Saving the Trees by Using E-books?

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hgjhg Source: Sonystyle 2008

It's inevitable that e-book has becoming real that parents keep on complaining on how heavy is a school kids bag few years back. And the solution for this was the trolley school bag. How I wish I have one of those during those of the days. However, government has implemented that the e-book is going to use widely in year 2020 where school kids do no need to bring any books to school anymore. Well, how many people are accepting this kind of technology? What about the power consumption? Recently, the electricity rate has increase to 18 percent for household (The Star 2008).

Ways of Reading an e-book:

According to Nielsen (2006) research, readers read the on screen materials in “F Shape” movement and therefore users do not read words by words on screen .There are 79 percents of users scan it thoroughly of the screen content because reading on screen is 25 percent slower(Nielsen 2006; Reep 2006). This is because the projected light in the monitor contrast causes constraint to the eyes (Parker 2003; Nielson 2006). However, Sony has take into considerations Nielson’s Theories and come out with the e-book that will not constraint the readers’ eyes.

However, there are also advantages for it. Such as using the hyperlink which can be link easily where normal books we need to search it through the indexes. It is also saving a lot of spaces for the bookshelf because everything is just in your palm. By just one click all the relevant information or paragraph for that book will appear on the screen. Furthermore, Nielsen (1997) also found that, if there are good quality images, good writing and outbound of hypertext links’, the credibility can be increased. He also further his research where navigation is also very useful where it helps to link to another page. Therefore, it is still up to the users whether they are welcoming this technology to be part of their life.

Source: Youtube 2008

Reference Lists:

Nielsen, J 2006, 'F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 17, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html>

Nielsen, J 1997, ‘How Users Read on the Web', Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 1, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html>

Nielsen, J 2000, ‘Is Navigation Useful?’, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 9, viewed 1st June 2008,< http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000109.html>

Parker, RC 2003, ‘Designing documents for web distribution’, Looking good in print, 5th edn, Paraglyph Press, Scottsdale AZ, Chapter 14, pp. 269-293.

Reep, DC 2006, ‘Document design’, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearson/Longman, New York, Chapter 6, pp. 133-172.

The Star 2008, ‘Petrol to cost RM2.70 from midnight (updated)’, viewed 4th June 2008,<http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/6/4/nation/20080604175025&sec=nation >