I think this is one of the reasons I find it stressful to read on the Kindle (besides that I like to read on my sun-drenched deck and I find it distracting that there’s all these other fun things I could do on the iPad.

I have something wrong with my brain in that I obsessively touch the screen of the device I’m using.  I brush away the smallest specks of dust or a hair or just to keep my place while reading—and its no big deal on the Kindle.  When I do that on the iPad it does something.  Sometimes it’s just harmlessly annoying like bringing up an unwanted dialog. However, sometimes it’s extremely annoying like in iBooks; if I touch somewhere on the edge, the page changes while I’m reading.  Marco goes a bit more into it:

When the hot zone is the entire device, and it’s a device you’re likely to be frequently picking up and handling, using it is actually slightly stressful: you don’t want to accidentally trigger unexpected behavior, so you’re more careful and cautious. Every time it auto-rotates when you didn’t intend it, it’s a minor frustration: this device isn’t working right, it isn’t listening to you, and you kinda suck at it.

Posted on: 2010 May 8