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Meet Nelson, Coupland and Alice: IDEO's Future Books

by Matthew Zuras on September 21, 2010 at 04:20 PM

IDEO
Last week, design innovation factory IDEO wowed us with a reinvention of the woefully stagnant ATM. Now, it has released a video highlighting three new concepts for digital reading. 'Nelson' helps to contextualize a given book, granting sidebar access to online commentary, statistics about cultural impact and links that fact-check the book's data. 'Coupland' is designed for professionals, allowing co-workers to suggest and share relevant books, to start book clubs and conversations, and to create a company library. 'Alice' is about interacting with novels, turning the act of reading into a game-like experience in which plot elements are discovered, characters are addressed, and the story is ultimately modified by the reader's contribution.

While we simultaneously relish and worry about Nelson's unfettered access to an ADD-producing glut of info, and Alice's inclusion of a Foursquare-like, GPS game engine, we have to concede that the consistently genius ideas springing forth from IDEO trump the barely pleasurable experience of reading on the Kindle or iBooks any day. Check out the video after the break.

Tags: alice, concept, coupland, DesignConcept, ideo, ipad, kindle, nelson, video

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