Inconsistency

Do you miss the in-store browsing experience when you shop for books online? Do you think you find things faster in-store instead of using Amazon? If you ask me, my answer will be no.

Not because browsing in-store sucks. I quite enjoy walking around a book store when I am in an exploratory mode. There is nothing like flipping through a book and read through some pages before buying it. But that’s about it. I don’t miss trying to find my way through thousands of bookshelves trying to find one book. I don’t miss waiting in line in front of the Information Desk just so I can find out if they have a certain book. Even with the Kiosk at Barnes and Nobles, when I have a book in mind, I still wish I can go in and grab a staff and make them take me to my book in less than 0.1 seconds.

So when I first see Zoomii, my first reaction is why?

My general feeling towards designs like these is - why are we referencing the physical world when we can do so much more with technology? I simply believe that the way we browse in the physical world is limited by a lot of things, and if we shall ever reference, we shall use technology to make it better. I don’t think Zoomii is solving it in any way by bringing that experience into the digital world. The most valuable thing that Amazon brings to me is all those metadata they have on a book. They conveniently placed those information next to each book which really helps me make a decision on whether I want to click deeper and learn more. However, all I am seeing on Zoomii is just like browsing in a brick and mortar store.

Same with some other designs I had seen in the past that references the physical world. I understand if the brand in question is IKEA or the products are for home furnishing, but if not, then why?

(Although I have to say they brought back one of the most important element of in-store book browsing - the ability to tell the size of a book.  Although the size of the books on Zoomii are constantly changing while we zoom in and out, I can still tell the relative size of a book by comparing it to others.)

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