
The Pleasure of the Text - sp4rki
http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/the-pleasure-of-the-text/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InformationArchitectsJapan+%28Information+Architects+Japan%29
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achompas
This app really bothers me. Writer is sold to people "who can't concentrate
while writing," and it seems iA believes the success of the app means the app
really helps people focus.

But as anyone on OSX knows, people have a voracious appetite for these kinds
of apps (WriteRoom, Ommwriter, ZenWriter). This doesn't mean these apps _help_
anyone write. Rather, it says people who _want to write_ spend a lot of time
thinking about their tools. Instead of, you know, actually writing anything.

So there's a market of aspiring writers who obsess over text editors. iA
releases Writer, and expands the "zen text editor" market to iPads. Now these
aspiring writers can "focus only on their words" on the go! Only, they spend
time complaining how, in landscape, you can only see 6 lines of text. Or how
it's hard to move around your doc and regain context.

If you _really_ enjoy writing, any other app would get the job done. Hell, pen
and paper or a typewriter would get the job done. Instead, iA's tapped into
this market of people who want to write but "can't focus." And I feel for
them, because their writing tools aren't the problem.

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oloolo
Maybe you should actually try the app before you judge it. There are better
and there are worse tools to work with, believe it or not.

Besides Burroughs there are literally hundreds of people that tried it and
love it emphatically:

<http://twitter.com/#!/iA/favorites>

They're not all idiots.

~~~
achompas
I've seen your Twitter feed--it's full of accolades. Congrats on a great app
release.

I'm not picking nits with Writer, though. My problem is with the family of
"zen apps" that help writers "get in the zone," including yours.

If someone is frequently distracted when they write, they either (a) need to
get away from the internet when writing, or (b) reevaluate whether they enjoy
writing. It's like the programmer that can't decide between Emacs, Vim,
TextEdit, or other IDEs. Stop making excuses, pick something, and work.

The fact that people will buy this app because it'll _finally_ help them write
without distraction just...bothers me. Maybe because I was there before.
Anyway, don't take it personally--your app is selling like gangbusters, and it
looks like a great user experience.

~~~
oloolo
1\. Those programs exist because there is a need to get out of the mess that
Word is. 2\. Programmers do have amazing apps, writers don't. 3\. Fullscreen
is not the solution to absence of distraction. I can work perfectly
distraction free in Firework without going fullscreen. Cross editing is the
main sickness of digital writing.

The key is a predefined writing-optimized typography that justifies the
absence of formatting (a massive distraction) and a sub-mode that gets rid of
all the visual clutter when necessary. Some think that Focus mode is just a
gadget. It's not. The noise that is similar to the signal is the most
distracting.

~~~
achompas
Great response. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

How'd you come to the conclusion about writing-optimized typography? Is this
something you considered using your background in IA, or user/beta testing, or
what?

~~~
oloolo
Thanks. 1. I've been talking about reading typography for a long time and just
got curious about what writing typography could be like. 2. Was always jealous
of those amazing coding apps. 3. noticed that switching between writing in a
small input field in the backend and reading in (a designed) preview mode on
the frontend in WordPress improved my writing and just couldn't figure out
why. 4. Secretly stalked people who wrote texts on computers at work, in
cafés, and when visiting clients (online newspapers). Yeah and then (since I
studied Philosophy) there was all this theoretical stuff (Barthes, see below)
in the back of my head.

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fbcocq
_"this application turns this flat thing on the lap into the most efficient
tool for writing that I know of."_

Writing using your index finger on a touchscreen seems like a huge step back
in terms of productivity and ergonomy to me.

~~~
oloolo
You'd be surprised.

~~~
fbcocq
Sure, suprise me. I'd really like to see a video of someone typing for an hour
or two on an iPad without needing a chiropractor afterwards and in the end
producing more text than he'd produce on a laptop or netbook with a stock text
editor. If you have trouble focusing, maybe it's because your body is in an
awkward posture.

I don't own an iPad, but even thinking about the angle, that I'd have to look
at it from while it rests on my lap, hurts my neck.

~~~
maxawaytoolong
_I don't own an iPad, but even thinking about the angle, that I'd have to look
at it from while it rests on my lap, hurts my neck._

The iPad's form factor is exactly the same as reading a book or writing on a
tablet of paper, two activities that have been going on for centuries. Not
that reading and writing are the most ergonomically correct activities,
either... but the notion that the iPad is contributing to a new form of neck
pain is a bit ridiculous.

~~~
achompas
You can write on a tablet with one hand. You need two hands to type on the
iPad, unless you're reclined in the "Steve Jobs-on-a-couch position" or
hunched over a table.

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djacobs
Is the title alluding to Barthes' book of the same name?

~~~
oloolo
Yes. Barthes discerns between texte lisibles (readable) and texte scriptible
(writable). Which was one of the inspirations to switch our focus from
readablity to writability and create Writer. In Barthes' theory things are a
little bit different, though ("readable" and "writable" indicate different
kinds of written texts, not text in and post creation).

~~~
davnola
His distinction is maybe analogous to binary (readable) and source+makefile
(writable).

Minor point: "text" here covers all sorts of artistic creations (TV, music,
fine art), not just the written word.

