Vertical Integration
A weird little tidbit that comes via the Globe’s Craig Saila about the changes in iPad news app The Daily:
The Daily will move to a portrait-only orientation – the mode in which the vast majority of its readers view content – though video will still be viewable in landscape mode.
When the iPad first came out, there was a lot of chatter about whether, in the tablet, we had found the right form for digital reading. After all, the tablet provided the provisional boundedness and delineation that reading on a computer screen seemed to ‘lack’.
Interestingly, though, a vast majority of reading apps – particularly the ‘paragons’ like Flipboard, Zite etc. – seem to work best in landscape mode. Put another way, they orient writing and images in a way that (kindasorta) emulates two pages laid out side-by-side rather than one individual page.
Having now used an iPad for a year or so, I’ve found that I find using the tablet in portrait orientation to be much more natural and conducive to sitting back and reading. What I’m not at all sure about, though, is whether this simply is because I’m someone who grew up on print books, and find the orientation more “natural” (i.e. familiar), or if for some reason, portrait orientation is easier for the brain to scan, focus on etc.
