If you are a mobile phone fanatic, or if you just browse around on many of the tech sites, you may have heard about all the various lawsuits involving Apple, HTC, Nokia, Blackberry among others. If you look deep into the details (I admit I did not), you will see a lot of these lawsuits revolve around the user interface. The user interface is how a user “interfaces” with their phone. That just means how the user does all of the things he likes to do on his phone (e.g. scrolling, clicking, dialing, opening/closing applications, storing contacts) and how items on the phone are displayed.

In the software world the term “UX”, or User Experience, is used because it’s more than just how buttons look or their layout. It’s how humans interact with their phone.  It also involves the “experience” of using the phone. This involves how the user feels while using the phone – happy, excited, confused, frustrated, overwhelmed, distracted. Iphone and Blackberry users are ADDICTS. They love their phones, can’t live with out them – and it’s the user experience that is a big part of that.

Now, without being negative about Microsoft (sorry, they are just so easy to pick on) how many times have you been frustrated trying to do one simple little thing? Either the application freezes and you get a mystery “recovered file” window, you couldn’t find what you were looking for in any of the menus, your margins got screwed up and you can’t find the help text to show you how to fix it, or you just couldn’t find where the application saved the file! That’s a result of UX!

How do you want your customer to feel when interacting with your ebook, or your video? I’m guessing you want them to feel happy about their purchase, excited about learning the material, and fulfilled because they received the benefits you promised. The last thing you’d want is someone getting frustrated while reading your book because they just can’t stand to look at it!  Of course there may be other feelings you want to bring out in them, but lets focus on these positive experiences for now.

You should pay attention to the UX of your product even though it’s mainly content and not interactive software. For an ebook, this would include the following:

• How your content is organized
• Use of headings and sub-headings to provide a way for readers to “navigate” through your pages
• Choice of font and it’s size and color
• Use of images that help to clarify statements
• Use of tables/charts to help organize information
• Use of white space to make it easy on the eyes
• Use of the appropriate jargon/language for the topic or subject matter
• A table of contents and perhaps an index for reference
• Any other information, tips, or resources that can help make the content more clear
• File size and format

I will discuss more about these items in future posts. For not just realize that attending to the UX (User Experience) of your product can increase its quality and therefore it’s value!