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Comment by dredmorbius

5 days ago

Funny you should ask, something of a bugbear of mine:

1. Persistence is free.

2. Pixels are cheap

3. Paints are expensive

4. Refreshes are slow

5. Colour is limited to nonexistent.

6. Pagination over scroll.

7. Full refresh (of page or portion) over pan.

8. Reflective rather than emissive.

9. Minimise animation.

10. Line-art or halftones over shade gradients (images).

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31396797>

I've reiterated (and occasionally revised) that a few times, see:

"E-Ink Design Principles for Web and Applications" <https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...>

That's source of the above list, gives a bit more explanation and rationale for each choice. I wrote it after failing to find any UI/UX development guidelines myself, and have had some positive responses from it.

And on HN, search for "pixels are cheap" by me: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...> (about 15 results, this comment included).

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dredmorbius

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Groxx  5 days ago

> 10. Line-art or halftones over shade gradients (images).

This is particularly true for eink, because black <-> white is dramatically faster and more reliable (less ghosting) than anything involving any gray. It's why basically all of the "fastest" modes are pure black and white, and why UI shapes are generally pure black and white (though text might have grays).

  • dredmorbius  4 days ago

    Not just faster but far more dramatic.

    The sleep / boot / screensaver patterns for ebook readers tend to be line drawings, woodcuts, and the like.

    One image I find especially apropos is Dürer's Rhinocerous, which looks phenomenal, especially on a larger screen.

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCrer%27s_Rhinoceros#/med...>

    • LeratoAustini  4 days ago

      I have this exact image (plus one of Dürer's hare images) in my 'sleep screen' folder for my larger readers. I also love German Expressionist woodcuts on ePaper, particularly on smaller screens. Drama is high (maybe too dark/bleak for some) and the stark, high-contrast compositions carry over to the tech beautifully.