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Poster: fdsafdsafdsa Date: Oct 17, 2019 12:52pm
Forum: general Subject: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

Over the past few days we have noticed the rollout of the "auto-hide toolbar" feature on on the book reader. This is an extremely bad change. Some of us actually use IABookReader to read books, Having the toolbar auto-hide launches an entire wasteful and irritating sequence of events, interrupting and hindering the reading experience:

The reader must stop reading, look to find the exact area where toolbar once was, but has no visual indicator as it is now missing, hover, wait interminable milliseconds for tool bar to return, utilize toolbar, then repeat the entire process every time the user needs to use the toolbar again. This feature thus becomes an exquisite form of torture, obliterating the immersive reading experience, and a complete disruption of the reading of books. It is impossible to understate the severity of this change. However seemingly small its representation may be in code, the effect on the user is substantial. Someone with authority needs to become aware of this. The library is under attack! One small code change has affected the entire world, and millions of people trying to read books.

With most books, periodicals and publications, the user is in constant interaction with the toolbar, resizing, manipulating pages frequently while reading. Having the toolbar periodically disappear is a complete disruption of the readers experience, a failure of the user interface to accommodate the essential purpose for which it is designed. Thus auto-hiding the toolbar is a setback in the cause of archiving, presenting, sharing, and learning of all mankind.

Please revert this change immediately.
This post was modified by SouthernWork.org on 2019-10-17 19:52:01

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Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: Oct 17, 2019 7:15am
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

thanks for your feedback. i will pass it along to the design team. the UI change is intended to normalize the experience for both mobile and non-mobile devices.
1. the nav bar is visible by default.
2. the center third of the screen is a toggle that hides/reveals the nav bar.
3. the outer thirds flip the pages.
4. the black areas of the theater when visible also act to hide the nav bar.
This post was modified by Jeff Kaplan on 2019-10-17 14:15:42

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Poster: Harry Wilson Date: Oct 17, 2019 3:30pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

Hello; I have two questions:

1 - Is there still a button for toggling between one-up and two-up (viewing one page or two at a time)?

2 - Is there still a pair of magnifying glass icons for zooming in and out?

They may still be there, but not showing up on my 1024x1280 monitor. When I have my browser maximized, all I see at the right end of the page slider bar is the pair of left/right buttons for flipping the page. When I reduce the size of my browser to about 75% of the width of my screen, I can see the left/right buttons, the 'Read this book aloud' button, and the 'Toggle fullscreen' button. Reducing the size further does not reveal any more buttons.

There may be more buttons there that do not show up on my 3:4 aspect ratio monitor, but do show up on a wide-screen monitor. Without the one/two up button and the magnify buttons, things like magazines are very difficult to read.

This problem is the same on two separate monitors (both 1024x1280), and the same in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome. Shrinking the page through the browser's zoom function has no beneficial effect.

I've attached pics to show what I'm seeing on my monitor.


Thank you, Mr. Kaplan. Changes like this seem to either get better or die on the vine after about a week, so I won't gripe, but yeah... I need my pulp mag fix.


Attachment: BookreaderButtonProblemSmallerScreen75percent.png
Attachment: BookreaderButtonProblemFullScreen.png

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Poster: Harry Wilson Date: Oct 17, 2019 3:47pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!


And sorry; I didn't mean to 'pile on'. It takes me a long time to write a few paragraphs, and after posting I saw that while I was preparing my reply, other people said the exact same things in other posts.

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Poster: fdsafdsafdsa Date: Oct 17, 2019 12:54pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

I appreciate the response, and see there is a undocumented feature in the central portion of the page which hides and unhides the toolbar. However the outer thirds do absolutely not flip pages. This necessitates the desktop user to click the center of the page to unhide, or frustrating hover over the area where the toolbar should be, and wait for the tool bar to appear in order TO SIMPLY TURN THE PAGE of a book.

How this is not seen as the usability self-destruct mechanism it is, I'm not sure. Have some people who like to read books use the book reader on a desktop computer at your offices, watch what happens when they try to turn a page of a book, and then ask them if the experience has been improved.

There is no doubt conveniences to be enjoyed from standardizing code, but there is no advantage gained, and much to be lost, by attempting to "normalize the experience" between mobile and desktop interfaces due to any other driving ideologies. They are not the proletariat and bourgeoisie that need any kind of social or judicial equalization. They are different physical devices, with each their own limitations, but also representing modes of consumption or use. In this way it is most simply stated that each represent "users". Each as important as the other, desktop computers are fundamental tools, not "old school", being "phased out" or going away any time soon.

I'd like to also add that this kind of "normalization" is the source of much reduced usability found all over the Internet today. It's a mistake. Content creators, professionals, power users and researchers sit at full-sized, mainly desktop or laptop computers upwards of 8-14 hours per day. To reduce their ability to utilize a basic book reading interface is a startling abdication of Universal Access. Please revert the change, or address the issue in any way which does not affect the usability of desktop users who are an essential class of user who simply want to enjoy their previously unhindered access to the pages inside of a book.
This post was modified by SouthernWork.org on 2019-10-17 19:51:35
This post was modified by SouthernWork.org on 2019-10-17 19:54:22

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Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: Oct 17, 2019 3:32pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

well they should flip as long as the enlarge tool hasnt been used. once it is enlarge you're correct pages do not flip on click. but i think that will change soon.

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Poster: fdsafdsafdsa Date: Oct 17, 2019 3:35pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: IA BookReader Toolbar Auto-hide - Please revert this change!

Okay, had to refresh. L/R side areas are now working for pagination. As long as the default state of the toolbar is not hidden and it does not auto-hide, I consider it usable.