TEXTDATA:We worrried a lot about the design of this book. For two reasons. First of all, this is a╩book about design, so we better get it right. But second, the people at Voyager have always been concerned about making these books readable, about trying to find the right mixture of audio and video and text. We want it to be an integrated process. We don╒t just want the video thrown on top of the text, you want it to be coherent, cohesive, one integrated product. It╒s not easy. We don╒t have very many models. In fact, the very best models today are other Voyager books.┬
So this particular book went through a very long process. I would go visit the people at Voyager, we would talk, they would make samples. Very creative group of people. They╩would send them back to me; I would show them around. We would comment on them, my colleagues and I would give suggestions, we would try it out on people, send the comments back to Voyager, who would then try again.┬
So the development of this book has been a very long, very creative, very exciting process. I don╒t think we got it quite right yet. It may take years before we get it quite right, but it was a good beginning.┬
We even tried it on different kinds of equipment to make sure that a wide variety of computers work. We tried it on color, we tried it on black and white. I tried it on pure black and white, what╒s called one bit, black and white. It doesn╒t work there. So if you just have a black and white set, this won╒t work, and there really isn╒t any choice, because what we╒re doing with video requires at least some grays. But we made sure that the text was readable on gray as well as color. And in fact, an early ver- sion wasn╒t, so we had to go back to the drawing board, change it, make sure [that] whatever your equipment, you could use this book.┬
The table of contents, I think it╒s actually very nicely done, and I give credit to the people at Voyager, who noticed that it╒s hierarchical, so as you click on a section, it shows you on the right, it expands the alternatives. Very nicely done.┬
Now one of the problems we had is that when you finally select a section, it goes to the place, but, well, if you take away the table of contents, you may not remember where you came from, and if you leave the table of contents, it╒s in the way, you can╒t see where you are.┬
So, interesting design, interesting problem. What do you think about the way we solved it?