paragraph

for your new reading experience

2017 / Personal Project
Industrial Design / User Research

Project Overview

What is the future of paperbook, and what kind of service or product can exist?

We live in a very interesting era when it comes to reading. It's a transition period between a paperbook and E-book, but unlike the wide-spread expectation, paperbook is keeping its ground. Many of people still value the unique feeling of reading text through paper and interact with it by riffling the pages, scribbing, and taking notes from impressive paragraphs. Rather than digitalizing the form of books, I wanted to envision a new tool improving the quality of experiences of reading a paperbook.

2017 / Personal Project

This project targets people who love and value the experience of reading a book, especially who prefer paperbook. Throughout the research and interviews, I talked with people who regularly read at least two books in a month.

industrial design
user research

Text. Book.

Background

We still read the analogue text on papers.

Paperboosk are still thriving. Rather than designing a new format of book itself, I envisioned an accessory for a reading experience that improves the quality of reading. Pen, notes, and post-its, those tranditional tools for books are still so useful, and I focused on meaning of those objects and their roles.

How to interact with those texts.

Unlike e-book and texts on web, analogue texts never leave. It's the appealing part of reading a paperbook, but I noticed through series of interviews and researches that there is a need for more flexibility in saving and sharing these texts.

Interview to Insight

Closing a book is not the end of reading.

While I cover the whole journey of reading, I noticed there're another phase of it even after closing a book. They have their own way to highlight, remember, and keep what they loved in a particular book, and they get back to it time to time.

User type

Book for Story

"The behavior of reading itself is the purpose and goal.
I enjoy the emotions it delivers."

- anywhere, anytime (even for a short time in a subway)
- novel, fiction and magazine

Book for Study

"Books are sources of knowledge.
I seek an answer and truth under the text."

- it's part of study and work.
- non-fiction, documents and articles

Form develop and refine

Underlining with a pen.
A pen and a book is the long-history pair,
and I wanted to connect this easiest behavior into the function of translating the analogue text into memory.

Concept

"a new reading experience for booklovers
: keep the sentences with invisible underlines"

'Paragraph' is a pen-shaped device that you can invisibly highlight the sentences that impress you,
important texts you want to keep.
The analogue text turns into data that you can easily save, share and re-read anywhere with your phone.

feature

01

Keep the sentences you love,
the important text you need

Through OCR scanning technology, the analogue text turns into data
that you can easily save, share and re-read anywhere with your phone.

02

Stay cool on your desk, while in charge

The way it's charged is inspired by the stand for a fountain pen,
which looks like it's defying gravity.
Wireless charging station enables easy pick-and-put when people use it.