Because it is laid out in columns, this site doesn't display properly on a phone held vertically.
Please turn it sideways.
Because it is laid out in columns, this site doesn't display properly on a phone held vertically.
Please turn it sideways.
If layout is to have role in diagramming content, it needs to be fixable in place – this is a challenge in digital channels.
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If layout is to have role in diagramming content, it needs to be fixable in place – this is a challenge in digital channels.
In the days of print, once something was printed it didn’t change – you could design a page, and your readers would see exactly what you designed. These days, not so much.
Fixed pages, such as traditional printing or PDFs, are locked in place. This means that you can create layouts that communicate the structure of your message, and they won’t change. Readers can see the layout as intentional, not random. In a fixed page, the layout can act as a diagram.
Flowed pages are represented by traditional novels, or by e-reader books. The author’s words are flowed in and fill the pages one by one, with page breaks that are as arbitrary as the line breaks are. Although the line and page breaks are random, they are permanent. So, although not as diagrammatic as fixed pages, this makes them a stable environment in which to read strategically using place memory.
Fugitive pages are formatted temporarily and perhaps also populated with content temporarily. Pages are created afresh for each reading, and may change when revisited. An online newspaper is an example. If you return to a story later in the day, you may find that it has been relegated to a lower position in the hierarchy or even disappeared from view.
Fragmented pages are compilations of page elements from a variety of sources which may not have any relationship predictable by their authors, and no curation or editorial control. Examples are the results of a search, or an AI-compiled text. Much of our experience of web reading is of information that is both fugitive and fragmented.
Why might this be interesting? Because there’s a lot of talk about how the reading process is changing in the digital era,1 which has introduced us to fugitive and fragmented texts. We don’t so often become deeply immersed in a single, long-drawn out argument. Instead, we glean ideas from a range of sources, and rely on our own ability to integrate them in a way that makes sense.
Actually, that’s the model of reading that underlies this website. I’ve tried to make browsable and glanceable, with different possible pathways through. I hope that if you stay with it for long enough, themes will emerge and conclusions will form.
1. Waller, R. (2012). Graphic literacies for a digital age: The survival of layout. The Information Society, 28(4), 236-252.