[Sigia-l] Page numbers in a book (fw)

[George Olsen]

For those who aren't interested in the specifics of this, I'll just 
point out the general lesson from this is that it took years to 
develop the "UI" of books and other publications, but they've evolved 
so successfully that they're largely "unconscious" to us (unless a 
publication designer decides to alter them in ways that make them 
noticeable).

Partly I'd say this is due to successful refinement after centuries 
of beta testing, partly it's because this sort of UI has a lower 
degree of interaction than with digital products, since the UI is 
more informing your behavior, than actually providing behavior itself.

At 10:24 AM -0400 7/28/02, Derek R wrote:
>Well, since they didn't invent the Contents Page for decades, page
>numbers wouldn't have been of much use.

Actually not true. Page numbers are still useful without a contents page.

In fact the real issue may not be page numbering per se, as much as 
the fact that printing created _consistent_ page numbering across 
different copies of the same book (something that didn't happen when 
books were handwritten). This became a major breakthrough for 
intellectuals at the time, because you could specify a reference in 
your book and know that someone else who owned the same book could 
find it easily. It was one of reasons behind a major shift from oral 
to written culture.

It's been years since my history of design class, so I don't have 
specific references about this, but a 75 year lag time to create page 
numbering sounds about right. <http://www.reformed.com/pub/cyber2.htm>

Walter Ong's "Orality and Literacy" 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415027969/interactionby-20/102-6903671-6524130> 
looked at these kinds of issues in detail, so it probably talks about 
page numbering.

-- 
______________________________________________________
George Olsen                           george at interactionbydesign.com
User Experience Architect                                     310-993-0467
                      http://www.interactionbydesign.com