My favourite place to read is when I am commuting. I know, when I look around in the train, that I am not alone with this feeling. I subscribe to a selected few publications and have a Pocket full of free content that I want to read.
The one thing that annoys me when reading on the train is not finishing the article in time for me getting off the train. For some articles, it is not that important, but for others, it is crucial. And the broken reading flow can often mean that I don’t get to pick up the rest of the article again.
What if we could design a reading experience that would resolve that issue?
A Loss of Identity
First, let us have a look at what has happened in online reading experiences lately. One of the main innovations in online reading is read-later-undistracted services. The idea is simple and powerful: Save whatever you want to read later in our service, and we will present the articles to you without ads and in a clean and distraction-free interface. While there certainly are many benefits to this - bye, bye 100 open tabs - there are also some open issues.
When I read articles on Pocket, I completely lose the identity of the publishers. I subscribe to The London Review of Books (LRB) and when I read the physical edition or via the website or app, I feel the identity LRB provides. When I read it through Pocket, I feel the identity Pocket provides.
Content should be enough on its own, but that is an unrealistic scenario, especially with publications like LRB, Economist etc. Their design is a massive part of their identity, and it supplements the content.
The undisturbed - or zen(!) - mode does provide a better reading experience but is, in my opinion, a band-aid on a severe wound. It provides a fix around the issue but does not go to the root of the problem. The real problem is that most news and publications websites are a pain to use. Just think about it: People will pay a subscription fee to get the content and move it somewhere else to read.
When thinking about how The Reader should look like my first hunch is to deal with this pain. When thinking of the future of media and journalism, we have to prioritise the reading experience. Not just UX but also enabling the readers.
Do You Have a Minute?
To solve this issue, we need to stop presenting our content as a wall of choices but instead meet the reader somewhere between curation and selection.
Reading is an experience strictly limited by the time available. That’s why The Reader will present content based on time available.
The idea is that I will sit down in the train, select how long my commute will be and The Reader will then curate content that fits the length. Since my commute is only 15-20 minutes, I might miss out on longer pieces. That is why we will need to calculate articles in terms of sections and not in total reading time. If I have an unfinished article, the rest of the sections will be counted in the total reading time for the next session.
First, we are met with a screen where you select how long the reading session should be. The screen also notifies about any unfinished business that will be calculated into the reading session.
Once the session has started, we will start by finishing our unfinished business. At the bottom, you see a queue of what is next up after finishing this article. You can skip the article at any time, and it will re-calculate the queue to make sure it fits your commute.
The design is, of course, suggestive and will evolve as we explore further.
Previously, I’ve made a first pass at The Editor and The Podcaster. If you haven’t read those already you should totally do that.
I would also appreciate if you shared this with a friend. You can either forward this mail or share the signup link on social media. Thank you.