning of the content.
How to improve
The digital medium has advantages when compared to older media like the printed book:
Digital text is hypertext: This means that it is linkable. It is possible to make connections and navigate much easier than in print.
Digital text is interactive and dynamic: It is possible for users to interact with and manipulate the text. The text can change dynamically according to its context (screen dimensions, use case, etc.)
Digital text is functional: It is searchable and indexable and editable. It has a computable knowledge of itself (based on metadata).
These advantages should be exploited, while at the same time, designers of digital texts should know and prevent the effects of the disadvantages:
Aesthetics: We should design the digital text with the same care and typographic sensibility as the printed text – the reader benefits from it.
Designed for reading: We should focus on the users/readers needs and service these.
Immersion: Reading is sustained immersion in the content of the text, therefore the medium should be “calm” and unobtrusive.
Our goals
In short, our approach to digital could be described as follows:
Digital texts should be dynamic (exploiting digital possibilities) and still be calm (unobtrusive). Digital texts should be functional (let the reader interact and manipulate) and still be simple (ideally no more complex than a plain old book).
At 2K/DENMARK we design communication. We design the best possible ways for our clients to maintain and publish the content of their communication. Whatever medium or information carrier is favoured (cf. From Clay to Cloud), we always design with the reader/user in mind (cf. Interaction of the reading mind), but never without opinions.