O livro digital e as novas práticas de leitura: proposição de diretrizes projetuais sob a perspectiva do design estratégico

Abstract

It is observed, in the context of an on-line society, the incipience of the digital book, made possible by technological advances that shaped the contemporary material culture. Although this is considered a new media, it has its roots deep on the origins of the human civilization, going through technical, symbolic and morphologic changes until it was structured into text on electronic screens. A representative of one of the biggest changes in the editorial market, the digital book is capable of promoting new practices and new meanings to reading. The relation between the electronic devices with the reading practices in the context of publishing houses has shown itself a promising investigative research focus in design, which has always followed the transformations in books throughout history. It is understood that the presence of the digital book creates new relationships between readers, publishing houses, and authors, thus the demand for innovation requires a strategic approach from design. The goal of this research is the setting up of project guidelines for product-service systems to the digital book media, aiming at the repositioning of publishing companies in the market under the perspective of strategic design. To get to such results, this study investigates and classifies the reader’s practices in different electronic platforms, using the reading diaries technique. This study also investigates the digital book strategies already used by publishing companies, through a couple of interviews with the publishing company Companhia das Letras. Finally, this study offers a glimpse of innovative scenarios for the digital book through a collaborative workshop. The projected scenarios analyze a predominantly digital future, in which books are going to promote different reading experiences. Through the analysis of the information, the main result were expressed in the structure of project guidelines, which point to simpler and more flexible sets of appearance of digital books in multiple platforms, changing from narratives with focus in hyperlink to one with access of technology to the five human senses and to the transformation of reading into a social and collaborative activity.